Environment and Natural Resources
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 6, 2001
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Jeanne Goodman, 773-3351

DENR Stops Discharge from Yankton Livestock Auction Again

PIERRE – For the second week in a row, the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) stopped a discharge of feedlot runoff from the Yankton Livestock Auction. The source of this second discharge was different than the source of the discharge last week.

"DENR was notified of this second discharge a little after 8 o’clock on Monday morning," said DENR Secretary Steve Pirner. "By 10:30 we had department personnel on site, and had the owner stop the source of discharge."

Upon arriving at Yankton Livestock, DENR investigators found this second discharge coming from a small dugout. After last week’s discharge, Yankton Livestock officials had begun to lower the water levels in its lagoons by pumping and land applying the water using an irrigation gun. The irrigation gun moves through the field using a gear mechanism that moves as water flows through the gun. The gear chain apparently broke in the gun and the gun stayed in one spot spraying water. 

After the ground became saturated, the water being sprayed by the irrigation gun began flowing into a small dugout on the edge of the field. After filling up the dugout, water flowed into the same dry creek bed that last week's discharge entered. Yankton Livestock officials stopped the pumping on Monday morning after the first DENR investigator arrived onsite. Yankton Livestock officials also dammed up the dugout, and the discharge from the dugout was stopped entirely by Monday afternoon. 

DENR staff took water samples and checked downstream. The discharged water did not flow in the dry creek bed even as far as last week, and again did not make it to the James River. Sample results from this second discharge will not be available until sometime next week. 

As was the case with last week’s discharge, the owner of Yankton Livestock was unaware of Monday’s discharge until notified by DENR investigators.

On October 30, the owner of Yankton Livestock stopped its first discharge, which went through a muskrat hole in the dike of one of its lagoons. Laboratory analyses of the water quality samples taken from last week’s discharge showed the discharge did not pose a threat to the environment. 

In response to these discharges, DENR is considering appropriate enforcement actions to include requiring Yankton Livestock Auction to get coverage under a state water pollution control permit.

Yankton Livestock Auction is located 2½ miles north of Yankton.

-30-