Clean Water Act Case Against Simplot Allowed To Proceed
July 29, 2024
A lawsuit challenging one of the biggest feedlot companies in the world and its waste discharges will continue after a court ruled against the company’s dismissal to dismiss.
J.R. Simplot Co. and Simplot Livestock Company (Simplot) were sued in a May 2023 complaint by the environmental advocacy group Snake River Waterkeeper (SRW) for what the group alleges are unlawful pollution discharges into Idaho’s Snake River.
Simplot filed a motion to dismiss the case in July 2023, stating SRW “failed to describe exactly where, when, and how such alleged illicit discharges occur.” On June 24, 2024, a federal court judge dismissed Simplot’s motion, allowing the suit to continue.
“In sum, the court finds SRW’s notice adequately identified the Grand View facility as the location of the violation and in conjunction with the extensive information included with the notice,” Judge David C. Nye wrote in the ruling.
Simplot owns a feedlot in Grand View, ID, with a capacity of about 150,000 head. The feedlot is the largest confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) in Idaho, and one of the largest in the U.S.
SRW alleges Simplot has failed to manage its manure at the facility, allowing manure to flow through streams, canals and ditches into the Snake River. The group conducted water quality sampling over a six-year period in the Snake River and said its data showed the feedlot routinely discharges waste that contains high levels of fecal coliform and E. Coli bacteria, along with nitrate and suspended solids.
“For decades, Simplot’s Grand View feedlot has used the Snake River as a sewer system to move manure downstream and pollute our water,” said Snake River Waterkeeper Executive Director Buck Ryan. “It’s time for Idaho to stop offering zero accountability to one of our nation’s biggest feedlot polluters and prioritize clean water and healthy aquatic habitat.”
The Clean Water Act requires companies to obtain a national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit for any facility discharging pollutants into a public waterway. Violations can lead to fines of up to $66,000 per day, per violation.
The SRW lawsuit said Simplot has been operating without a NPDES permit for decades and was warned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2012 but continues to operate without a permit.
The group gave notice of its intent to sue on Jan. 31, 2023, ultimately bringing the suit forward on May 9, 2023. Simplot answered the complaint on June 5, 2023, filing a motion to dismiss on July 5, 2023.
Simplot admits it does not have a NPDES permit authorizing discharges from the Grand View feedlot, but asserts the feedlot does not discharge pollutants, so a permit is not required.
“In its Motion to Dismiss, Simplot does not suggest this contention deprives the Court of jurisdiction and, even if it had, SRW clearly disputes it,” Nye’s decision reads. “As such, the merits of Simplot’s defense that it does not discharge pollutants is not currently before the Court.”
Simplot’s motion to dismiss argued the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction due to the alleged insufficiency of SRW’s notice, and that the notice failed to establish that “so-called” discharges were “ongoing.” The company contended the complaint should be dismissed for failure to state a claim.
“Although Simplot does not specify whether it brings a facial or factual attack, Simplot’s jurisdictional challenge neither contests the truth of SRW’s allegations, nor relies on matters outside of the pleadings,” Nye said. “Simplot has thus brought a facial attack on the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction.”
The court therefore accepts the allegations in SRW’s suit as true and draws all reasonable inferences in favor of the group. Nye ordered the parties to submit a joint litigation plan and discovery plan ahead of a July 22 deadline, and then planned to enter a scheduling order.
Source: Western Livestock Journal
