Editor’s note: This article is by Jennifer Hersey Cleveland of The Caledonian Record, in which it was first published Feb. 8, 2014.
Staff Writer
NEWPORT CITY — An attorney for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture says two operations owned by Nelson Farms are not in compliance with an injunction to prevent agricultural waste from discharging into state waterways.
On Tuesday in Orleans Superior Court-Civil Division, Assistant Attorney General Justin Kolber told Judge Gregory Rainville that if Nelson Farms doesn’t comply with the injunction, to which the parties stipulated Nov. 6, the state will seek a finding of contempt.
“My client is in complete compliance with the preliminary injunction order,” Nelson Farms attorney Greg Howe told Rainville.
Howe said the farm has taken steps to stop the discharge of wastes into the Clyde River in Derby and Crystal Brook in Derby Line, but the state keeps demanding changes.
“They thought they were doing exactly what the state asked,” Howe said.
With spring and warmer temperatures coming, Kolber said he’s concerned that waste will again start contaminating waterways.
Operator Richard Nelson has addressed overflowing of a manure pit, has installed a berm to stop the flow of wastes, and has written an extensive plan to address future issues, Howe said. Nelson’s engineer is working closely with the state’s engineer, he said.
Yet the Agency of Agriculture is asking the court to admonish Nelson, Howe said, while stating to the court that Nelson is not actually in violation and is, in fact, in “technical” compliance.
“I don’t think my client has done anything, that by any stretch of the imagination, would be in violation of the injunction,” Howe said.
“From the state’s perspective, the ball’s in their court,” Kolber said.
Rainville said the court will hold a status conference at the end of March or beginning of April, when temperatures start melting ice and snow.
The complaint and request for an injunction was filed jointly by the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and the Agency of Natural Resources Oct. 2, 2013, after agribusiness operations coordinator Katie Gehr found that sileage leachate, spoiled feed, leachate from cow carcasses, and manure were contaminating the waterways at two farms in Derby and Derby Line.
Gehr inspected the farms on eight occasions, from March 18 to Sept. 30, 2013, and found that while some measures had been taken to address the discharges, they were inadequate, even though Nelson, who has been dismissed as a defendant, had been warned multiple times to correct the situation.
Gehr, who has 31 years of experience working in similar fields, wrote, “Based on my years of experience in the field of agricultural water quality regulation, I was shocked by what I saw in the Clyde River.”
