Manure pollution tracked to MVP

CELINA - Mercer Soil and Water Conservation District officials on Thursday morning identified MVP Dairy as the source of a manure pollution incident in September.

Matt Heckler, district technician, said SWCD officials also investigated a pollution complaint in St. Henry involving tomato waste and elevated E. coli levels.

SWCD officials alongside officials from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio Department of Agriculture investigated the manure pollution complaint after SWCD personnel on Sept. 12 were called to a ditch containing black water east of the intersection of Bogart and Rice roads in Center Township.

Heckler identified MVP Dairy, a 4,200-head operation set on 82 acres along Hasis Road south of U.S. 33, as the source. It is a state-permitted facility that operates under ODA regulations.

Tests for ammonia found water in the ditch at Bogart containing 8 parts per million and 15 ppm and more upstream at Hayes Road and U.S. 33, Heckler said. A reading of 13 ppm is considered to have chronic toxicity to aquatic life and 1 ppm is considered normal, according to SWCD officials.

In his report, Heckler said a moderate number of fish in the ditch appeared to have been dead for a few days.

MVP officials began pumping water from the ditch around 7 p.m. Sept. 12 and applying it to a nearby farm field.

The ditch is a tributary to Eight Mile Creek, which empties into the St. Marys River, which is part of the western Lake Erie basin.

Heckler said MVP had used a center pivot applicator for the first time to apply manure, which an MVP Dairy official said had operated as anticipated. Manure had been applied to standing no-till corn over four days with a one day break between applications.

Each application applied 13,578 gallons per acre with a total of 27,156 gallons per acre applied over two applications, according to Heckler's report.

Officials noticed soil in the application field was cracked, which Heckler attributed to the wet spring followed by a dry summer. The district technician said the cracked soil allowed the manure to run through the soil profile and into the tile system.

The Mercer County Health District pulled water samples and did not find any septic discharges that exceeded their parameters for E. coli, according to Heckler's report.

The complaint was deemed valid and referred to the ODA Division of Livestock Environmental Permitting.

In a separate complaint, Heckler received a call from the Mercer County Sheriff's Office, which had received a report concerning discolored water located in a ditch near Access Drive in St. Henry on Sept. 21. Water in the ditch, located in the Grand Lake St. Marys Watershed, tested at 15 ppm of ammonia.

Jeff Keller, SWCD watershed technician, found an irrigation system that was actively over applying tomato-processing waste on a field on the Beckman and Gast Co. property. Keller and the operation manager for Beckman and Gast traveled to the irrigation gun, shut it down and then installed a tile plug in the 8-inch tile.

Keller returned to the site several different times in the following days and water repeatedly tested at 0-2 ppm of ammonia.

John Fleagle with the OEPA Office of Emergency Response contacted Keller about the complaint and determined that ODA and SWCD did not have authority over the complaint, which falls under the EPA purview.

In his report, Heckler noted the Mercer County Health District had pulled a water sample to be tested for E. coli on Oct. 2, and the results showed an elevated level of the bacteria.

The complaint was deemed invalid as it did not fall under ODA or SWCD purview and was referred to the OEPA Department of Environmental Response, which then referred it to OPEA Division of Surface Water. The complaint was also referred to the Mercer County Health District.