A proposed 30,000-cow dairy near Boardman has Morrow County's official approval but not its support. The county has no legal way to stop what would be the state's second-largest dairy, and its three commissioners are deeply worried that it will sap already-limited groundwater from local farmers, and exacerbate water and air quality problems.

Lost Valley Ranch, if approved, would replace an iconic poplar tree farm along Interstate 84 near Boardman. It would operate within four miles of two dairies and a confined livestock feeding operation, and would be a heavy water user in an area where water use is already restricted. It could either be a boon to the local economy or signal a transition in Oregon's family farm economy.

The dairy fits with state land-use laws, so Morrow County officials have no choice but to approve it. At that point, it's then up to the state to determine whether its wastewater management plan is acceptable. But that raises a crucial question for a coalition composed of local and federal government agencies, small farm advocates and environmental organizations: Are Oregon's rules for mega-dairies and livestock feedlots too loose?

"We've been warning for some time that Oregon's rules are too weak, and we're in danger of being a big factory farm state," said Ivan Maluski, policy director of Friends of Family Farms.

Lost Valley Ranch -- currently known as Willow Creek Dairy -- would be the second-largest dairy in the state. The 7,288 acres would allow the farm to raise younger cows and grow their feed. General Manager Travis Love said that Lost Valley Ranch would take over the water rights of the tree farm and its mill facilities and wouldn't discharge wastewater into any water sources.

"We are not taking any extra water out of the ground that wouldn't already be in use," Love said.

Even if that claim bears out, opponents worry that Lost Valley Ranch is a sign of things to come.

"Oregon is already home to one of the largest dairies in the country, if not the world, and now proposes to allow another dairy, which will produce as much waste as a fairly large city, to locate nearby," Tarah Heinzen, an attorney for Food and Water Watch, said in a 16-page statement submitted to the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality.

The Columbia River Gorge is a hub for recreation and tourism, as well as major agricultural industry. That could be altered if big agriculture companies with out-of-state owners, such as Lost Valley Ranch and the nearby Threemile Canyon Farms, continue to move in.

"Agricultural production is the lifeblood of Morrow County, and it cannot be harmed," the members of the Morrow County Court -- the county's rulemaking body -- said in a letter to the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "The County Court respectfully asks that the ODA, through issuance of this permit, not harm water reserves, increase groundwater contamination, or negatively impact agricultural production by issuing this permit."

Air emissions not considered

What happens to the Boardman Tree Farm?

The windblown poplars lining Interstate 84 will take years to be fully cleared. They are harvested on a 12-year cycle.

AgriNorthwest, a company from the Tri-Cities region, will use the land along the highway for irrigated crops, such as potatoes.

Lost Valley Ranch would clear 7,288 acres for its dairy, feed crops farm and other facilities. The operation would be located on the southern boundary of the tree farm, near Finley Buttes.

Cows emit huge amounts of ammonia, a gas that is creating haze over the Gorge. Lynn Burditt, who submitted comments on the proposal on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service, said that the agency wants Lost Valley to have to disclose emission rates for harmful gases such as ammonia and nitrogen, which are causing acidification of gorge ecosystems.

"We are concerned that the proposed facility may reverse the improvements in visibility already underway," wrote Burditt, the agency's manager for the Columbia River Gorge area.

Dairies and livestock feedlots are also huge sources of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

But the dairy is not subject to an air quality permit. It has only to obtain permits for its wastewater management and show how operations there will affect surface and groundwater. The Oregon departments of agriculture and environmental quality issue a joint permit, if the applicant meets all the criteria.

Many of the concerns from opposing groups extend much further than those two factors. Wym Matthews, who manages the agriculture department's concentrated animal feeding operation program, said that those issues are referred to other agencies.

"They will be looking at the comments in light of what's the state of regulation on those other things," Matthews said.

