On June 30, 2009, Five Corners Family Farmers joined CELP and Sierra Club in filing a lawsuit challenging the 2005 Attorney General Opinion that purports to authorize unlimited use of water for livestock purposes, including large dairies and feedlots. The case is now pending in Franklin County Superior Court. Five Corners and its allies are represented by Janette Brimmer and Kristen Boyles, attorneys with Earthjustice’s Seattle office.
On November 23, 2009, Franklin County Judge Carrie Runge ruled that Five Corners and its co-plaintiffs have standing to bring this lawsuit. On April 2, 2010, ruling from the bench, Judge Runge reversed her decision and dismissed the lawsuit because our injury claim was “speculative.” Besides, she said, the 1945 statute exempting livestock watering from a permit was “clear and unambiguous.”
As our attorney, Janette Brimmer, noted after the trial, “These folks can’t wait until their wells go dry. There’s no fixing it when that happens.” (See: AP story in Seattle Times) Brimmer noted that in 1945 lawmakers intended this water to go for family homesteaders - not industrial feedlots such as the 30,000 head cattle feedlot located amidst our wheat farms and threatening our domestic wells and our future.
Five Corners Appeals Air Quality Permit
In September 2009 Five Corners filed an appeal of the air quality permit issued by the Department of Ecology to the Easterday Ranches feedlot. The appeal challenges the failure to require Easterday to comply with current air toxics standards, failure to consider the cumulative effects of the multiple CAFOs and feedlots in the vicinity of the Five Corners’ family homes, and several other issues.
Five Corners Family Farmers is represented by Spokane public interest attorney Karen Lindholdt in our air quality appeal. For more on this appeal, click here.