GOSHEN, Ohio — A Goshen dairy farmer must clean up and control manure and animal feed waste on his property or face up to $1,000 a day in fines, as part of a consent order with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost over environmental violations.
“This order forces (Charles) Carney to take steps to manage the manure and feed waste on his farm to prevent further pollution and damage to Moores Fork stream. The cleanup process comes with oversight from the Ohio Department of Agriculture to ensure the contamination is remedied,” said Yost spokesperson Hannah Hudley.
The order, signed by Clermont County Court of Common Pleas Judge Anthony Brock on Oct. 3, ends a lawsuit filed by Yost in June 2021, after agriculture agents visited Charles Carney’s 62-acre farm. They discovered a manure leak polluting nearby Moores Fork Stream; cows standing in their own foot-deep manure; and heard reports from neighbors of floating dead fish in the stream, according to Yost's office.
“The stream was completely black with manure for a mile downstream, and neighbors reported seeing hundreds of dead fish floating in the stream. The conditions – among the worst that ODA investigators had ever seen – prompted the department to issue an emergency order requiring Carney to clean up the waste on his dairy farm,” according to a 2022 environmental report by Yost’s office.
When investigators returned to Carney’s farm days later and were unhappy with the cleanup, Yost’s office filed the lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order.
“This isn’t a farm right now. It’s a biohazard that needs cleaned up before more harm is done,” Yost said in June 2021. “I am stepping in to start the cleanup process.”
But Carney’s lawyer, Jack Van Kley, said the case resulted from accidental runoff of feed from a tiny farm into a small creek.
“After this event occurred almost two years ago, Mr. Carney immediately took steps to stop the runoff and has cooperatively taken all the actions requested by the state to prevent its recurrence,” Van Kley said.
"Runoff from the feed pile reached the creek and temporarily discolored it. The state refers to this runoff as 'manure' because the legal definition of manure in its regulations includes the drainage from feed ... The water in which the cows were standing did not go into the creek," Van Kley wrote in an email to WCPO. "The state used this photo to sensationalize the case and attract news media attention, but it actually had no relevance to the runoff. The state inspector who testified at a hearing in this case admitted that no dead fish were found. My client also checked and did not see any dead fish."
Under the settlement agreement, the state will hold Carney’s $70,000 civil penalty in perpetual abeyance based on his financial situation. But if he violates the consent order, he faces $300 to $1,000 a day in fines.
Carney is not allowed to store more than a day’s worth of waste feed on site and it must be held in an area where runoff is contained. He must also stop storing manure in uncontained piles or pools and maintain a gravel berm at the entrance to the waste feed storage are to ensure no runoff leaves the site.
He must create storage areas away from animal feeding operations; scrape manure solids from the open dirt lot annually; and submit a detailed three-year manure equipment and application plan to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Carney Charles Consent Order by paula christian on Scribd
