Royal City residents and dairy reach agreement

SPOKANE — A giant dairy operation accused of fouling the air and water in the Royal City area will clean up its act to settle a federal lawsuit, the two sides said today.

Smith Brothers Dairy, based in Kent, was sued in 2004 by farmers near its Royal City operation who complained about the stench and chemicals coming from manure piles produced by 3,500 cows.

The deal reached by the two sides was filed this week in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

"Our small community has been inundated with the manure and the odors coming from Smith Brothers," said Cindy Carter, spokeswoman for the local chapter of Community Association for Restoration of the Environment, who lives a mile from the dairy.

"We are all farmers, in fact my dad and brothers are in the dairy business," Carter said. "But the amount of manure and the stench that comes from Smith Brothers is unnatural and out of control."

Scott Highland, an executive with Smith Brothers, confirmed the settlement today but declined to comment.

The agreement will require the dairy to dramatically change the way it handles manure, said Charles Tebbutt, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, Ore., which handled the case.

The deal requires the diary to compost much of the manure, to cover one of the lagoons where the manure is stored, reduce odors at a second lagoon, and use irrigation water that does not stink, Tebbutt said.

"After so many years of unfulfilled promises to the community to reduce their stench, we are thrilled to have specific commitments in writing," Carter said. "We hope to see big improvements soon so we can have our windows open again."

Smith Brothers has some 3,500 cows at its Royal City facility, more than double the number of people who live in the town west of Othello.

CARE filed its lawsuit in 2004, accusing Smith Brothers Dairy of violating the federal Clean Water Act by over-applying manure, which the group claimed reached irrigation canals and drainage ditches that eventually flowed into the Columbia River.