Dairy must solve manure problem

A recent front-page article describing Big Island Dairy’s new milk bottling plant ignores the other major product that the dairy won’t be putting in new labeled containers: its cow poop (“Big Island Dairy to process its own milk, bypassing Meadow Gold,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 4, 2017). With more than 1,400 mature milking cows, and more than 1,000 other calves and heifers, Big Island Dairy generates over 200,000 pounds (100 tons) of manure per day.

That’s a lot of manure to deal with, and unfortunately, the dairy doesn’t handle it well. It stores manure in two large earthen pits — only one of them has a synthetic liner to reduce infiltration. It spreads the manure on its fields during windy and rainy days, of which there are many with well over 100 inches of rain per year, when there’s a high risk that that the waste will drift or run off the property.

And, even when the dairy gets the timing right, if the manure is not applied to the crops in just the right amount, the excess runs off into the gulches and seeps toward our underground water supply. Contrary to the image painted by its website, most of its cows spend the bulk of their time confined in feeding stalls, not out grazing on the “lush hillsides of the Hamakua coast.”

This style of confinement further concentrates a lot of animal waste into a very small area. Simply put, the dairy is generating more manure than it can handle — there are just too many cows on too few acres on a steep hillside.

The community of Ookala is unfairly bearing the brunt of Big Island Dairy’s mismanaged manure. The three main gulches impacted by the dairy that flow through our community frequently appear brown and frothy, like a raging river of chocolate milk. You wouldn’t want to drink it, though: It often reeks of manure and water quality tests have shown high levels of fecal bacteria. Our gulches — places kids like to play — have been fouled by manure runoff and are no longer enjoyable or safe. On at least two occasions, heavy rains have carried manure-laden water directly into people’s homes.

We tried raising these concerns to various government officials, and our concerns fell on deaf ears. In 2014, based on a complaint from our community, the Hawaii Department of Health confirmed animal waste from the dairy had contaminated local streams, but took no action.

In a December 2016 inspection report, the Department of Health noted a potential for pollutant discharges from the dairy’s lagoon systems and its compost operation, but still took no action. We finally took matters into our own hands and initiated a Clean Water Act citizen lawsuit earlier this year.

In bringing our Clean Water Act suit, we — and our co-plaintiff, Center for Food Safety — want Big Island Dairy to change its practices and stop polluting. Why is the dairy allowed to reap profits using taxpayer-funded low-interest subsidies while it dumps manure onto the people of Ookala and into our ocean?

If Big Island Dairy really wants to “do it right,” we hope the Whitesides, the family that owns the dairy on land leased from the state, will show as much commitment to cleaning up its manure problem as it has to generating profits from its brand.

Sophia Cabral-Maikui, Genard Frazier and Charlene Nishida submitted this on behalf of the board of directors of Kupale Ookala.