New Mexico is re-writing the regulations that permit dairies to discharge polluting wastewater while still protecting our groundwater resources. There is no question that the regulations need strengthening – an astounding 65% of dairies in New Mexico are exceeding their discharge permits and polluting our dwindling and precious groundwater with Nitrate Nitrogen, high levels of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), e-coli bacteria, and other pollutants.

On April 13-16, the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) will hold a Hearing in Santa Fe on the new regulations as proposed by the industry (who have proposed a weak and toothless version of the regulation), by clean water advocates like us (our proposed regulation is strong and meaningful) and by the New Mexico Environment Department (who will offer the WQCC a proposed regulation that is a good improvement over our existing regulation). They will also be accepting public comment before and at the Hearing.

The dairy industry is in denial about its alarming failure to protect our groundwater. Their version of the new regulations, that they have presented to the WQCC, proposes that clay-lined lagoons, as often used today for storing dairy waste-water, are sufficient, despite acknowledged leaking inherent in that design method that pollutes groundwater and strongly contributes to the 65% failure rate of this industry to protect our groundwater. Compounding this, they have proposed to the Commission that monitor wells are not needed, despite the fact that monitor wells are the only way to collect samples to test for groundwater purity or measure pollutant constituents and levels.

The clean water advocates team (the Rio Grande Chapter, Caballo Concerned Citizens, Amigos Bravos, Food & Water Watch and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center) agree with the Environment Department that much safer and effective no-leak synthetic liners must be required in all lagoons and that monitor wells are essential for the Department to understand the impacts to our groundwater from dairies and effectively protect our water resources. We also agree that setbacks from water sources for new dairies are critical, but believe longer distances than those described by the Environment Department are necessary for setbacks to be meaningful. We are proposing that dairies post financial assurance to cover decommissioning the dairy and also to help cover the cost of remediation following a disastrous spill event.

THE THREAT: Ninety percent of New Mexico's drinking water comes from underground sources,

1. Nearly two-thirds of the water underneath the state's dairies is so contaminated that it is unsafe to drink.

2 Dairies in New Mexico produce 5.6 million gallons of manure each day - equaling nearly 9 olympic-size swimming pools of manure daily.

3 This waste has been found to seep underground and contaminate our water supplies.

TAKE ACTION: Contact the Water Quality Control Commission with your support for strong, effective groundwater discharge permit regulations for the dairy industry that will begin to really protect our waters. E-mail Joyce Medina, Board Administrator at Joyce.Medina@state.nm.us and identify your comments as regarding the Matter of the Proposed Amendment to 20.6.2 NMAC (Dairy Regulations) Docket Number: WQCC 09-13 (R). Please attend, or contact the WQCC for protection of your water.

New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission

1190 St. Francis Drive, N2153

Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502

Tel (505) 827-2425

Fax (505) 827-2836

local fax 575-743-2173