Local dairy farms get boost from federal government
about this and is hoping that investigation and necessary action will be taken. Canadian stakeholders in particular want assurance that the lake water is protected.
Further investigation on this matter resulted in information coming from the most recent meeting of the oversight committee for the landfill operation in Coventry held on February 13. According to Memphremagog Conservation Inc. (MCI) Executive Director Ariane Orjikh, members of the landfill oversight committee for New England Waste Services of Vermont Inc., a branch of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. the cross-border representation of key stakeholders found out that the wastewater treatment plant in Newport ceased conducting the WET Test in 2009. She said that all the stakeholders present at that meeting knew nothing about this situation. The biologist says that it was disclosed at the
Denis Paradis, MP for the federal riding of Brome-missisquoi, and his team were on tour again last Friday to deliver cheques on behalf of federal Agricultural Minister Lawrence Macaulay. These grants, totalling $121,195.53 come from the Dairy Farm Investment Program and have been allocated for each of the five recipients to support the cost of necessary upgraded equipment.
Ferme Magolait in Magog received $27,804 for a new automatic feeding meeting that from treating 7,000 gallons per day in 2009 the facility has upgraded to currently manage 15,000 gallons per day of leachate being treated in Newport. “They are alleged to have been waiting for two to three years for a permit to treat 30,000 gallons per day,” Orjikh said.
Orjikh explained that leachate is a liquid that collects at the bottom of landfills after rainwater and runoff passes through the garbage collecting soluble and suspended solids. Because of the numerous contaminants leachate is generally viewed as carrying many toxins. According to Orjikh, there are so many toxins in leachate that they can’t be singularly identified. In order to determine the level of general toxicity, a WET Test is meant to reveal its level of risk. “We use living samples to find out just how dangerous the leachate is,” she said. “If 50 per cent of the living matter dies in the untreated leachate, we know that it is highly toxic. In Magog, we test before the leachate is treated as well as after. Our
system, while Ferme Perrochon et Fils in Farnham got $39,519 to upgrade its barn. Ferme Jean Pelletier et Fils in St. Armand was issued $39,219 for the installation of a mixer. Another farm in Saint-armand, Ferme Missiska 2014 got $4,048 for equipment to comfort their cows. Paradis and his team also visited Ferme du Grand-clos, S.E.N.C. in Stignace-de-stanbridge where they gave $10,604 for the installation of a parasitic voltage control system that will improve the animals’ environment.