Community Association for Restoration of the Environment (CARE)
If you’d like to make a donation, please write a check payable to CARE and mail to:
CARE
c/o Helen Reddout
2241 Hudson Road
Outlook, WA 98938
Mission Statement:
The Community Association for Restoration of the Environment (CARE) is a nonprofit, volunteer organization that works to protect and improve the environment in the Pacific Northwest. The organization supports family farms that operate in a sustainable manner, promoting public health, economic vitality, stewardship of the land, and protection of air and water resources. CARE opposes any agricultural operation that pollutes and degrades rural communities.
Background
Established as a 501(c)(3) grassroots organization in 1997, CARE was founded by residents of the Lower Yakima Valley in Washington State in response to the devastating impact of newly-constructed factory dairies.
The owners of these industrial operations flagrantly violated environmental regulations and rejected well-established good farming practices without concern for the land or the community. Factory dairies polluted the air with pungent sewage-like odors, filled the Valley with clouds of manure-filled dust, induced a mammoth influx of flies, and contaminated local rivers, streams, and groundwater with sewage waste. The community became so polluted that residents began to live like prisoners in their own homes.
As experienced farmers and longtime residents of the Valley, members of CARE immediately recognized the dairy operators’ complete disregard for the environment and public health. After unsuccessful attempts to rectify the situation by negotiating with the dairy owners and requesting government enforcement of environmental regulations, CARE decided to take legal action. Enforcement agency records indicated that at this time, only 14% of the factory dairies in the Yakima Valley operated in compliance with Clean Water laws.
After selecting ten factory dairies that had repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act, CARE sent each operation a 60-day notice demanding immediate compliance with the regulation, and eventually filed a lawsuit against Henry Bosma, owner of one of the worst factory dairies.
CARE was very fortunate to have secured the services of the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC), a nonprofit, public interest law firm devoted to protecting the environment and culture of the West. WELC’s guidance, expertise, and financial assistance enabled CARE to win a tremendous victory against Bosma and the factory farm system.
Ultimately, CARE v. Henry Bosma became a landmark case which set a national precedent in the realm of factory farm regulation. U.S. District Court Judge Ed Shea ruled that environmental regulations for CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) pertain not only to the operations’ feedlots, but also to sewage lagoons and other areas where manure is stored, fields where solid and liquid manure are spread, and to the equipment used to transport manure. Prior to this decision, dairies insisted that only their feedlots were subject to CAFO regulations. Judge Shea also ruled that drains and irrigation ditches were “waters of the United States,” and therefore subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act.
CARE’s victory against Henry Bosma enabled the organization to negotiate settlements with other factory dairies in the Valley, protecting the environment and safeguarding public health. The case also launched CARE into the national spotlight and gave the organization the opportunity to work with environmental groups throughout the United States.
After the Bosma Case
All settlement monies awarded to CARE have been used to fund two water studies in the Lower Yakima Valley. While Heritage College conducted a study to determine how far pollutants from factory dairies had spread within the groundwater, the Valley Institute for Research and Education (VIRE) provided free well water testing to low-income families along with information about how to protect themselves from polluted wells. Since neither the county health department nor the Department of Ecology performs private well studies, these projects are tremendously important to residents of the Valley, many of whom are young children or elderly individuals who are particularly susceptible to the harmful health effects of water pollution.
Air pollution from factory farms has also become a serious health hazard in the Lower Yakima Valley. CARE works to protect the public from this threat by monitoring air pollutants and by presenting the results of its studies to the government agencies responsible for enforcing air quality standards. CARE also provides educational information to those who are directly affected by air pollutants released by factory farms.
CARE continues to serve as a watchdog organization, protecting communities of the Yakima Valley from the ill effects of factory farms and providing assistance to other grassroots groups throughout the United States.
Helen Reddout – Cofounder and Acting President of CARE
HELEN REDDOUT lives in central Washington, where she and her husband have operated commercial cherry orchards for 48 years. Born in southwestern Missouri, Helen spent her teenage years on a small dairy farm. A graduate of Central Washington University, she recently retired after 25 years of teaching. Ms. Reddout was twice named Teacher of the Year, earned state honors for developing a waste reduction program, and received two National Science Scholarships and a NASA Space grant, among other awards for achievement.
Helen was selected as an Environmental Hero for 2001 by the Washington Environmental Council. Currently, Helen speaks throughout the U.S. about the dangers of air and water pollution generated by factory farms, and leads an ongoing educational program about the negative impacts of these pollutants on human health. She has testified at legislative hearings and continues to work with local and national organizations to promote environmental preservation. As a farmer’s wife and community activist, Helen is a strong supporter of sustainable family farms who adamantly opposes the invasion of rural areas by corporate operations that abuse the land.
CARE in the media
Dairy Operation Violated Clean Water Act – The National Agricultural Law Center, February 2003.
Ninth Circuit Upholds Penalty of $171,500 against Henry Bosma Dairy for Decades of Manure Discharges to Yakima River – Western Environmental Law Center press release, September 2002.
Valley Dairyman Must Pay $350,000 in Fines – Tri-City Herald, July 30, 1999.
Fines, Monitoring in Valley Dairy Case Left to Judge(Scroll halfway down for article) – Tri-City Herald, December 9, 1999.
A Personal Perspective on Factory Dairies
Factory farming operations regard the land, the animals and the community as disposable commodities to be exploited and discarded. Factory farming operations place massive numbers of cows into a small confined area. They live miserable lives in overcrowded pens, standing knee deep in their own feces and urine, dried manure caked to their sides and udders. Kept under lights twenty four hours a day, these cows will never be on pasture, and will never eat fresh green grass. The feed they receive is laced with the remains of dead animals, as well as antibiotics and hormones to keep them at what the dairymen define as "full production." What this term means is sacrificing the animal’s life for a larger margin of profit at the end of the year. Normal life expectancy for a cow is 15 - 20 years, but due to the lack of even the most minimal humane standards, these animals live only three to four short years. Once their bodies are wasted, they will be herded or dragged to the nearest slaughterhouse where they will become a part of the food supply for our families.
The cruelty these animals endure is surpassed only by the damage and destruction inflicted on individuals or communities in the vicinity of the factory operations. The water, air, health and way of life are rapidly diminished. These changes force long-time residents to become prisoners in their own homes. All windows and doors are kept tightly closed because it is easier to endure the summer heat than the stench coming from the sewage "lagoons." Dark clouds of flies swarm year-round, curtailing outside activities. The gasses from the open sewage pits, many of which are acres in size, not only cause health problems, but also become a social embarrassment; it’s difficult to entertain when your yard and home reek of fermented sewage. Familiar surroundings begin to change. Fields become brown to black with the year-round application of manure. Still, there is not enough space to dump the manure and slurry. Acres of green grazing land become huge mountains of manure two to three stories high. Liquids from this manure leach into the ground and eventually into our well water. Wells that had run clean for generations now have high and dangerous levels of nitrate. Health standards consider the wells unsafe for human consumption. Bottled water replaces the fresh, clear water that once came from the wells.
Surface water runs shades of brown instead of its regular color. White foam frequently floats by and the smell of manure is easily detected. Aquatic life is destroyed and streams become unfit for human contact.
All these condition cause the value of your farmland and home to drop. You now have the choice of selling at a loss, or enduring imprisonment in your own home.
What is factory farm? It is the seeds of destruction of any rural community and the end of rural life as we have known it.
Testimonial of Helen Reddout, resident of the Yakima Valley in Washington State, and president of the Community Association for Restoration of the Environment (CARE).
