Environmentalists on both sides of border fear impact of planned North Dakota dairy farms on Lake Winnipeg

Winnipeg Free Press

a day ago

Two massive dairy farms planned just south of the border in North Dakota could deliver a devastating blow to Lake Winnipeg and its already fragile ecosystem, environmental and animal advocates warned Wednesday.
'There's a need to really get the awareness out there,' said James Beddome, the former leader of the Green Party of Manitoba and current executive director of the Manitoba Eco-Network.
Beddome said he doesn't think most Manitobans are aware of the plans, saying he learned of them in March.
'I'm hoping we are going to see Manitobans speak up and have their voices heard,' he said. 'It's going to take a community… a coalition to stop this.'
The operations — one near Abercrombie Township south of Fargo, and another near Hillsboro south of Grand Forks — will generate hundreds of millions of litres of manure annually. That waste, advocates say, will flow upstream into the Red River, threatening to overwhelm one of the world's most endangered lakes and undo decades of restoration work.
'Between inexact manure-spreading protocols, vagaries of flooding, spring melts and heavy rains, nutrients and other pollutants will enter the Red River and proceed downstream, ultimately ending up in Lake Winnipeg,' Madeline Luke of the Dakota Resource Council in North Dakota said at The Forks Wednesday.
Riverview LLP, a Minnesota-based company, is behind both projects. The Abercrombie facility — already permitted — will house 12,500 milking cows. The Hillsboro site, twice the size, is awaiting approval.
To handle the waste, the farms plan to store manure in massive lagoons — equivalent in size to 52 Canadian football fields — and spread it once a year as fertilizer. But their proximity to the Red River and its tributaries puts surrounding waterways at risk if lagoons fail or overflow.
'Our North Dakota farms will be designed, built, and operated to protect surface waters and prevent water pollution,' a spokesperson for Riverview LLP said in an email Wednesday, adding the plans have been viewed and approved by North Dakota's Department of Environmental Quality.
'All manure will be collected and stored on-site in synthetically-covered lagoons for responsible land application on an annual basis. This manure will be tilled into the soil on surrounding farmland as organic fertilizer, which replaces commercial fertilizers that would otherwise be used on this land.
'Riverview's goal is to always be good neighbours, which includes farming in a manner that protects our shared water resources and the environment.'
Luke, however, warned of real-world examples from other U.S. states, where storms or equipment failures have turned manure lagoons into environmental disasters, including flooding in Iowa last summer that breached manure pits and washed animal waste, bacteria, parasites, viruses and nitrates into nearby rivers.
'The same practices that make milk production profitable… also make it a perfect place for the spreading of viruses and, also, mutations,' she said.
Luke emphasized the fact that pollution doesn't stop at the border, meaning potential problems in North Dakota are also problems in Manitoba.
'Lake Winnipeg is running out of time,' she said.
The lake has long suffered from rising levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, fuelling toxic blue-green algae blooms and earning a reputation as one of the world's most threatened freshwater bodies.
Luke joined members of the Coalition to Save Lake Winnipeg, Animal Justice, the Save Lake Winnipeg Project and the Manitoba Eco-Network in a meeting with provincial Environment and Climate Change Minister Mike Moyes.
'Minister Moyes was very receptive, actually — we were very impressed with how much he already knew and he asked really relevant questions,' said Vicki Burns, director of the Save Lake Winnipeg Project.
'But in a way, he has very little control. This requires input from the federal government in order to really urge the International Joint Commission to become involved.'
The IJC, under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, established joint phosphorus loading targets in 2022. For the Red River, the target was set at 1,400 tonnes per year. But Manitoba's latest report shows that an average of 2,500 tonnes per year — nearly double the limit — is already coming from the U.S.
Beddome said the IJC was sent a letter in April and has confirmed its engineers are reviewing the proposed farms.
'But we need public noise to push our politicians and push corporate stewards to be more responsible and hopefully push some action south of the border,' he said.
Getting people to care south of the border is a difficult problem, said Luke, adding that water wells for Abercrombie residents will be immediately threatened, with seepage from the lagoon infiltrating within 18 months.
'One community (Abercrombie) has been fighting this very hard, while the other has welcomed it with open arms,' she said.
The Hillsboro farm is expected to use a deeper aquifer, and there aren't as many people living close by, she said.
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Luke said North Dakota's government is in favour of the projects, as it wants to be a leader in dairy farming.
A request for comment from the state was not returned Wednesday, nor were similar requests to the Canadian government or IJC.
Burns, meanwhile, said two decades' worth of advocacy for Lake Winnipeg hasn't led to much progress. But she's not giving up.
'We're not at a point of no return, but there's no time to waste,' she said.
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Scott BilleckReporter
Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade's worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott.
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