EarthFix Snippets

This Google Earth photo shows the confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO in Columbia County, Oregon.

To be considered a CAFO, an operation must meet certain criteria.

• • Animals must be stabled or confined and fed on a lot or in a facility for 45 days or more during a 12-month period.
• • No grass or vegetation is grown in the confinement area.
• • A certain number of animals is confined, a number that varies by the kind of animal.

Cattle rancher, William Holdner was convicted this year on two felony counts of first degree water pollution and 25 misdemeanor counts of second degree water pollution for mismanaging the livestock waste. He was storing open piles of manure on cement slab outside his barn, which did not have gutters. Runoff from the manure piles and from an overflowing storage tank flowed into Mud Creek (the white line on the photograph). A pipe then sent the polluted Mud Creek water into the South Scappoose River.