Seeking to hold industrial dairies accountable for their release of hazardous air pollutants, citizens filed a lawsuit today against one of the biggest dairies in the state of Washington. 

The lawsuit seeks to require the DeRuyter Brothers Dairy, a facility with over 6,300 cows on fewer than 100 acres, to limit its emissions of methanol which presently exceed 20,000 pounds per year.  Methanol is a hazardous air pollutant. Human health risks from exposure include premature births, an increase in the number of required caesarian-section births, and, in prenatally exposed babies, instances of a severe wasting syndrome, concentration-related delay in sensorimotor development and lower performance on infant intelligence tests.

Click here to read the full press release

Click here to read the complaint filed in federal court (pdf)