Mega-Dairy proposed in Little Darby Creek watershed

On January 9, 2007, Orleton Farms, LLC, of Maumee, Ohio, submitted a permit application for a dairy facility housing 5,428 cows to the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Livestock Environmental Permitting Program.  If approved to operate, this facility would be one of the largest dairies in the State of Ohio. 

The land on which the facility is proposed is located in Madison County, west of the Intersection of SR 29 and SR 38, south of Rosedale-Milford Center Road, and west of the village of Plumwood.  This farm is approximately 5200 acres. 

The land drains to Bales Ditch and Chenoweth Ditch, which flow to Spring Fork, which then flows into the Little Darby Creek.  The Little Darby is a State and National Scenic River.  It was named a Scenic River because of its outstanding biological qualities.  In this section of the Little Darby in 2001, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency recorded one of the highest fish community health scores in the Big Darby Creek watershed and the State of Ohio.  The section also includes one of the last good populations in Ohio of the clubshell mussel  (Pleurobema clava), a federal endangered species, in the Big Darby Creek watershed.

The DCA is very concerned about the potential damage to Little Darby Creek and Spring Fork from this proposed facility, and we encourage you to express your support for protection of this outstanding and irreplaceable natural resource to Governor Strickland and the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

URGENT / ACTION NEEDED:  If you have concerns about this proposed facility, the DCA encourages you express them to ODA and to ask to be placed on the interested parties list, and contact the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) as provided below.   (Information from the ODA Web site.)

Livestock Environmental Permitting Program -

http://www.ohioagriculture.gov/lepp/

A fact sheet on how the public can get involved is at -

http://www.ohioagriculture.gov/lepp/curr/fact/lepp-fs-publicpart-120103.pdf

Interested parties list -

http://www.ohioagriculture.gov/lepp/curr/othr/lepp-ot-interestedfront-042704.stm

The following information on public participation is from the above WWW page:

How do I get on the interested parties list?

The goal of the public participation segment of the Livestock Environmental Permitting Program is to make sure that neighbors' questions are answered and their concerns are heard and addressed during the permitting process. Public comments on draft permits can and do affect final permits. Examples of changes to final permits that were a direct result of public comments or questions are a background check was reopened and more research on the company's compliance history was done, the watershed where a farm was located had been misidentified and was corrected, contractors leaving a facility with manure were required to cover their trucks, an alternative mortality disposal method was added to a permit if the primary method was unavailable, and clear maps identifying all the properties where manure would be spread were made part of the permit.

If you would like to receive notification in the mail about official public comment periods for large farms in your county or statewide, follow the instructions below. We will also include information about public education meetings in your area where you can ask questions about the draft permits and get answers to those questions.


E-mail the following information to lepp@mail.agri.state.oh.us:

Name
Mailing address
How you wish to be notified:
by farm, or
all farms within a county, or
statewide


Or, print off this letter, complete it, and mail it to:
ODA Livestock Environmental Permitting Program
8995 East Main Street
Reynoldsburg, OH 43068

Concerning water quality and the protection of streams, contact the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Surface Water, 614-644-2001.