A major dairy in Addison County learned on Thursday that a pair of environmental nonprofits intended to sue the farm for violating the federal Clean Water Act.
The nonprofits alleged Vorsteveld Farm, a concentrated animal feeding operation in Panton, has poured pesticides directly into Dead Creek, a tributary of Lower Otter Creek and Lake Champlain, according to the notice of intent to sue, but did not have a legally required federal pollution permit for those discharges. The chemicals from the farm have exceeded state and federal safety standards and could be harmful to human and environmental health, the notice alleged.
The dairy, owned by brothers Gerard, Hans and Rudy Vorsteveld, has 60 days to respond. If they don’t voluntarily take actions to clean up its operations and cease the alleged pollution of Vermont’s waterways, the Conservation Law Foundation, an advocacy group in New England that filed the notice along with the Vermont Natural Resources Council, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting Vermont’s environment, could file a formal lawsuit.
“Our state economy heavily depends on the health of our waterways, and no farm should be allowed to pollute at these exceptionally high levels,” said Lauren Hierl, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, in a press statement.
Gerard Vorsteveld did not respond to a phone call from VTDigger by the time of publication.
Claudine Safar, an attorney who represents the Vorstevelds, said she and her clients didn’t have adequate time to review the notice to comment on Thursday.
Vijay Nazareth, the executive director of the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition, a farmer advocacy group that includes Vorsteveld Farm, said in an email that it was too early to comment on the impact the notice could have on the farm or the farming community.
Vorsteveld Farm has almost 3,000 cows that annually produce almost 20 million gallons of liquid manure and waste. Some of that waste is stored in lagoons before it’s spread on almost 300 acres of cropland, including corn and soybeans, according to the farm’s permit application to expand. In July, the state approved a permit to expand the farm by almost 600 cows, adding more than 6 million gallons of manure to its waste stream every year.
The manure, pesticides and fertilizer can move underground through an extensive series of pipes installed beneath the cropland. The system, known as tile drains, can work to empty water from fields faster. Such systems are implemented to conserve farmland and water quality, often with guidance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a federal agency dedicated to conserving natural resources through agricultural practices. But pollutants applied to the surface can also drain out into the water. Outfall pipes from those drainage systems discharge into Dead Creek and other waters, the organizations allege.
The argument could be an uphill battle for the environmental nonprofits after a September decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that water discharged through agricultural drains were exempt from federal permitting requirements.
“That 9th circuit decision is not applicable to the facts here,” Elena Mihaly, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, said in a text.
The state was actively reviewing the notice, Julie Moore, secretary for the Agency of Natural Resources, said on Thursday.
“To my knowledge, this is a pretty novel argument in Vermont that CLF has raised regarding the management and regulation of tile drainage,” Moore said.
Since April 2024, the nonprofits spent two years working with Burlington-based engineering firm VHB to collect 92 water samples from public access points to the Vorsteveld pipes. According to the notice, 99 percent of those samples contained clothianidin, a neonicotinoid insecticide that can hurt pollinator populations, at concentrations exceeding the EPA’s safety benchmark. Atrazine, an herbicide linked to birth defects and cancers, according to the notice, was found in concentrations that are 50 times higher than what the EPA considers safe for drinking water.
The Conservation Law Foundation has never sued the Vorstevelds before, but the farm faced a previous lawsuit by neighbors who were concerned about the impact of the farm on local water quality. After the state Supreme Court found the farm failed to reduce runoff onto a neighbor’s land, the court also found the brothers in contempt of court by failing to reduce pollution in May.
“Unregulated pollution poses a grave risk to people, plants, and wildlife in our communities,” Mihaly wrote in a press statement. “No one should have to worry that a major agricultural operation next door is poisoning their water.”
The farm is also facing an ongoing case from the Environmental Protection Agency alleging that, when the Vorstevelds ripped up their fields to install the tile drains, they failed to secure a permit to fill a federally protected wetland on their property.
The notice letter is meant to begin the conversation with the Vorstevelds, Mihaly said Thursday. The nonprofits want the farm to join them, and likely the state, in finding a solution: likely applying for coverage under a Clean Water Act permit.
Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources was subject to an earlier complaint by the Conservation Law Foundation that alleged the state was failing to enforce the Clean Water Act. The complaint led to enforcement actions from the Environmental Protection Agency. The state now has to fix the way it monitors farms that are considered concentrated animal feeding operations, and the agency is working to shore up their permit program for large farms like the Vorstevelds. Such a permit for a concentrated animal feeding operation could draw down the farm’s pollution over time, Mihaly said.
But the law foundation had no indication that those permits would include regulations for discharges from these particular pipes at this particular farm, Mihaly said. Without those assurances, the nonprofit decided to bring its own enforcement action.
“The legal amount of pollution is zero without a permit,” Mihaly said. She said the law foundation was not currently looking into legal challenges at any other farms.
Clarification: This story has been updated to more clearly define the role of the Natural Resources Conservation Service during the tile drain installation process.
