Owners of a Highgate dairy farm will pay $15,750 to settle a lawsuit with the state over a manure pit that was overflowing into a tributary of Lake Champlain.
The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation announced in a news release Thursday that Vermont settled with the owners of Gagne Dairy Farm for burning garbage and having an overflowing manure pit dating back to July 2014.
Randy Miller, an attorney for the State of Vermont, called the fine levied “pretty average” and said it came after the respondents in the lawsuit agreed to settle the case. Miller said the state became involved last year, based on an anonymous complaint about the farm from June 30, 2014.
An officer for the Compliance and Enforcement Division then visited the Gagne Dairy Farm on July 8, 2014, according to Environmental Court documents, and saw that liquid manure had gone over the top of a dirt containment wall.
The manure went into Saxe Brook, which flows into Missisquoi Bay in Lake Champlain, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation. The officer also saw a pile of plastic, paper, metal and carpeting garbage that was partially burned, court documents say.
Miller said it is illegal for anyone in Vermont to burn waste. “It’s considered disposal of solid waste outside of an approved facility,” he said.
The owners of the farm, Mark Gagne, Jean Gagne, Claude Fortin and Alain Fortin, represented themselves, according to Miller. Phone calls to Mark Gagne and Claude Fortin on Friday afternoon were not immediately returned.
“As demonstrated by the majority of farmers who follow the rules, the discharge of liquid manure from a manure pit is not an accepted practice,” David Mears, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, said in a statement.
“When farmers fail to properly manage their manure to prevent water pollution, they can expect to pay a significant penalty and be ordered to stop the pollution,” Mears said.
