Tag: manure

Manure maelstrom: the Great Lakes are drowning in livestock waste

Published on February 19th, 2025 by - Blog Posts

Stand aside Silicon Valley, the next big tech disruptor might be a giant manure scooper. Why? Because the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater system on Earth, are becoming a sea of livestock excrement, thanks the number of large-scale Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) found in Michigan.

We’re talking about 81 million people’s worth of fecal waste flowing through rivers, lakes, and streams, into the Great Lakes Basin every year. And that’s only on the U.S. side.

FLOW wanted a visual representation of this sewage avalanche, so we asked Iowa water quality scientist and blogger Chris Jones to produce a map of Great Lakes livestock waste in terms of human cities, like he did for Iowa a few years back. Iowa’s “real population”, he calls it. We learned that:

  • Manistee, Wexford, and Kalkaska counties receive an almost Minneapolis-sized load of livestock waste.
  • Allegan County (pop. 122,000) has livestock waste equivalent to 3.35 million humans.
  • Huron County (pop. 31,000) has livestock waste equivalent to 2.25 million humans.
  • The total amount of livestock waste flowing into the Great Lakes basin is equivalent to 81 million humans — the approximate population of the entire country of Germany.

Hover to enlarge. Map developed by Chris Jones, a research engineer (IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering) at the University of Iowa. Also available on the author’s blog. 

In a contest no one wants to win, Michigan takes the crown for the most livestock waste in the Great Lakes watershed. The fallout from this fecal flood includes toxic algae blooms, dead rivers, and beach closures. This isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s an economic and public health problem. There are whole states worth of untreated sewage draining to the Great Lakes.

Think about it: tourism takes a hit, property values plummet, and clean-up costs skyrocket — and taxpayers are ultimately left holding the bag. Meanwhile, industrial-scale CAFOs laugh all the way to the bank, suing the state any time it tries to enforce the Clean Water Act.

So what’s the solution? To start, we need to strict regulations on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and how they dispose of animal wastes. The industry should pay for the environmental damage it’s causing. And we should invest in some serious clean-up technology. As consumers, we should ask where our animal products come from, and support small scale, local farmers.

Great Lakes Manure Conference: Agriculture Runoff and Lake Erie

Published on May 10th, 2024 by - Blog Posts

On May 1-2, 2024, FLOW policy director Carolan Sonderegger and legal director Carrie La Seur attended the Great Lakes Manure Conference in Toledo, Ohio. The conference was an opportunity to tour the Maumee River, and learn from experts about legal, environmental, and public health issues posed by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Below, Carolan shares her learnings and reflections from the conference:

On the first day of the Great Lakes Manure Conference in Toledo, attendees joined a bus tour of local CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and a boat tour of the Maumee River, which provided ample room for networking and knowledge exchange. During the boat tour, we were able to see several grain silo facilities alongside the river.

One of the major highlights of the tour was the Glass City River Wall, which happens to be the largest mural in the United States (pictured above). The mural is not just a beautiful sight to behold; it is also an inspiration and a tribute to the local community’s resilience and determination to seek clean water and better nutrition for people worldwide. The mural depicts the historical significance of the indigenous peoples who lived and farmed along Ohio rivers for thousands of years, a testament to their enduring spirit in the face of environmental challenges.

The Maumee River is one of the United States’ largest Areas of Concern (AOC) – areas that have experienced environmental degradation. The river has been a hotspot of industrial and municipal development for almost 200 years. Due to agriculture runoff, unregulated waste disposal, industrial contamination, combined sewer overflows, and disposal of dredged materials, the Maumee River is the largest system emptying contaminants into Lake Erie.

In the Ottawa River, one of several embedded watersheds, high levels of PCBs and other contaminants led to a no-contact advisory for over 25 years, which was finally lifted in 2018. Human activities have resulted in the loss of more than 90% of Northwest Ohio’s wetlands, including the Toussaint Wildlife Area, a historic wetland. The contamination led to a restriction on fish and wildlife consumption until only recently, which was lifted in August of 2022. Many community members were observed fishing for sustenance along the banks, despite the fish consumption advisory recommending no more than one meal per week.

As seen in the picture above, the Maumee River appears to be vastly different from the waters and rivers of Northern Michigan. In contrast to our clear blue Niibii (water), the Maumee River resembled a dark and murky likeness to chocolate milk due to an abundance of suspended sediment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been collaborating with federal, state, and local partners to carry out remediation and restoration work in the region to tackle the existing beneficial use impairments (BUIs) – which identify significant environmental degradation. Although much work remains to be done, significant progress has been made on contaminated sediment remediation and habitat restoration efforts. Although turbidity is a water quality indicator, it is not an overarching testament to the river’s rehabilitation.

