The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality is issuing a permit to Riverview ND LLP for Abercrombie Dairy, a large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation proposed in Richland County.
This comes after Riverview was required to update the permit due to public concerns about its effect on water quality in the area and the facility’s manure disposal system.
DEQ Permits Program Manager Marty Haroldson says there are some public concerns that were out of the departments control, but they were able to address some issues like water quality through the permit process.
"That was re-evaluated and added, so there'll be one monitoring well upstream, and two downstream to put in. That was added into the permit."
DEQ also reviewed Riverview’s nutrient management plan. It had enough cropland acreage to use the manure produced as fertilizer but, after the review, they found that three fields in the plan were also in the 100-year floodplain analysis. As a precautionary measure, the fields in the floodplain were removed.
Haroldson says now, as far as the Department of Environmental Quality is concerned, Abercrombie Dairy is good to go. But there are still some local problems the future 12,500-head dairy facility will need to face before moving forward.
"Anything that is outside of the department's purview. Riverview will still need to make sure that they go through those aspects, one big point of contention being the water source. What water source are they going to be able to utilize for all those dairy cattle?"