The blame for a fish kill in Madison County, Ohio, has been placed on Rising Sun Dairy, which is currently expanding. According to The Columbus Dispatch, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife estimates that at least 6,900 fish and tadpoles died when a newly installed manure system developed a blockage.
The dairy is allowed to have no more than 920 cows but it has been granted state permits to expand to as many as 2,588 once construction is finished and the dairy passes all required inspections, said Erica Pitchford Hawkins, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture.Not all the construction is finished, so those inspections hadn’t yet occurred before the fish kill was reported, she said.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the spill, said spokeswoman Heather Lauer.
The Madison County commissioners and some local residents had opposed the dairy’s growth plans. They took their case to the state’s Environmental Review Appeals Commission but that appeal was dismissed in late September.
Click here to read a January 2012 article about opposition to the dairy's expansion.
Madison County Prosecutor Steve Pronai said he could have appealed one more level but only on technicalities. The deadline for him to do so has passed.
Jack Van Kley, Rising Sun’s attorney for the expansion, said he was unaware of the fish kill. PD
—From The Columbus Dispatch (Click here to read the full article.)
