Michigan’s attorney general’s office is suing J&D Brenner Farms in Allegan County after environmental authorities discovered elevated amounts of dangerous bacteria in drainage into the Kalamazoo River. Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit against Brenner in February, stating that the farm is polluting waterways with nutrients and diseases due to inappropriate animal waste management. The farm produces around 650 cows on 8 acres in the manner of a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), but does not have the permission necessary of such operations. According to the state, the Brenner farm violates state water quality standards and creates a public nuisance.
In 2016, regulators informed Brenner that the farm housed and fed too many cows to operate without a pollutant discharge permit. State inspectors visited the farm in April 2017 and October 2019, and issued a violation notice after discovering “unlawful discharge of production area waste” into drains that go to the Rabbit River, which joins the Kalamazoo River near New Richmond. There are two waste storage lagoons on the farm, but the state claims Brenner has not submitted design documents, and the storage capacity is unclear.
In January 2023, state testing revealed unusually high levels of biological oxygen demand in a drain outfall, which may degrade water quality. Testing also revealed “extreme readings” for chlorides, suspended particles, turbidity, ammonia, nitrates, phosphorus, calcium, copper, magnesium, zinc, and acidic pH levels. In September and October 2023, watershed monitoring discovered E. coli in a drain near the farm at concentrations 14 times higher than the permissible state threshold of fecal coliform bacteria in surface water.
The state has urged Ingham Judge Wanda Stokes to order Brenner Farms to cease releasing nitrogen and pathogens, acquire and comply with a discharge permit, and pay civil penalties.
