Long-time Yankton Stockmen’s Livestock Market owner Gail Sohler apparently has some regrets about his involvement in the ag-industrial complex. In this remarkable letter to the Yankton Press & Dakotan, Sohler writes from retirement in Arizona that he regrets his role in polluting the James and Missouri river valleys:
I’ve been responsible for more pollution and health issues than most people. Over 53 years processing several million cattle and hogs, I knew it from day 1 that it was something that shouldn’t have been done.
There were many people in the same business that did the same as me. We were directed by the EPA and forced to spend from $500,000-$1 million on holding ponds for liquid manure. It made no sense due to the fact that we were then told it was all right to pump it over farmland for the production of human food. A few million tons of solid manure were hauled to farmers and gardeners free of charge. Most of this was applied along the boundaries of the James and Missouri rivers.
There are tons of pouch manure from local packing firms that could be more dangerous than that manure. The manure piles at livestock operations are interesting. On the manure piles that will be hauled onto the fields as fertilizer includes diseased baby pigs, baby calves and aborted baby calves, including diseased animals and poultry that the rendering plants will not pick up because they’re too small to process. It all ends up used to grow food.
Stockmen’s Livestock was directed by the EPA where the lagoon should be located. I didn’t agree but did as directed. If you look on an aerial map, it is located near the Missouri River. Do you call that good judgement?
Manure management has not changed to modern technology. Any factory farms with large numbers of livestock must utilize technology that is available. This technology can be for the production of products other than to pollute the soil with e-coli and other dangerous contents. If they are allergic to change, they should exit the business. Ask people with cancer about their opinion [Gail Sohler, letter to theeditor, Yankton Press & Dakotan, 2019.11.25].
Sohler ends with a cryptic threat of higher heads that may roll:
Sen. Mike Rounds is holding meetings, including Yankton, concerning government agencies that don’t follow the Rule of Law. Also, there’s the high level of politics involved in the judicial system in South Dakota. When the results surface, it will make front-page news. Judges, lawyers, state bar officials will be exposed [Sohler, 2019.11.25].
One letter doesn’t make up for 50-plus years of willing participation in irresponsible pollution of the prairie. If Sohler knows of laws that have been broken, he should keep writing and fill in the details.
If you look on an aerial map, it is located near the Missouri River. Do you call that good judgement?
It could just be politics through the EPA. If memory serves, back under Ronald Raisin Raygun, the cabinet posts were headed by industry insiders whose main qualifications were the antithesis of the field they headed. Raygun appointed anti-environmental lobbyists and worse.
https://grist.org/article/griscom-reagan/
A look back at Raygun’s environmental catastrophe. His choice to head EPA was none other than Spotus justice gosuck’s mother.
IMO there are far worse pollutants than cattle manure. Still, Mr Sohler was, a sale barn owner. Hard for farmers to completely trust sale barn owners. Still I would say he was better than most.
Anyway, I wanted to say that not much human food was directly grown on land that the waste was hauled to . I’m sure it mainly grew corn for livestock consumption.
I appreciate the fact that Gail Sohler has misgivings about the waste management practices allowed for CAFOs. There appears to be a lot of blame shifting in his letter. It’s always the South Dakota way to blame the EPA, when the blame actually belongs to, oh, people like Rounds, who was Governor and could have done something about these problems.
The thing is no one is “directed” by the US EPA regarding where or what disposal method is used, providing it meets certain minimum requirements. Those minimum requirements don’t preclude the state from having much stricter siting requirements or stricter standards for disposal and storage, and they don’t prohibit anyone from instituting siting and practices that are more protective of the environment.
The EPA delegates to South Dakota the ability to promulgate EPA’s standards or standards that are stricter than the federal standards, and to enforce those standards. South Dakota could have much stricter standards, if they wanted. They don’t want it. There is a state statute that prevents Mr. Sohler and others who may want stricter standards from going beyond the federal EPA’s standard. That statute should be repealed.
As far as siting requirements, environmental advocates suggested back in the 1980s and early 1990s that certain minimum siting standards were needed, but those were rejected by the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources. I participated in those hearings as I was coming down with the flu. It was not my favorite hearing. The state rejected siting requirements and elected for local control, instead. Counties were counted on to determine whether these facilities were correctly sited. Now, of course, they don’t like it when counties actually reject these facilities, and they instituted a state bribing system to try to corrupt the process.
The disposal of animal wastes was something that was also discussed. The environmentalists thought the nutrient management plans for spreading vast amounts of manure and liquid waste were never going to work long-term. We sought an Environmental Impact Statement to address the alternatives that Sohler seems now to prefer. That was rejected by the state. We could have used Sohler’s voice back then.
I’m sure it mainly grew corn for livestock consumption. Who consumed the livestock, Clyde?
You know, i hear comments like Clyde’s quite a bit. it was only used to raise animal feed so its ok… and other comments… The year was tough so its ok to dump manure on frozen ground this time. Well, we would have injected it but we were in a hurry and the knives wouldn’t go in anyway. Oh, its flooding so the stuff i pump in the river will be diluted anyway. and there are worse things than manure?
I can go deep into the weeds with science to prove the benefits of proper manure application, but they wont listen. I can pay them to do the right thing, but as soon as you step away they cheat. Compliance is voluntary, and no one backs it up.
Sounds like RobertMcNamara apoligizing for knowing the Vietnam War was a mistake.
Compliance is voluntary, and no one backs it up.
This was one of the pillars dumbass dubya used for his energy initiatives and air pollution as guv of Texas and they worked as expected. Virtually no one complied because of loss of profits.
Houston and Port Arthur area are cesspools of chemical and petroleum contamination and wingnuts are paid to protect those industries.
I give Mr. Sohler some credit for coming clean. I imagine wanting to clear his guilty conscience played an important part.
His hinting around about Roundy and others isn’t all that helpful though. I wish he’d come clean about that too. Then again, maybe he’s concerned about dying in a shelterbelt while pheasant hunting or burning everything down, himself included. It seems Roundy and the GOP play for keeps.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50571868
OT, I know, but there was a rather bigly chemical plant explosion in Texas where the rules are relaxed as far as worker safety goes and profits are maximized at the expense of regulations.
And drumpf’s EPA might just as well not exist as it only exacerbates the environmental hazards.
If this doesn’t scare the pants off you, you aren’t alive…..
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/11/26/20981758/brett-kavanaughs-terrify-democrats-supreme-court-gundy-paul?__twitter_impression=true
SPOTUS has the necessary votes to stop congress from regulating industries and apparently they will ignore precedent to do such.
Like Moscow Mitch ejaculated, he wants the courts to legislate from the bench, hence the push for all these Federalist trained ideologues oin lifetime positions.
One thing Mr. Solhars said sort of sticks in my craw: his assumption that Mike Rounds is going to help improve the CAFO waste problem he points out.
Mike Rounds has never championed solutions on the waste management issues brought up in his letter to the editor. Mike Rounds had an opportunity in the mid-1980s to be a leader on these very issues, but he didn’t involve himself in the efforts of Hughes County residents to stand up against the massive waste lagoons that National Farms wanted to construct for their proposed massive hog farm. He was AWOL in that effort. Mike Rounds was elected to the legislature, but what bills did he offer to deal with this situation? It would have been out of his character to propose a work around, so that South Dakota regulations on this could have been more in line with what Sohlars wants. Rounds would go on to be the biggest legislative cheerleader for the SDDS mega-landfill for New Jersey’s wastes. In my time lobbying on these issues, Rounds was a consistent opponent of stricter environmental regulation.
You people are responsible for so much suffering. Only the Lord can forgive you.