Washington dairies buoyed by ecology’s stance on CAFO permit

The Washington Department of Ecology on Wednesday will propose issuing permits to dairies that could limit federal lawsuits over groundwater pollution, creating a regulatory framework sought by the dairy industry and fought by environmental groups.  “We think this is a good thing,” Washington State Dairy Federation policy director Jay Gordon said. “They (DOE) have done an excellent job of listening. They really have.”  The proposal will overhaul how Washington regulates the storing and spreading of manure at dairies and other concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOS.  Currently, DOE issues pollution discharge permits to only a small number of CAFOS. The permits combine federal and state laws and apply only to pollutants discharged to surface water.  DOE alarmed the dairy industry last year by floating a proposal to apply the state-federal CAFO permit to pollutants seeping into groundwater from manure lagoons and fields.