On December 1st the Stand Up To Factory Farms Coalition submitted additional comments in support of their original petition to the Oregon Water Resources Commission to limit the amount of water mega-dairies can use in two critical groundwater areas under an exemption from permit requirements for “stockwatering.”
The comments were in response to comments from opponents of the request, including the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Cattlemen, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association and several local government agencies. In the comments, the coalition illustrates that limiting the exemption to 5,000 gallons per day – the same as for commercial and industrial use – is critical to curbing the impacts of mega-dairies in the critical groundwater areas in Umatilla and Morrow counties.
The stockwatering petition comes as the state considers permitting a 30,000 new mega-dairy, Easterday Farms, on the same site as the disastrous Lost Valley Farms while communities across Oregon and in Umatilla and Morrow county increasingly call for a mega-dairy moratorium to protect Oregon’s air, water, climate, small farmers, rural communities and animal welfare.
Read the full comments here.
