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Simplot Feedlot in SW Idaho Subject of Clean Water Act Suit by Brad Carlson Capital Press, May 10, 2023

Simplot let a permit expire in 2012 and did not seek to renew it.

BOISE -- An environmental group has accused the J.R. Simplot Co.'s cattle feedlot in Grand View, Idaho, of polluting the Snake River and lacking a key permit.

The nonprofit Snake River Waterkeeper, in a May 9 complaint filed in federal district court in Boise, alleges Simplot is violating the Clean Water Act by discharging manure and processing wastewater into waters of the U.S. without a permit.

The group wants the court to declare that Simplot violated the federal act, to stop the company from discharging pollutants except under a valid permit, to remediate existing and potential harm, and to authorize civil penalties of up to $64,618 per day per violation.

The Grand View feedlot has more than 100,000 head of cattle.

The Snake River is important to Simplot and to the people and communities along it, said Josh Jordan, spokesman for the Boise-based agribusiness. He would not comment on the complaint other than to say the company is reviewing it.

The company is unable to control rain and snowmelt that flows onto the feedlot, over-applies manure to nearby fields and "fails to otherwise adequately collect, contain and dispose of manure," the complaint states. "As a result, manure and manure-laden water from the Grand View feedlot course through streams, canals and ditches and flow into the nearby Snake River."

The company let a permit expire in 2012 and did not seek to renew it, according to the complaint.

Discharges of nitrogen, phosphorous, E. coli, fecal coliform, suspended solids and other pollutants "have caused or contributed to violations of Idaho's water quality standards, putting the Snake River's health in jeopardy," according to the complaint.