The Michigan Department of the Attorney General has announced a lawsuit against a West Michigan farm over alleged violations of wastewater laws. Prosecutors said J&D Brenner Farms in Allegan County improperly released wastewater, which flowed into a ditch that led to the Rabbit River, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River.
In a statement released Tuesday, the attorney general’s office described the company as an “unpermitted ... concentrated animal feeding operation.” The suit is on behalf of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
The attorney general's office said years of enforcement efforts going back to 2016 "have not resulted in meaningful reductions in the ongoing watershed pollution."
The department’s statement said that a drain near J&D Brenner Farms — part of a watershed that eventually ends up in Lake Michigan — had E. coli concentrations more than 10 times higher than the state limit. This was uncovered by routine monitoring from EGLE in 2023. The statement said this was “likely due to continued discharges from the dairy farm.”
The complaint says the company “threatens to impair the natural resources of Allegan County by overloading the local watershed with nutrients and introducing bacteria and other pathogens from animal waste into the waters of the state.” The company is also accused of potentially harming state groundwater and potentially drinking water aquifers.
E. coli can potentially cause serious health risks, said Molly Rippke, an aquatic biologist at EGLE: “things like ear infections or upper respiratory infections or skin infections, especially if you have open wounds that the water can get in.”
The lawsuit seeks compliance with state wastewater law and, if the farm is found to have violated the state's rules, civil penalties of up to $25,000 per day of violation.
The farm's owner, Deborah Brenner, did not respond to a request for comment.