In 2008, a state-appointed task force produced several recommendations to reduce air pollution from dairies. It was designed to help the Department of Environmental Quality comply with the federal Clean Air Act. The task force published a report that laid out a seven-year plan that would ease dairies into reducing emissions.

The report went nowhere.

At an Oct. 20 concentrated animal feeding operation advisory committee meeting, Oregon State University dairy specialist Troy Downing said that state officials were waiting on federal guidelines that never happened.

"It really is more of a matter of, it's not clear what the problem is and which way to go. If we knew what to do to improve air quality and bring industry along, we should be talking about that," Downing said. "We certainly have more technology and better science than we did a decade ago. I think we're sitting in a good position to address this problem, but I don't think we ignored it."

But Friends of Family Farmers and environmental groups that were part of the process in 2007 and 2008 are frustrated that another mega-dairy could move in before rules are in place.

"There's this whole area around air that's not even being addressed right now and needs to be," Maluski said. "There's reason to believe we're going to see a big spike in these operations in the coming years. These companies are taking notice that Oregon has really weak rules around these operations."

How big are we talking?

The vast majority of Oregon's dairy farms are small operations, according to the last

.

But there are some dairies have 700 or more cows, which puts them into the same category as Lost Valley Ranch under Oregon's definition of "large concentrated animal feeding operations."

Oregon's dairy farm breakdown

One to nine cows: 425 dairies

10 to 19 cows: 18 dairies

20 to 49 cows: 30 dairies

50 to 99 cows: 51 dairies

100 to 199 cows: 77 dairies

200 to 499 cows: 25 dairies

500 to 999 cows: 25 dairies

1,000 to 2,499 cows: 20 dairies

2,500 cows or more: 5

By comparison:

Lost Valley Ranch: 30,000 cows (if approved)

Threemile Canyon Farms: 70,000 cows

Where waste goes

Threemile Canyon Farms, a 70,000-animal dairy on 93,000 acres -- about 15 square miles -- is just over 30 minutes away from the proposed Lost Valley Ranch. It was there in 2002 that Lost Valley Ranch owner Greg te Velde got his start leasing from his family. Threemile Canyon Farms is partially owned by California dairy giant A.J. Bos, who is related to te Velde through marriage.

In January, te Velde bought 7,288 acres of the Boardman Tree Farm from GreenWood Resources for $65 million. Love, the general manager, said moving the dairy would allow the dairy to increase its payroll from 60 employees to as many as 150 and could pump $25 million to the local economy.

The extra land would allow te Velde to raise young cows and grow the crops that will feed them, which Love said is an environmental boon. The new dairy also would include infrastructure for a methane digester, which converts the organic matter in manure into methane, which in turn is used to produce energy. Love estimates it would produce about 2 megawatts of electricty, enough to power 2,000 homes, for the operation. There is no timeline of when that would be installed.

"Lost Valley Ranch will utilize best management practices and the best available technology to minimize the environmental impact," Love said.

Te Velde's permit application says the dairy is estimated to produce more than 13 million cubic feet of manure per year and more than 10 million of wastewater. The application details how the manure would be dealt with, but written comments from a coalition of environmental groups take issue with the sheer volume of waste.

"While there is no appropriate site for such a large CAFO [concentrated animal feeding operation] and the enormous quantities of waste it will produce, the risks of siting this facility near other mega-dairies and in a groundwater management area are simply too high to even warrant consideration."

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation have also spoken out against the proposed dairy. They contend the nearby reservation would suffer from direct air quality impacts, and from indirect effects on fishing and water treaty rights the tribe is federally entitled to.

Environmental groups also contend that te Velde should have done more outreach to the large Latino community around Boardman, which is more than 60 percent Hispanic, according to the latest U.S. Census data, and Morrow County is 36 percent.

"Our objective is to ensure everyone who is impacted by this project has a voice and is heard, and that DEQ and ODA recognize factory farms are huge sources of air and water pollution," said Columbia Riverkeeper attorney Lauren Goldberg.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbarger