Japanese Beef Feedlot Is Told to Stop Polluting : Manager Calls Water Board Order Unrealistic, Says Cows Not Potty-Trained

The Regional Water Quality Control Board on Monday ordered a Japanese feedlot to stop polluting the isolated San Diego County valley north of Warner Springs, but delayed imposing a possible $300,000 fine against American First Beef.

Dan Winne, general manager of American First Beef, said the order is unrealistic because the 1,000 or so cattle in the Paradise Valley feedlot aren’t potty-trained.

“You can’t expect me to go running around with a bucket,” Winne said, asking the board members to amend the order prohibiting “any discharge of waste on land or water” from the American First Beef feedlot in the north-central part of the county.

‘We Are Not Harming Anyone’

Winne insisted that no runoff or pollution is leaving the feedlot property, “and we are not harming anyone. We are asking you to modify these reports so that we can all live with them.”

The water board has found no evidence of actual pollution, but the panel ruled that manure from the feedlot could pollute Paradise Valley.

Water board staff confirmed that the order, under state regulations, prohibits any discharge onto the feedlot grounds, including manure and urine, effectively forcing American First Beef to shut down its cattle-feeding operation or be in violation of the board’s order.

The problem is no small one. A 1,000-pound animal will produce 44 pounds of manure and 18 pounds of urine daily, according to a staff report. At that rate, a 1,150-head herd would discharge 71,300 pounds of waste daily.

“This amount of waste discharged to land daily constitutes a potential threat to local ground and surface water,” the report stated.

Board chairman John Foley conceded that “I don’t think cows can read waste discharge requirements.” He recommended that “practical” regulations be established to allow the Japanese firm to conform under strict monitoring.

Instead of going that route, board members persuaded Foley to drop his proposal and, in effect, allow the feedlot to operate in non-conformance by looking the other way, a condition that dozens of dairies, sewage plants and other polluters find themselves in. Foley labeled that “a state of non-grace.”

The board also refused to approve a $300,000 fine recommended by Ladin Delaney, executive officer of the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The proposed fine was for failure to obtain a waste-discharge permit, failure to complete an environmental impact report and failure to meet other requirements before starting up the feedlot last fall.

After meeting in a closed-door session, the water board voted to delay imposing any fine against the Japanese firm, calling the action “premature.”

Under the California Water Code, the maximum civil penalty is $10,000 a day, or $570,000 for the 57-day period covered by the order.

Water board staff member David Barber had proposed an amended fine of $50,000 with the remaining $250,000 to be levied in $62,500 increments if American First Beef does not meet a schedule for improving its property and guaranteeing against pollution of ground or surface waters.

But board members decided instead to warn American First Beef to speed its environmental studies and obtain a permit.

The Japanese investors purchased the Paradise Valley property and built an Escondido packing house in preparation for the relaxation of Japanese tariffs and quotas against beef imports, scheduled in 1991 under a U.S.-Japanese trade agreement. The firm plans to raise high-quality beef, butcher it and export it to Japan, where it now brings prices of more than $100 a pound.