Hawaii’s largest dairy has agreed to shut down by April 30 to resolve a lawsuit over water pollution.

The signed legal settlement involving Big Island Dairy was filed Tuesday in federal court in Honolulu.

Under the agreement, which is subject to a judge’s approval, the dairy will stop milking cows by Feb. 28 and cease all commercial operations by April 30. It also must get rid of all animals by May and remove all manure that was the source of water pollution by June.

Big Island Dairy will avoid any court-imposed fines but agreed to pay $450,000 in legal costs for a community group and food safety organization that sued the company in June 2017.

The agreement follows the dairy announcing in November that it planned to close sometime this year its roughly 2,000-acre farm with close to 3,000 animals and 24 employees.

If approved by a judge and carried out, the agreement would dramatically cut Hawaii’s supply of local milk, end an ambitious dairy expansion plan and also prevent further pollution of streams and other waterways that have infuriated a small community living below the dairy in Ookala on Hawaii island between Hilo and Waimea.

Big Island Dairy officials did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Sophia Cabral-Maikui, a founding member of the Kupale Ookala community group, which sued the dairy with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety, said in a statement that no words could express how grateful the group is about eliminating the dairy as a pollution source.

“We look forward to our streams running clear again without alarmingly high fecal and bacteria counts in our waters,” she said. “Our families are also excited to be able to fish and gather from our shoreline and ocean once again.”

Ashley Lukens, Hawaii director for the food safety organization, added, “Mainland-style intensive confined animal operations like Big Island Dairy have absolutely devastating effects on human health and the environment, so we’re relieved that this one won’t do any more damage.”

Big Island Dairy was established in 2012 when a firm led by Steve Whitesides of Idaho-based Whitesides Dairy bought the financially struggling Island Dairy Inc. for $13 million.

Whitesides launched an ambitious plan to expand Island Dairy, which had about 900 milking cows, by growing feed for the animals and investing in facilities. By 2014 the company was in the midst of doubling its number of milking cows to 2,200 from 1,100, and in 2017 opened a new $10 million milking facility. A state milk expert estimated that the expansion could reduce imported milk to 60 percent of the market.

However, the dairy was having trouble containing cow manure that it used to fertilize its fields for animal feed.

Kupale Ookala contended that Big Island Dairy produced 200,000 pounds of manure a day and that storing the manure in two earthen reservoirs was an environmental hazard that polluted waterways when flooded by heavy rain.

In response to a complaint, the state Department of Health fined Big Island Dairy $25,000 in May 2017 following an investigation that concluded the dairy discharged animal waste­water into Kaohaoha Gulch.

Kupale Ookala said three gulches running from the farm to where people live and into the ocean had frequently appeared brown, frothy and reeking of manure.

The group sued in federal court alleging violations of the Clean Water Act.

Since then the Center for Food Safety said the dairy released 2.3 million gallons of contaminated water in May, another 5.9 million gallons during Hurricane Lane in August and 600,000 gallons on Dec. 24. The Health Department assessed an additional $91,000 fine, according to the settlement agreement.

“It became apparent during the course of this case that Big Island Dairy could not operate a dairy at this location in compliance with the Clean Water Act while perpetuating Hawaii aina for future generations,” Charlie Tebbutt, an attorney representing the two plaintiffs, said in a statement. “The tremendous amount of rain, the steep slopes, and the volcanic soils made it impossible to handle the large volume of manure and manure-contaminated rainwater in a sustainable way.”

Big Island Dairy may sell assets to a buyer who possibly could establish its own dairy under new permits. If that doesn’t happen, Hawaii will be left with one major dairy, Cloverleaf Dairy, also on Hawaii island. For many decades the state supplied 100 percent of milk for local consumption, but that began to change in the 1980s after milk got contaminated with pesticide through animal feed. Most remaining dairies shut down in recent decades largely because of rising costs for land, feed, labor and fuel.