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Sierra Club Lawsuits

Exciting Victory Protects Michigan Communities, Waterways from Factory Farm Pollution

Case Updates:

January 16, 2008

On January 16, 2008 the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 to vindicate the Sierra Club’s position that the state must require a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan to outline how farms will apply and contain their massive quantities of waste.  If mishandled, waste from concentrated animal feeding operations can amount to devastating pollution of nearby waterways with potentially harmful bacteria.  This ruling is an important addition to the Club’s 2005 victory, "This is a real vindication of what we have been arguing for many years," Anne Woiwode, director of the Sierra Club's state chapter, said. "Concentrated animal feeding operations are going to be put on the same footing with all of the other companies that need to get water quality permits."

June 15, 2005

In response to our legal challenge demanding greater public input, in June 2005 the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) issued a new ruling that will require all new CAFO permit applicants to submit their manure management plans to the MDEQ for review, and to the public upon request, before a permit is issued. (Previously, CAFOs were allowed to rely on a secret plan that the agency typically never reviewed and that the public could never see.) The state will now also require CAFO permit applicants to identify the land areas where they plan to spray manure, as well as nearby waterways that may become polluted as a result. Although these are important steps forward for the environment and local residents who suffer the brunt of massive pollution emitted by large scale factory farms in the state, the ruling fell short of requiring that the full comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP) be provided to either the DEQ or the public. Following the lead presented by a similar legal challenge in the Northeast, Sierra Club appealed the ruling to the Ingham County Circuit Court for review. The legal step is part of our larger strategic campaign to protect local communities and clean up Michigan’s factory farms.

April 1, 2004

Score: Clean Water: 4, Polluters: 0. Sierra Club recently scored another point against factory feedlot producers in a settlement with Walnutdale Farms in Michigan over water pollution violations. Under the new agreement, the factory farm, which discharged manure and other pollutants to public waterways, will have to build a new waste retention pond and develop a new waste management plan. Walnutdale must also pay a civil penalty to the United States for its past pollution. This victory brings the number of settled feedlot pollution lawsuits to four, which have forced factory farms to pay fines and implement substantial facility improvements aimed at preventing unlawful pollution of Michigan waterways. These Sierra Club lawsuits, along with other Club suits against feedlots throughout the South, Midwest, and California, have helped draw public attention nationwide to the public health threats posed by animal factories.

March 25, 2004

Industrial-scale feedlots are more like factory operations than the bucolic vision of farm-life one typically imagines. And these factory feedlots create so much manure that they threaten to pollute the lakes and rivers and air of many communities. When the State of Michigan, which has primary enforcement authority for water and air pollution, refused to regulate feedlot operations, Sierra Club lawyers stepped in. We started filing lawsuits under the Clean Water Act against individual polluting feedlots. Faced with an outcry from the public, Michigan brought its house in order, and announced that it would impose a new permitting regime on factory farms in the state. The state recently issued one of the strictest permitting regimens in the nation for these facilities, and has credited the Sierra Club for its role in bringing about this change. And, just recently, the Club settled four lawsuits that have forced factory farms to pay fines and implement substantial facility improvements aimed at preventing unlawful pollution of Michigan waterways. These Sierra Club lawsuits, along with other Club suits against feedlots throughout the South, Midwest, and California, have helped draw public attention nationwide to the public health threats posed by animal factories.

January 1, 2004

A Michigan feedlot which for years has contaminated local waterways with animal waste, will now have to clean up its act under a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation. Since 2000, Hartland Farms has repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act by discharging manure and other animal waste into tributaries of the River Raisin. The illegal discharges severely contaminated the waterways with E.coli bacteria and other pathogens. Many of the violations cited in the lawsuit were initially detected and reported by volunteers with the Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan (ECCSCM), with funds for testing provided through Sierra Club grants. The volunteers began routine testing of streams and county drains in August 2000 after several concentrated animal feeding operations were built within a ten mile radius of Hudson. "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are a huge problem for human health and the environment," said Anne Woiwode, Director of the Michigan Sierra Club. "This settlement assures that in the future, the polluters will be responsible for cleaning up their messes."

October 1, 2003

The Sierra Club reaped another victory against feedlot pollution in a settlement with the Jelsma dairy operation in Michigan. The settlement requires Jelsma to apply for a new permit, cease all discharges to surface and ground waters, and change its operations per an expert’s recommendations.

On the strange front of “factory farming in the ocean,” the Sierra Club brought suit against the permitting process for a salmon mega-farm in Maine, arguing that the permit fails to meet the minimum requirements of state law. The ultimate goal is to force the Maine Board of Environmental Protection to abandon “general” (i.e. generic and weak) permits for salmon aquaculture and instead implement a more rigorous permit program that protects water quality and wild salmon.

Details and Documents:

Court sides with safer rules for factory farms
January 18, 2008 by Editorial, Detroit Free Press

Decision voids mega farm permit rules
January 18, 2008 by Christina Ferretti, The Detroit News

Unlikely allies send a dispatch from an enviro-justice tour in Michigan
November 5, 2005 by Lynn Henning and Rhonda Anderson, Grist Magazine