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March 2, 2001

City of Waco, Erath
County dairymen at odds

Dairymen in Erath County are reeling from a revved up effort by the City of Waco to impose harsher regulations on their operations in order to protect the North Bosque watershed feeding Lake Waco.

Lake Waco supplies municipal water needs to Waco residents. Waco Mayor Linda Ethridge is leading the charge to hold Dublin-area dairymen solely responsible for the algae growth said to be the source of the water's foul taste and smell.

Cows are also being blamed for high levels of phosphorus detected in the lake. Thus, City of Waco leaders are opposing any attempt on the part of dairy farmers to increase their herd size.

"We don't quite know how to deal with the wild charges of `industrial pollution'. I do know that all of us have spent six figure sums to comply with regulations of various kinds," said Jerry Dipple, a dairyman and member of the Erath County Farm Bureau. "We are deeply disturbed and very frustrated by the regulatory `moving target' we have been trying to hit for years. For a while, we chased nitrogen as the great environmental demon. Now it's phosphorus. Inexplicably, the mayor of Waco has now started to talk about e-coli. She came out of left field on that issue..."

In September, Erath County dairymen embraced a composting plan with the potential to cut by 70 to 80 percent the amount of dairy waste that gets into the Bosque River. State Rep. Kip Averitt and Sen. David Sibley, Republican lawmakers from Waco, joined former State Rep. David Lengefeld (D-Hamilton) in developing the plan, which garnered support from both the dairy industry and key state agencies, including the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

Under the plan, dairies can send their manure to compost facilities free of charge. TxDOT would then use the compost as a soil amendment to improve roadside vegetation. Other markets would be developed over time. Other technology is now available to both compost and use the waste to generate electricity, but it is very costly.

"Without question, it will cost a staggering amount, for a family farmer at least, to gear up for those kinds of facilities," Dipple continued. "That's why the talk of limits on herd size is so counterproductive. It is unreasonable to advocate huge cost increases on the one hand, and take away any chance to recover those costs on the other."

Erath County is the Number 1 dairy county in Texas with about $200 million in annual milk sales.The local dairy industry directly employs about 1,300 people and generates $1.5 million in property taxes.