LOCATION: Matter Family Farm, Greenwood Township, Perry County PA

STATUS: Monitoring

ISSUE IN BRIEF:

In early 2020, our organization and others appealed DEP’s decision to approve Matter Family Farm’s permit to pollute (NPDES Permit). Matter Family Farm is a duck finishing CAFO which includes one building housing a maximum of 38,000 ducks. The CAFO at Matter Family Farms sits on property that is adjacent to Cocolamus Creek and poses a threat to not just water quality for Cocolamus Creek, the Juniata and Susquehanna River, but also a threat to human health where groundwater has a high probability of being polluted in addition to the general nuisance it provides to neighboring landowners.

The proposed CAFO site sits on slopes steeply to the north-northeast toward Cocolamus Creek and its associated wetlands. 17.3 acres (59.7% of the CAFO) of the proposed manure application fields exist at or above 15% slope, and are thereby unsuitable for manure spreading. Such manure spreading will likely result in:

Manure/nutrient runoff
Negative impacts on surface water quality
Ecological impact of the adjacent Cocolamus Creek
Impacts on larger order water bodies, including the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers

THE LATEST: In early 2020 our organization and Friends of the Cocolamus Creek appealed DEP’s decision to approve Matter Family Farm’s permit to pollute (NPDES permit) for their concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) which houses ducks.

In 2021, we withdrew our appeal and have decided to take another approach. Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association will be continuously monitoring private wells and the Cocolamus Creek for violations because much concern remains about the long-term potential for the proposed barn, manure pit and storage areas leaking into groundwater, contaminating near surface groundwater, venting into adjacent surface waters, and impact to groundwater aquifer(s) utilized in the vicinity of the proposed Matter Farms CAFO as the sole-source of drinking water.

Comments of Ted Evgeniadis, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper representing LSRA 1/29/2020