On the second day of the conference, we convened at the University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Center. We were privileged to hear from a diverse group of experts, including Kathy Martin, a civil engineer with over 25 years of experience in CAFOs; Fritz Byer, a Harvard Law graduate with over 35 years of practice; and others from Food and Water Watch, Waterkeeper Alliance, USDA/NRCS, and CAFO neighbors. The conference covered crucial topics, such as CAFO permitting (or lack thereof), manure digesters, CAFO history and economics, and the Nutrients Farm Bill. These discussions provided valuable insights into the current state of environmental conservation and the actions needed to address the issues.

Some speakers described the inconsistency in CAFO regulation from state to state in the Great Lakes basin, which aggravates cross-border cleanup challenges. Others addressed public health threats caused by CAFO waste, including multi-drug-resistant bacteria and avian flu, which can both spread to humans. University of Missouri Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics John Ikerd described the economics of CAFOs. It actually costs less to raise an animal on a traditional, diversified farm than in a CAFO, but CAFOs raise such large numbers of animals that smaller operations can’t compete on price.

Attorneys brought a legal perspective on current challenges to CAFOs, and how quickly the industry pivots to dodge regulation and enforcement. It is clear that we need a broad, national approach to reforming food systems, to restore healthy relationships among humans, animals, land, and water. This is FLOW’s vision.

A Festering Issue: Why Michigan Can’t Afford to Cave to Big Manure

Published on February 21st, 2024 by - Blog Posts

The Battle Over Regulating Biodigesters

The current West Michigan controversy surrounding permitting for a facility that processes pre-consumer food waste into fuel is a stark reminder of the delicate balance between environmental protection and economic interests. While proponents of the facility tout its benefits in terms of waste reduction and energy production, a closer look reveals serious questions about the true cost – and actual color – of this “green” technology.

This challenge to biodigester permitting is the proverbial camel’s nose under the edge of the tent when it comes to another kind of biodigester – the type that processes the massive waste stream generated by livestock confinements: a potent cocktail of manure, food scraps, and other organic materials, their toxicity concentrated by the digestate process. While proponents claim that digestate can be safely applied to farmland as fertilizer, there simply is not enough farmland in Michigan to absorb the amount of sewage processed by a proposed wave of taxpayer-subsidized manure biodigesters. Hundreds of millions of gallons of urine and feces, more than the human sewage of all ten million Michiganders combined.

The potential for groundwater pollution is enormous. Manure biodigester waste contains high levels of nitrates, phosphorus, and other harmful contaminants that leach into the ground and contaminate drinking water sources when applied to land. This is particularly worrisome in Michigan, where a significant portion of the population relies on private wells for drinking water.

There simply is not enough farmland in Michigan to absorb the amount of sewage processed by a proposed wave of taxpayer-subsidized manure biodigesters.

Another concern is air pollution. The anaerobic digestion process releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Applying digestate to land can lead to emissions of ammonia, a harmful air pollutant that contributes to respiratory problems.

Long-term impacts of applying digestate to soil are not fully understood. Some studies show that it can lead to soil compaction and reduced fertility. Others raise concerns about antibiotic-resistant bacteria developing in digestate-treated soils, posing a threat to human and animal health.

In the face of these concerns, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has taken the right first step to protect human health and the environment, by requiring facilities to comply with the standard testing and monitoring requirements already in place for municipal sewage, and implement measures to mitigate the risks of environmental contamination.

This is not just about one digester in West Michigan. It’s about setting a precedent for how we manage animal waste and develop genuinely sustainable energy in the 21st century.

However, digester operators are pushing back, arguing that these common sense regulations are too costly and burdensome. They claim that regulation will force them to shut down, resulting in job losses and lost revenue, but job projections for most biodigesters are minimal. This is really about investor profits. The deep pockets behind pricey manure biodigesters are in line for huge state and federal tax subsidies. Then, when the facilities are built, they’ll shift the environmental costs of their operations onto the public in the form of polluted water, contaminated soil, and degraded air quality. Taxpayers will also continue to cough up funds for water quality programs to counteract the pollution caused by land application of digestate.

The Great Lakes state of Michigan cannot afford to bear these burdens. The environmental and public health risks associated with poorly regulated digesters are simply too great. We must stand firm and ensure that these facilities are held accountable for the full cost of their operations, including the cost of protecting the environment and public health.

This is not just about one digester in West Michigan. It’s about setting a precedent for how we manage animal waste and develop genuinely sustainable energy in the 21st century. We can’t afford to sacrifice human health, quality of life, and environmental protection on the altar of short-term economic gain for a handful of wealthy investors masquerading as “green” energy champions.
It’s time for our regulators and elected officials to reject the siren song of Big Manure.