And look…ANOTHER lawsuit! Better get ready to open your pocket books again! The Devoted Barn is in deep doo doo this time.
Remember our blog about the manure mountain? Well, it seems as though Rose Township has finally stepped in to remedy the (literally) growing problem. They filed a lawsuit for an ordinance violation on December 12, 2022 against Devoted Friends Animal society in an effort to get them to finally clean up the mess.
As a refresher, when The Devoted Barn moved onto the property, we believe that it is fair to assume that they had done absolutely zero due diligence for a plan for manure removal. When you have a farm and such a large quantity of animals creating waste daily, that waste must go somewhere. It must be removed from the property, or it becomes a gigantic public nuisance. Nobody wants to see a gigantic pile of SHIT from their living room. Now, farmers do have some rights when it comes to what is normal and necessary for operating a farm on agricultural land. The Michigan Department of Agriculture have set guidelines for farmers called Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices (GAAMPS). GAAMP’s are voluntary but need to be followed for a farming operation to be protected under the Right to Farm Act. This means that if the farm faces nuisance litigation, they cannot use the Michigan Right to Farm Act in their favor. As of fall 2022, The Devoted Barn has officially lost their protection of Right to Farm.
Here is a timeline of what has occurred with MDARD in regard to the manure piling up at The Devoted Barn Property.
Jan 16, 2020- MDARD makes initial visit to the property due to complaints about manure management practices.
Jan 24, 2020- MDARD reaches out to Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) to help The Devoted Barn create a manure management plan due to the “manure management issues”.
April 2020- MAEAP meets with Melissa to discuss a manure management plan. They take soil samples and discuss how all of the stockpiled manure was to be removed by a farmer but Melissa was hoping to spread some of it in pastures to improve the condition of the vegetation.
May 21, 2020- MDARD re-inspects the property to find that the manure stock pile located on the wetlands has grown larger and a new storage location is discussed.
June 8, 2020- MDARD visits again with MAEAP as well as a local farmer to discuss the Manure Management System Plan (MMSP). The plan was made that the farmer would be composting the manure in the cow field and then removing to sell. MDARD asks The Devoted Barn to formally submit this plan by 7/12/2020
July 20, 2020- MDARD completes follow up inspection and suggests additional language in the MMSP to conform with GAAMPS. The updated manure management and composting plan was received on 7/21.
September 3, 2020- MDARD inspection observes at stockpiled manure has been moved to composting area and appears to be maintained at time of review.
April 21, 2021- MDARD closes 2020 complaint as abated, satisfied with the plans for manure composting in the cow field and confident at that time that The Devoted Barn will comply.
May 12, 2021- MDARD receives another complaint about the manure and MDARD inspects again. Manure has been stacked in the “staging area” over the winter and the manure in the “legacy manure composting area” seems to be being removed. The Devoted Barn explains that they are working to remove all manure and adhere to GAAMPS.
January 10, 2022-MDARD Right to Farm program inspects property and finds that the manure practices are not adhering to GAAMPS. They provide recommendations on how to resolve their complaints.
March 11, 2022- Email submitted to MDARD from Joe Durocher “DFAS Representative” explaining how they would all stockpiled manure removed by July 2022. He also says that “The manure management plan will be followed as well as the verbal agreement with Mr. Kyle McCarty MDARD.” In the email Joe also goes on to say that grass will be planted around the stockpile to prevent runoff and that all amounts of waste being removed from the property will be recorded.
March 18, 2022- MDARD still has not received a written schedule of implementation or a letter of intent identifying corrective practices The Devoted Barn plans to implement or when they intend to do so. They are given a deadline of April 22, 2022 to submit this.
May 5, 2022- MDARD does joint inspection with Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and finds that little to no manure has been removed from the site since the inspection in March. One pile closest to the driveway even remained there even though Joe Durocher had indicated in March that it would be gone within 10-15 days. They again discuss GAAMPS and how to comply and also discuss a cost sharing program option. EGLE writes up their own report regarding potential runoff into the neighboring wetlands and waterways.
August 30, 2022- MDARD inspection again shows that manure is not sufficiently being removed and that the staging area cannot be used for stockpiling without laying down an impermeable surface. Melissa was not able to supply any requested records of what quantity of manure was being removed from the composted manure site.
October 11, 2022- MDARD states that they are closing this file as the complaint was verified and the farm operation may not be able to use Michigan Right to Farm Act in nuisance litigation.
November 14, 2022- Rose Township steps in and alerts The Devoted Barn to their awareness of the problem and gives them 21 days to remedy the existing manure pile and submit their plan for further manure management.
December 12, 2022- After 21 days The Devoted Barn does not submit an acceptable plan for removal of the existing pile or a plan for future management. The township has no choice but to pursue legal remedies and file a lawsuit.
Coincidently, in a March 10th, 2021 post by Melissa in a Rose Township Facebook Group, Melissa posts this comment. Well Melissa, the township is doing just that. They are having to spend more money to ensure that your organization is not going to further pollute the local environment due to the lack of law abiding.
Facebook Live Tour of Cow Paddock August 19, 2019:
Start watching at the 3:00 minute mark. On the left you will see the start of a manure pile where they started to create a massive stockpile that MDARD required they remove (photo below). You will also notice all of the grass and lack of manure mountain in the cow field.
Drone Photo April 2022:
Drone Photo December 2022:
You can see how much bigger those piles are in just nine months. Do you really believe that the township should just ignore this and allow it to keep growing??? And as a reminder, this is the field that the cows live in. The cows that are supposed to be living their best lives in a sanctuary environment.
So once again, due to a lack of due diligence, lack of planning, and a lack of action, Melissa and The Devoted Barn find themselves in another legal battle. Sadly, it's just causing more money to be directed away from the animals themselves. Anyone seeing the pattern yet??????
Our expectation is that Melissa will once again spin this as if she is not at fault and situations out of her control have created this mess. But here are the facts:
The property was purchased without an inspection. If it had been inspected any environmental concerns would have had to be handled by the seller.
The initial inspection from MDARD was for the stockpile of manure in the wetlands. MDARD never told them that they had to scrape the field of existing manure. They opted to do that because the farmer wanted to sell the compost. This was part of their management plan.
3. MDARD has given them over 2 years to fix the problem and have offered plenty of assistance to help them. They have not remedied it, and continue to ignore GAAMPS. There is clearly no plan for how to manage the large amount of daily waste created by the property.
So...now we wait and see what kind of money will be needed to fix this. We fully expect a Facebook post asking for another large hand out.
Comments