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Citizens: Ohio Department of AG and Naomi Dairy Hiding Data on "Ground Zero" for 24.5 million gallons of liquid manure and 12.9 tons solid manure

Bloomdale, OH//News Advisory//Northwest Ohio residents will show up in force at a June 21st Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) hearing in Bloomdale, OH to oppose a recent ODA decision to deny requests by area citizens to view land application site maps detailing the massive pollution expected to result from Naomi Dairys new 1,765-cow factory farm.

Bloomdale area residents believe that ODA and Naomi Dairy have misused trade secret protections to sidestep public scrutiny, a policy that raises serious questions about ODAs bid to assume federal permitting authority under the Clean Water Act.  It is estimated that the massive Naomi Dairy factory farm would be ground zero for 23,453,368 gallons of liquid manure and 12,884 tons of solid manure.

Along with the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), area residents also fear that ODAs policy will help provide a safe haven for foreign livestock producers relocating to the United States to take advantage of weak environmental laws.

Those testifying at the ODA hearing are expected to include:

*  Jane Phillips, president, Wood County Citizens Opposed to Factory Farms (WCCOFF) and a resident of Custar, Ohio,

*  Sue Torrey,  a Cygnet, Ohio resident and WCCOFF member and;

*  Christopher Cole, spokesperson, Environmental Integrity Project.

TO PARTICIPATE:  Local news media is invited to attend the public hearing on Thursday, June 21, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. ET. The hearing will be held in the main auditorium at Elmwood Elementary School at 7650 Jerry City Road, Bloomdale, OH.

CONTACT: Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

BACKGROUND:

Over the last several decades, U.S. agriculture has changed dramatically. Small farms are being replaced by industrial-like facilities that confine thousands, tens of thousands -- or even hundreds of thousands -- of animals in small areas. As a result, factory farms produce an estimated 500 million tons of manure every year  three times the amount of waste the human population of the U.S. produces.  Unlike human waste, however, livestock waste is not treated. Dumped into pits and onto the land, manure emits health-threatening quantities of toxic gases into the air as it decomposes. Spills and runoff of manure from factory farms can destroy rivers and contaminate downstream communities drinking water supplies. 

ABOUT EIP

The Environmental Integrity Project (http://www.environmentalintegrity.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 to advocate for more effective enforcement of environmental laws.  EIP was founded by Eric Schaeffer, who was director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement.  He resigned in 2002 after publicly expressing his frustration with efforts of the Bush Administration to weaken enforcement of the Clean Air Act and other laws.