Manure overspray raises Oregon health concerns
McMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) - Bill Murphy had actually been thinking about public health issues when the liquefied manure hit his windshield while passing an organic dairy farm this week.
Murphy's sister works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Boston, and he'd was just been back to visit her. As he peered through his manure-spattered windshield, he said, "I was thinking epidemiology."
Human and animal waste can be carriers of E. coli 0157H bacteria, blamed last summer for contaminating fresh spinach from California.
That kind of E.coli can cause lethal diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration, particularly in toddlers, elderly people and people with compromised immune systems.
Murphy said he worried about a situation like an open-bed produce truck driving by and getting spattered, leading to a potential epidemic.
"I grew up on a farm, and I understand using manure on the fields," he said. "But when it could hit the food supply, then I get worried."
Seeing no one tending the automated system at the Forest Glen Oaks organic dairy, Murphy called Yamhill County Public Health to complain. After being transferred and put on hold, he had to settle for leaving a voicemail for Environmental Health Supervisor Matt Jaqua.
Murphy said that left him wondering who, exactly, is in charge of making sure manure application doesn't cause food-borne illness.
"It seemed like a no-brainer," he said. "What if everybody got sick tomorrow and we didn't know how it happened?"
When a reporter for the McMinnville News-Register reached Jaqua later, he said the county has no authority to regulate agricultural operations.
"We would have absolutely no legal foundation for dealing with that," he said. "Agricultural practices in Oregon are very protected."
It turns out the person to call is Wym Matthews, manager of confined animal feeding operations for the state Department of Agriculture.
Matthews alked with Murphy on Thursday, then visited Forest Glen Oaks to talk with owner Dan Bansen and dairy manager Robert Kircher.
Matthews' agency is in charge of regulating discharge of manure from livestock facilities. He said state regulations address overspray onto roadways, but don't specifically address the potential for that overspray to strike produce-laden trucks.
Bansen and Kircher said they hope to eliminate worries like that, at least from Forest Glen, with a new distribution system they've been working on all summer.
The shower that hit Murphy's windshield had come from an automated, high-powered sprinkler gun. It was being used to fertilize a field in preparation for the planting of pasture grass for the dairy's 250 head of Jersey cows.
Such guns are in common farm use for fertilization as well as irrigation. However, they operate under such extreme pressure, they create a fine mist that is easily carried off-site on the wind.
Earlier this summer, Kircher discovered a lower-powered alternative system being used to apply manure by a dairy near St. Paul. Seeing it had much less overspray potential, he decided to build a system for Forest Glen Oaks.
Mechanical complications have delayed the project, he said. Otherwise, it would have been uap and running when Murphy drove past Wednesday.
"It's more environmentally friendly for the neighbors," Kircher said. "I live right up on the hill here, and I smell it too. It's not a great thing to be smelling when you're barbecuing."
Murphy's sister works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Boston, and he'd was just been back to visit her. As he peered through his manure-spattered windshield, he said, "I was thinking epidemiology."
Human and animal waste can be carriers of E. coli 0157H bacteria, blamed last summer for contaminating fresh spinach from California.
That kind of E.coli can cause lethal diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration, particularly in toddlers, elderly people and people with compromised immune systems.
Murphy said he worried about a situation like an open-bed produce truck driving by and getting spattered, leading to a potential epidemic.
"I grew up on a farm, and I understand using manure on the fields," he said. "But when it could hit the food supply, then I get worried."
Seeing no one tending the automated system at the Forest Glen Oaks organic dairy, Murphy called Yamhill County Public Health to complain. After being transferred and put on hold, he had to settle for leaving a voicemail for Environmental Health Supervisor Matt Jaqua.
Murphy said that left him wondering who, exactly, is in charge of making sure manure application doesn't cause food-borne illness.
"It seemed like a no-brainer," he said. "What if everybody got sick tomorrow and we didn't know how it happened?"
When a reporter for the McMinnville News-Register reached Jaqua later, he said the county has no authority to regulate agricultural operations.
"We would have absolutely no legal foundation for dealing with that," he said. "Agricultural practices in Oregon are very protected."
It turns out the person to call is Wym Matthews, manager of confined animal feeding operations for the state Department of Agriculture.
Matthews alked with Murphy on Thursday, then visited Forest Glen Oaks to talk with owner Dan Bansen and dairy manager Robert Kircher.
Matthews' agency is in charge of regulating discharge of manure from livestock facilities. He said state regulations address overspray onto roadways, but don't specifically address the potential for that overspray to strike produce-laden trucks.
Bansen and Kircher said they hope to eliminate worries like that, at least from Forest Glen, with a new distribution system they've been working on all summer.
The shower that hit Murphy's windshield had come from an automated, high-powered sprinkler gun. It was being used to fertilize a field in preparation for the planting of pasture grass for the dairy's 250 head of Jersey cows.
Such guns are in common farm use for fertilization as well as irrigation. However, they operate under such extreme pressure, they create a fine mist that is easily carried off-site on the wind.
Earlier this summer, Kircher discovered a lower-powered alternative system being used to apply manure by a dairy near St. Paul. Seeing it had much less overspray potential, he decided to build a system for Forest Glen Oaks.
Mechanical complications have delayed the project, he said. Otherwise, it would have been uap and running when Murphy drove past Wednesday.
"It's more environmentally friendly for the neighbors," Kircher said. "I live right up on the hill here, and I smell it too. It's not a great thing to be smelling when you're barbecuing."