Eight times in seven years, a state inspector
asked Joe Lemire to keep his cattle off the banks of Pataha Creek. Why? Because
they drop cow pies in the water. Cows trample pollution-filtering streamside
plants. Cows mash the banks down so dirt gets into the stream, which had been
targeted for cleanup by the government since the early 1990s.
The state even offered to pay for fences to
keep the cows out of the stream.
But Lemire refused. He fired back that the
state couldn’t prove his cows were polluting the stream, which cuts
an undulating path deep into the volcanic plains of southeast Washington.
When the state issued him a formal order in 2009 to keep the cows away
from the creek, Lemire appealed to a state pollution-hearings board.
This fall his case heads to the Washington
Supreme Court in what is shaping up as a pivotal decision about farmers’
obligations to protect Northwest waterways. In a related struggle, Indian
tribes are charging that farmers such as Lemire are killing salmon.
Lemire is a 69-year-old retiree raising
cattle and hay. He’s become a cause célèbre in the countryside, where farm
bureaus are soliciting residents to send money to cover the costs of his legal
fight.
“I was guilty until proven innocent,” Lemire
said in an interview. “It makes it mandatory for me what’s voluntary for other
people.”
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