Friday, Nov. 4, 2016 -- the comment period wrapped for the proposed Lost Valley Ranch CAFO near Boardman, Oregon. Our coalition fighting the proposal called on Governor Brown and the Oregon Departments of Environmental Quality and Agriculture to:
- Deny the permit for the Lost Valley Ranch dairy.
- Institute an Oregon Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) air quality program that requires monitoring of air emissions from existing large CAFOs, and which allows DEQ to deny permits for large CAFOs to protect regional air quality and the climate.
Coalition Statement on End of Public Comment Period for Proposal to Operate Second Largest Dairy Factory Farm in Oregon:
“Today we call on the Oregon Departments of Environmental Quality and Agriculture to deny the water pollution permit for Lost Valley Ranch, a proposed 30,000 cow confined animal feeding operation. Oregon has heard from over 4,000 people asking for denial of this project. The Lost Valley Ranch factory farm would generate waste on par with Portland, but the manure would not go to a wastewater treatment plant. Instead, the factory farm would flush its waste into giant, lined earthen pits where it would decompose and then be dumped onto neighboring fields. This threatens water quality in the Columbia River and nearby drinking water sources that are already degraded by pollution. The State of Oregon cannot give the green light to this project without addressing the serious public health and environmental impacts ignored in the draft permit.”
Read our Coalition's Comments Here
Learn More About Protecting Columbia, Climate from Factory Farms
Coalition Members Include: Columbia Riverkeeper, Friends of Family Farmers, Food & Water Watch, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Center for Food Safety, WaterWatch of Oregon, Humane Oregon, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, the Humane Society of the United States, Sierra Club Oregon Chapter, and Socially Responsible Agricultural Project.
