{"id":2261,"date":"2020-10-05T21:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T21:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?p=2261"},"modified":"2022-11-14T01:28:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T01:28:55","slug":"farm-forward-joins-coalition-to-file-petition-urging-limitations-on-mega-dairies-use-of-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/farm-forward-joins-coalition-to-file-petition-urging-limitations-on-mega-dairies-use-of-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Forward Joins Coalition to File Petition Urging Limitations on Mega-Dairies’ Use of Water "},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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SALEM, Ore. \u2014 Today Farm Forward and a coalition of public interest groups filed a legal petition with the Oregon Water Resources Commission requesting it restrict new mega dairy\u2019s use of groundwater in areas in eastern Oregon where special protections are needed. Without special protection new dairies would be allowed to use unlimited amounts of water at their facilities under a \u201cstockwatering exemption.\u201d The petition is being filed as a new mega dairy within one of the critical groundwater areas is in the permit process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1976, the critical groundwater areas were designated to address groundwater level declines near Boardman in Northeastern Oregon. The designations closed the areas to new permits to use groundwater, but they specifically allowed for new exempt uses, which do not require a water appropriation permit. One such exempt use is for stockwatering, which allows factory farms and dairies limitless extraction for that purpose.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, there are three mega-dairy sites within the critical groundwater areas: Sage Hollow Ranch, Meenderninck Dairy, and the site of the former Lost Valley Farm. Threemile Canyon Farms \u2014 the largest mega dairy in Oregon and in all of the United States \u2014 lies just outside the critical groundwater areas. It is permitted to confine approximately 90,000 cows on its 93,000-acre property under several affiliated businesses.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes 48 gallons of water to produce one glass of cows\u2019 milk,\u201d says Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. \u201cWhile residents are being forced to conserve water due to drought conditions, new dairies cannot be permitted to further deplete already taxed resources. We urge the Commission to protect its residents and its groundwater.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All industrial animal agriculture facilities consume vast quantities of water, but publicly available groundwater data reveals that mega dairies are particularly water-intensive, requiring even more water than feedlots. The continued expansion of industrial dairy facilities within critical groundwater areas has and will exploit water reserves at even greater rates than other industrial facilities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To address this situation, the \u201cStand Up to Factory Farms\u201d coalition \u2014 which includes the Animal Legal Defense Fund, WaterWatch of Oregon, Humane Voters of Oregon, Food & Water Watch, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of Family Farmers, Columbia Riverkeeper, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Oregon Rural Action, and Farm Forward \u2014 is proposing the Commission amend its rules so that the stockwatering exemption does not apply to new water uses of more than 5,000 gallons per day within two critical groundwater areas in eastern Oregon. \u201cThe unlimited stockwatering exemption to water-use permit requirements may have made sense in a time of small, dispersed farming operations, but it doesn\u2019t make sense in today\u2019s world of industrial agriculture with tens of thousands of animals confined in one place,\u201d said Brian Posewitz, a staff attorney with WaterWatch of Oregon. \u201cIt especially doesn\u2019t make sense in an area otherwise closed to new uses because existing groundwater use has already been found to be unsustainable.\u201d<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full petition <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sign up\u00a0for the Farm Forward newsletter to receive updates and important information about how you can get involved.\u00a0Read more about our work to bring a mega-dairy moratorium to Oregon here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\t

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October 5, 2020<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-environment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}