The owner of the highly-controversial megadairy under construction in Jo Daviess County has agreed to abandon the project. Abandonment is part of the proposed settlement agreement between the dairy owner and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Helping Others Maintain Environmental Standards (HOMES), the local grassroots organization that opposed the proposed dairy, is thrilled that their 5-year battle has finally come to an end.
The Jo Daviess megadairy was approved for construction by the Illinois Department of Agriculture in 2008, and ever since then HOMES and the dairy have been engaged in a legal battle. HOMES was very concerned that the 5,000-plus head dairy would negatively impact their quality of life, including their groundwater drinking supplies and local streams. The dairy was to have two 14-acre waste holding ponds, which would sit atop a sensitive karst aquifer and at the headwaters of a stream.
In 2008, HOMES filed a lawsuit to stop the construction of the dairy. Prairie Rivers Network worked with HOMES and other organizations to oppose the construction of the dairy and the issuance of state permits. The Attorney General’s Office got involved in 2010, when the dairy over-applied livestock feed leachate on agricultural fields, resulting in an illegal discharge of contaminants into a nearby stream that turned purple. Now the proposed settlement agreement is in the hands of the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Meanwhile, the dairy construction site is in the process of being sold and the partially-constructed buildings have been dismantled.
This welcome outcome is a testimony to the importance of citizen action when communities are faced with bad projects. It takes a network to protect Illinois’ water, and we’re glad we could be a part of this particular victory!
Read more about our efforts to eliminate water pollution from other livestock operations, including our fact sheet on factory farms.
