The Furtado Dairy has moved toward environmental compliance
following the release in May of 240,000 gallons of wastewater into
a nearby creek, but a water official cautioned Wednesday that owner
Manuel Furtado has a lot of hard work ahead of him.
Gilroy – The Furtado Dairy has moved toward environmental compliance following the release in May of 240,000 gallons of wastewater into a nearby creek, but a water official cautioned Wednesday that owner Manuel Furtado has a lot of hard work ahead of him.
“They’re moving ahead,” said Matthew Keeling, a project manager for the Central Coast Regional Water Resources Control Board. “So far, he’s in compliance, but we’ll have to wait and see whether he can complete the activities by the end of the month. The real meat of the cleanup-or-abatement order is what has to be done by the end of October.”
By the end of August, Furtado must reduce by two-thirds the amount of wastewater runoff on his 80-acre farm about two miles east of downtown Gilroy on Ferguson Avenue, or create additional irrigation and percolation areas, repair damaged levees and berms, and remove solid waste from the property.
If he doesn’t meet the deadline, Furtado faces fines of up to $5,000 a day or $10 for each gallon of discharge, and he could be forced to reduce wastewater discharge by giving up some of his 650 cows, regional board officials have said.
By Oct. 31, Furtado must have in place programs to monitor wells adjacent to his property and a nutrient management plan describing a complex method of using crops to remove harmful nutrients from the soil before they can reach waterways or groundwater.
“It’s a rather extensive document,” Keeling said. “It’s a rather detailed evaluation of trying to balance out the nutrients he’s discharging with uptake by selected crops.”
The Furtado Dairy has been in Gilroy since 1962, though it was closed from 1986 to 1992. The farm has a history of environmental violations that stretches back more than 20 years, but the spill in May, which resulted in a 4.5-mile flow of manure water that nearly reached Llagas Creek, was so egregious that Furtado faces a host of civil and criminal penalties. He said Wednesday that he intends to comply fully with the cleanup order, which was issued in late June.
“I’m going to take it one step at a time and do whatever they ask of me,” he said.
And he’s made progress. According to a report he filed last week with the regional board, Furtado has cleared land for irrigation, repaired his irrigation pumping system and improved the levee between his manure storage area and wastewater evaporation ponds. Keeling said he confirmed the progress when he visited the farm in late July.
But in addition to the substantial expenses of complying with the regional board’s order and fines for not doing so, Furtado is facing criminal fines up to $225,000 and legal action from one of his neighbors.
Last month, Furtado’s Dunlap Avenue neighbor, George Ekberg, sued the dairy, alleging that the farmer’s negligence repeatedly caused wastewater to flood his yard. And Furtado faces jail time. In June, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office filed three misdemeanor charges against him, alleging that he discharged water in excess of his permit and dumped 20,000 gallons of water polluted with waste from the farm’s 650 cows. Furtado has not yet been arraigned on those charges.
The spill was discovered May 13 when an anonymous caller tipped off the Santa Clara Valley Water District that the Alamias Creek, which runs just west of the dairy, appeared to be filled with wastewater.
The water, full of cow manure and compounds harmful to fish and humans, traveled 4.5 miles through the Alamias, stopping just short of the Llagas Creek headwaters south of Pacheco Pass Highway. Environmental officials said the spill was hazardous to the endangered steelhead trout, which migrates through the Llagas, and a potential threat to the groundwater basin.
Matt King covers Santa Clara County for the
Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7240 or mk***@gi************.com.
