Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Riverview, a dairy company, aims to expand one of its operations near the west-central city of Morris to house more than 18,000 animals, becoming the state's largest livestock farm. 

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has an 

The Land Stewardship Project, a nonprofit on sustainable agriculture, called for an environmental impact statement. That would entail a government report outlining the project's potential impacts on the surrounding environment and economy. 

“We hear concerns from dairy farmers who know that they can't compete with somebody 500 times bigger than them,” Land Stewardship Project Policy Director Sean Carroll said. 

He added that if approved, the operation could use up to 226 million gallons of water a year. And on top of that, he said, collected cow manure that’s later used as fertilizer could lead to nitrates leaking into groundwater.

“It is critical that we know everything about the impacts this could have to our water, to our land, to other dairy farmers before it is approved,” Carroll said.  

However, Brady Janzen, a partner at Riverview, said his team has already presented detailed environmental assessment worksheets and other documents made available for public review by the MPCA as part of the environmental review process. 

“That's all done with an effort to make sure that there are no potential for environmental impacts from the project,” Janzen said. “And that's further assured by the prescriptive permits that we have in Minnesota for livestock facilities, which prohibit discharges of pollutants to waterways, [and] which strictly control the land application of manure and all those things.”

Janzen added that Riverview voluntarily agreed to cut the amount of water it’d be allowed to use in half once the permitting process ends. He also said the company would invest in rainwater recycling at the farm to further offset any groundwater needs. That, Janzen said, means Riverview expects to use closer to 100 million gallons a year.

“Given that the environmental controls are there, and environmental protection is in place, that should render the current review process that we're going through sufficient,” Janzen said.

While Janzen said an environmental impact statement isn’t necessary, he said Riverview will continue to work with governmental agencies.

Lucas Sjostrom, executive director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association, said there's increasing demand for milk production in Western Minnesota. And expansions like these help create enough supply to meet the demand.

“We have the water, we have the land. And that's why the processors are setting up here and saying, ‘Hey, give us more milk,’” Sjostrom said. “And to do that, you need more cows, of course.”

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A proposed dairy expansion in the west-central city of Morris could create Minnesota’s largest livestock farm. Critics raise environmental and economic concerns.

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A proposed expansion to create the largest livestock farm in Minnesota sparks debate

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