Massive Dairy Operation gets go ahead in Traill County

Hillsboro, N.D. (KVRR) — After much public comment, the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality approved a permit for a massive 25,000 head dairy farm just east of Hillsboro, roughly a mile from the Red River, raising concerns about pollution that could impact communities all the way North to Lake Winnipeg.

“They’re gonna need about 9,000 gallons of water every single day, just for drinking.”

The Dakota Resource Council have been vocal in their opposition to the Herberg Dairy, as well as to owners Riverview’s other proposed dairy operation in Abercrombie.

“It’s certainly a huge risk, and it’s one that Manitobans just don’t want to take. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Red River as well as Lake Manitoba to both humans and animals here in Manitoba.”

Riverview is adamant that the risk of pollution is low, and that steps have been taken to prevent wastewater from entering the river.

“Once operations begin, inspections will occur at least annually to verify that we are in accordance with the permit requirements.”

Advocates are concerned though that these protections may fall by the wayside after the dairy is operational.

“It’s almost certainly going to be over-applied, because of the high concentrations, there’s not going to be an economic incentive for them to spread it as far as they should. The result of that will be nutrient flows, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus as well as e-coli and other pathogens which will find their way to the Red River, and ultimately Lake Winnipeg.”

And that the consequences could be catastrophic.

“At the end of the day, we’re all people. We need clean water, we need clean air, we need clean soil, we need clean food. You can’t eat money.”

Dakota Resource Council says that they had not been alerted to the approval of the permits, but that they are planning on challenging the decision.

Dakota Resource Council plans to appeal the decision in the next 30 days.

Riverview says that they plan to break ground on the Herberg Dairy sometime in the coming months.