A proposed dairy at the former Boardman Tree Farm property drew thousands of public comments before the extended round of public input ended on Nov. 4.
More than 4,000 comments flowed in to Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality on the Lost Valley Ranch project.
The dairy would add 30,000 cows to the area and produce about 187 million gallons of liquid manure per year.
The agencies are tasked with registering the dairy as a confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO.
Before that, the agencies must approve a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, or wastewater management plan.
A coalition of environmental and health activist groups, including Hood River-based Columbia Riverkeeper, have urged the agencies to deny the dairy’s water pollution permit. The groups argued the farm would generate waste “on par with Portland,” but the manure would go into earthen pits and fields rather than a municipal wastewater treatment plant.
“This threatens water quality in the Columbia River and nearby drinking water sources that are already degraded by pollution,” the coalition said in a joint statement. “The state of Oregon cannot give the green light to this project without addressing the serious public health and environmental impacts ignored in the draft permit.”
Backers of the dairy have argued the project would be a sustainable agriculture business, the Associated Press reported.
ODA and DEQ will review and consider all the comments received, ODA reported in a public memo. After that, the agencies will have a few options: move forward with the permit as proposed, request modifications, or deny it.
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For more information, see ODA’s public notice at www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/NaturalResources/Documents/CAFOPublicNotices/LostValleyRanch/PublicNotice.pdf.
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