Several more Williams County livestock facilities have come back into compliance

COLUMBUS — Eleven of 16 Williams County livestock facilities have resolved their outstanding Ohio Department of Agriculture claims over illegal manure-management practices this year.

Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Brian Baldridge, through an agency spokesman, told The Blade in an email recently that those facilities met deadlines for removing open manure stockpiles and creating better systems for handling the waste by their given Sept. 1 deadline.

The state agriculture inspection ran parallel to one in the Edon-Montpelier area ordered by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. In that case, seven of 10 facilities were found to be in compliance by the Sept. 1 deadline.

Inspectors from both the ODA and the Ohio EPA returned to that area shortly after Labor Day to do follow-up inspections. The Ohio EPA released its results first.

According to information provided in an email, Mr. Baldridge has extended deadlines for some facilities and issued $20,000 fines to those that were found to be operating without a permit. All have been given new compliance deadlines, the agency said.

“ODA will continue to communicate and engage with all property owners to ensure they are following Ohio laws and rules,” the statement reads.

An Ohio EPA spokesman said recently that agency had found “significant improvement” at many of the sites it had been investigating.

Schmucker Family Farms owns all or most of the facilities in question.

The two state agencies have said they are trying to protect vulnerable waterways, including Fish Creek, the St. Joseph River, and the Maumee River.

Thousands of young beef cattle are housed at those facilities. Most of the animals are between 100 and 700 pounds. Many of the sites were accused of improperly managing manure or having other issues related to livestock operations.

Many were operating at or near the threshold of 1,000 cattle for unpermitted livestock facilities.

Two were found to be far in excess of that, according to state records.

A common denominator has been large, uncontained piles of manure — or manure stockpiles, as they’re called in state violations. There were no permits issued for those piles nor other measures to contain manure when they were discovered earlier this year.

A spokesman for the family, Michael Schmucker, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Mr. Schmucker has said in the past, though, that he and others are generally pleased with the help the Ohio EPA and the ODA have given them to help get them into compliance. He also has said the family has a good working relationship with both agencies.

Sandy Bihn, Lake Erie Waterkeeper director, said she and others remained concerned about how cattle waste is being managed.

“How do we know that the cattle were not simply moved to another site that will meet the permit requirements and allow for manure runoff?” she asked. “The violation resolution is site-specific, and does not address where the manure went and if cattle were moved.”