Tell the state to protect our waters from industrial animal farm pollution
Photo by Dan Shapley, Riverkeeper Water Quality Program Director: Pecks Creek runs green with silage on April 12, 2017
View more images on our Flickr site
Photo: CC, US Department of Agriculture
Riverkeeper is fighting for stronger measures against pollution of our waterways by industrial animal farms. Please add your voice to our petition seeking to ensure that industrial animal farm permit applications contain important pollution prevention safeguards and are reviewed and enforceable by Department of Environmental Conservation and by the public. Help us fight for basic regulations to keep disease-causing animal sewage out of our waters.
Photo by Dan Shapley, Riverkeeper Water Quality Program Director: Pecks Creek runs green with silage on April 12, 2017
Just last week in Saratoga County, Dan Shapley, Riverkeeper’s Water Quality Program Director, discovered a Hudson River tributary named Pecks Creek running green with a foul odor. Riverkeeper reported the issue to the DEC, which immediately responded to find a silage storage system at an industrial-sized dairy farm leaking into the creek.
Riverkeeper and four other environmental organizations represented by Earthjustice recently filed a suit against the DEC challenging a new permit for industrial-sized animal farms. Each of the permitted animal farms – primarily dairies with over 200 cows – produces roughly the same amount of sewage as the City of Albany.
Riverkeeper’s suit seeks to prevent the severe impacts that industrial animal agriculture has had on New York’s waters, as exemplified by the contamination suffered by Pecks Creek last week. Please let DEC know that given the risks involved, these permits should be thorough, enforceable and reviewable by public and state agencies.
