BEFORE THE STATE OF IDAHODEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

IDAHO RURAL COUNCIL

)

Docket No.__________INC. )Petitioner. ) PETITION FOR INITIATION) OF RULEMAKING)________________________ )1. INTRODUCTIONCOMES NOW the Idaho Rural Council, Inc. and petitions the Director of theState of Idaho Department of Agriculture for initiation of rulemaking pursuant toIdaho Code 22-101 and IDAPA 02.01.01. This Petition requests that the Directorinitiate rulemaking by publication in the Idaho Administrative Bulletin of a noticeof proposed rulemaking pursuant to Idaho Code 67-5220.Petitioner requests that this Petition be acted upon by the Director within 28days after its submission as required by Idaho Code 67-5230.The purpose of this Petition is to amend IDAPA 02.04.14,

Rules of the Department of Agriculture Governing Dairy Waste (

the

“rules”).

This Petitionseeks an amendment of rules that currently define “discharge violations” but donot specifically address discharges that occur as a result of aerosolization ofdairy lagoon constituents when land applied through pressurized irrigationsystems.2. PETITIONER

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S INTEREST IN THE MATTERThe Idaho Rural Council, Inc. (“IRC”) is a grassroots organization of familyfarmers, ranchers and rural residents that has worked since 1986 to preserve thewell being of Idaho

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s family farms and rural communities.Many of our members live in rural Idaho where large dairy facilities have beenbuilt with vast waste water lagoons designed to store liquid and semi- solid wasteproduced by the dairy herd for periods as long as 180 days. A routine,widespread practice for disposing of accumulated lagoon water is to land apply itto farm fields through pressurized irrigation systems such as pivots or wheellines.

Irrigation systems used for this purpose often discharge their contents onpublic roadways and neighboring properties. These events have been reportedfrequently by IRC members who live in rural parts of Idaho where large lagoonsare located. Such events are especially common when members are doused withvisible droplets or mists from pivots or wheel lines while driving through southern

Photographs of two typical systems used for lagoon wastewater application are includedin Appendix ‘A’.

Gooding and Jerome Counties, where one of Idaho

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s greatest concentrations oflarge dairies is situated near popular recreational sites along the Snake River inthe 1000 Springs reach.

IRC has collected samples of a pivot end-gun discharge from a large dairy inTwin Falls County. The collection point was across the public roadway from thefield where the pivot was located, within twelve feet of a fenced yard wherechildren played. The overspray tested at over 20,000 FCU ( fecal coliform units)/ 100ml) - almost 10,000 times the level at which human waste must be disinfectedbefore it might be used for lawn irrigation where children are present.

While data documenting the total current dairy lagoon storage capacity inIdaho is not available, a very crude extrapolated estimate of that capacity wouldbe 383,518,800 cu.ft.

or approximately 8,800 acre feet of lagoon storagecapacity needed just for the mature milking cow population of Idaho. Thatestimate is based on an extrapolation using:- Recent industry published population statistics on the milking herd in Idahoputting the number at 513,000 head;

- A lagoon storage capacity calculation from a recently proposed dairy/ replacement heifer facility in Twin Falls County consisting of 3,756 animal units.The system was engineered( pursuant to Idaho State Dept. of Agriculturespecifications) to store 2,006,872 cu.ft. of liquid waste;

- The standard accounting of a mature dairy cow as equaling 1.4 “animalunits”.Either by direct observation or by the very rough calculation described above itis clear that there is a very significant amount of dairy lagoon effluent capacity inIdaho, a significant part of which is land applied through pressurized irrigationsystems during the Spring and Fall if not more often. Waste water stored in

The Idaho State Department of Agriculture’s “MOU Annual Report” ( April 23, 2007)reported that at the end of 2006 the milking herd populations of Jerome County andGooding County were 70.735 head and 117,758 head respectively. The NationalAgricultural Statistics Service puts the numbers at 70,500 head for Jerome Co. and140,000 head for Gooding Co. as of Jan. 1, 2007. See:www.nass.usda.gov. Many pressurized irrigation systems operate

without

the addition of lagoon effluent so it isimpossible to be sure, without sampling, whether these “roadside carwashes” are just anormal part of country driving or something more serious. However, during Spring andFall when lagoons are typically emptied it the presence of lagoon water in the irrigationsystems is readily detected because of the color of the water and its very foul odor.

See Appendix ‘C’, Table 4-1.

( 534 cu. ft. per a/u) X (718, 200 a/u where a milk cow = 1.4 a/u) = 383,518, 800 cu. ft.

Progressive Dairyman

, Vo. 22 No.5, (March 25, 2008)

That storage capacity includes adequate space for runoff from corrals, roofs, etc. and isnot represented to be the volume of waste the dairy herd excretes.

lagoons is often diluted with other irrigation water to reduce offensive odors at aratio of anywhere from 4:1 to 9:1. In other words, the 8,800 acre foot of

capacity

probably represents a small fraction of the

volume

of lagoon effluent (diluted)actually land applied

In addition to the visible droplets associated with these discharges,

wind drift

occurs carrying minute, aerosolized wastewater constituents considerabledistances from wastewater application fields. This phenomenon is welldocumented in an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Report titled“

Technical Background Document: Microbial Risk Assessment and Fate and Transport Modeling of Aerosolized Microorganisms at Wastewater Land Application Facilities in Idaho

” ( Feb., 2006)

. The study had this to say aboutland application of liquid waste from municipal and industrial sources:“A concern surrounding the land application systems commonly used in Idahois the prevention of irrigation

wind drift

, which includes droplet and aerosoldrift. Wastewater land treatment facilities are often located in close proximityto dwellings, public parks and schools, rivers and streams, irrigation canals,roads, and other features that require special management of wastewater toprotect health, safety, and the environment.Because municipal and food processing wastewaters contain

microbial

constituents that could pose a risk to human health when land applied, theIdaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has developed apreliminary

microbial risk assessment

(MIRA) methodology to quantify thisrisk and to protect public health and safety.” ( Id., at xiii)There is no reason to think that “microbial constituents” from dairy lagoonsbehave any differently from those from other sources when land applied throughpressurized irrigation systems- they too must “drift”. IRC has attempted, throughpublic information requests to the responsible agencies, to obtain Idaho- specificstudies documenting pathogens and other potential harmful chemical/ biologicalconstituents of lagoon water. Those efforts have not been successful.

However,in 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report titled “

Detecting and Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Fecal Pathogens Originating from Confined Animal Feeding Operations: Review”.

That report provides a reliablyscientific basis for believing

that pathogens harmful to human health, livestock

The report is available at:http://www.deq.state.id.us/water/assist_business/engineers/guidance/microbial_risk_assessment.pdf

The Idaho Department of Agriculture responded to such a request from IRC byacknowledging that it had studied the nutrient values of lagoon water ( because it hassome value as fertilizer) but never analyzed potential harmful constituents.

The report is available at: http://www.epa.gov/NRMRL/pubs/600r06021/600r06021.pdf