Probe Ends ‘Era of Cooperation’ With Board, Dairy Farmers Fear

Angered and unnerved by the criminal prosecution of two San Marcos dairymen who discharged barn waste into a creek, a coalition of county dairy farmers on Monday protested the participation of state water pollution control officials in such investigations.

Appearing at a meeting of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, a representative of the San Diego County Milk Producers Council said the board staff’s involvement in criminal prosecutions marks the end of a long-running “era of cooperation” between dairies and their regulators.

“I’m disturbed to see the direction the board is going in,” said Bill Verhoeven, a San Marcos dairy owner and secretary of the Milk Producers Council. “In the past, we would meet with the board staff, discuss problems and work them out. Now it looks like we’re going to need lawyers instead.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, lauded the staff members for their work on the San Marcos dairy investigation and urged the board to continue its participation in the Hazardous Waste Task Force, an umbrella group of local, state and federal agencies formed to combat illegal disposal of hazardous waste. The dairy case was the first uncovered by the task force.

“What we are trying to do is bring together our skills in criminal investigation with your technical expertise in attacking these types of cases,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles S. Crandall told the board.

Although obviously sensitive to the concerns expressed by dairy farmers, most board members agreed that their staff has a duty to provide research, testing and other support services to prosecutors involved in criminal investigations. To do otherwise, some noted, could be construed as obstructing justice.

The board did, however, direct its top administrative officer to come up with guidelines to govern the staff’s participation in future criminal inquiries. Among other things, members indicated that they wished to be informed when investigations are under way, and they want the board to be reimbursed for staff time devoted to the prosecutions.

Monday’s dispute grew out of the prosecution last year of Jacob Wilgenburg and his son, Edward, former owners of a San Marcos dairy. The pair was convicted in November of violating the federal Clean Water Act by discharging contaminated barn runoff into San Marcos Creek through a hidden pipe leading from their 500-cow dairy. The Wilgenburgs were fined $45,000, sentenced to serve three years’ probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution to the Water Board.

The case was the first prosecution ever under the Clean Water Act in U.S. District Court in San Diego and was a direct outgrowth of the Hazardous Waste Task Force, formed in mid-1986 by the FBI. A second indictment, involving the dumping of sulfuric acid at a coastal estuary in Oceanside, followed, and Crandall said half a dozen more are nearing fruition.

The task force’s aggressive posture toward polluters is a marked departure from the typical approach taken by regulators, according to dairy operators.

In an interview after Monday’s meeting, Verhoeven said that historically the board has worked with dairy owners--helping them to correct problems rather than “singling us out for prosecution.”