The Alberta Natural Resources Conservation Board has fined a farm $50,000 for discharging pig manure into a lake through an irrigation pivot.
Habraken Farms of Taber was sentenced May 30 for releasing manure into Granthum Lakes in 2004. The family farm has a permit for 550 sows.
The NRCB issued an emergency order in 2004 when one of the board’s inspectors confirmed the farm was using an irrigation pivot to discharge raw hog manure into a fish-bearing lake.
NRCB spokesperson Jean Olynyk said it was the second time the board had warned the farm to stop pumping manure directly into the lake, which is one of two lakes in southern Alberta that are known collectively as Granthum Lakes.
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“It was because of the seriousness of the situation there was a decision to lay charges,” Olynyk said.
It’s not uncommon for NRCB officials to be called to farms because of manure leaking into waterways, she said, but usually the board and the farm can work together to stop the runoff.
Olynyk said the farm eventually complied with the order.
Four charges were laid against the farm. Habraken Farms pleaded guilty to one charge under the Agricultural Operation Practices Act. The other three charges were dropped. It’s the first time the NRCB has laid charges against a family farm under the act.
The provincial court judge ordered half the $50,000 penalty to be paid as a fine and the other half to be paid to Lethbridge Community College through a creative sentencing order to support a research project at the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence examining the effect of nutrients on water quality.
