| June 2007, Issue 6 |
| LightHawk's monthly update, WayPoint, was created to share some of the good news we on staff learn about daily. Each month, you will receive a LightHawk success story that illustrates the critical role we play in conservation efforts throughout North and Central America through the unique perspective of flight. We hope you enjoy WayPoint and will share with others our success stories from above. |
LightHawk Flights Fight PollutionVolunteer Pilot Ed Steinman is concerned about concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). His recent experience in southeast Michigan has led him to describe several such facilities, sometimes referred to as factory farms, as “environmentally destructive and health-threatening.” For the past year, LightHawk has been working with Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan (ECCSCM) and Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter to address regulatory violations incurred by CAFOs. Flights are uncovering and graphically documenting the ongoing environmental abuses caused by the 12 facilities in the region. The resulting photos are, according to Steinman, “nearly the only evidence of the many violations by these CAFOs and the most effective tool for a chance at controlling them.” Thanks in part to images from LightHawk flights, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Michigan Attorney General have documented hundreds of environmental infractions, notably water pollution. Five LightHawk photo flights have captured dozens of the more than 100 confirmed violations at the facilities, mostly dairy operations, in the past year alone. Dairy CAFOs confine thousands of cows, and their untreated manure is collected, liquefied, and stored in massive lagoons. LightHawk flights have documented lagoons overflowing into calf holding areas, streambeds, woodlots, and fields; they have documented lagoon construction proceeding without environmental assessment or construction permits; and they have documented emergency spraying or dumping of lagoon manure – due to overflow – onto fields in winter, in violation of a court prohibition.
|
For several years, DEQ and the Attorney General’s office had been unable or unwilling to enforce compliance with existing laws, to halt the expansion of facilities, or to introduce more extensive permitting and monitoring processes. Slowly, fueled by increasing evidence and imagery compiled by ECCSCM and the Sierra Club’s CAFO Water Sentinel, local opposition is gathering strength. Because of the threat to their groundwater, early this year the Lenawee County Commissioners petitioned the state for a moratorium on CAFO construction until more rigorous standards can be put in place and compliance ensured and enforced. In recent weeks, DEQ staff has asked to join upcoming LightHawk flights to survey facilities of concern to ECCSCM and to expand the documentation to other facilities. ECCSCM is an all-volunteer organization made up of farmers and other neighbors of the sprawling dairy facilities. The group maintains that agriculture “must take responsibility for its actions in rural communities.” Failing that, the group is taking action itself by documenting abuses and forwarding this documentation to the relevant local, state, and federal agencies. Thanks to Steinman, LightHawk continues to support their efforts from the air. Quote From The Flight"Lighthawk has dramatically improved our ability to tell the story and document the problems with polluting animal factories in Michigan. A picture from the air can quickly point out dangerous and uncontrolled pollution and allows us to give the enforcement agencies what they need to begin investigating the worst polluters." |
1 .jpg)
3.jpg)
About LightHawk
Founded in 1979, LightHawk is a nonprofit, volunteer pilot-based organization that flies environmental missions in collaboration with a network of more than 120 pilots and hundreds of partner organizations throughout Central and North America. LightHawk flights provide a powerful and effective platform for research, groundtruthing, environmental awareness and education.
Receive this from a friend? Click here to subscribe!
Contact Information
International Headquarters
LightHawk
PO Box 653
Lander, WY 82520
Tel.: (307) 332-3242
Fax: (307) 332-1641
Email: info@lighthawk.org
Would you like to JOIN LIGHTHAWK?
Update your email address or other information.
All Rights Reserved