The Oregon Department of Agriculture has settled a lawsuit with a Eugene-area business over a large pile of horse manure.
Lakeview Stables is located about a mile from the Fern Ridge Reservoir. The ODA has accused the business of keeping at least 200,000 cubic feet of uncovered manure on its property.
That’s enough animal waste to fill more than two Olympic swimming pools.
In a lawsuit filed in 2024, the state said the business’s owner, Carolyn Thom, hadn’t complied with the state’s repeated demands to address the pile since 2016.
“Defendant had failed to take any steps to remove or relocate the manure pile from its present location, directly atop uncovered ground without any impermeable barrier to prevent leaching into the underlying soil and groundwater,” ODA attorneys wrote in a court filing.
The state argued that the waste could carry E. coli and nitrate into state waterways, including Fern Ridge Reservoir. In 2016, an ODA inspection found that the amount of E. coli that was entering a nearby drainage ditch was well within regulations.
ODA spokesperson Andrea Cantu-Schomus told KLCC in an email Thursday that the main issue with this case was "potential to impact groundwater and related to nutrients."
Now, Cantu-Schomus said Lakeview Stables has agreed to remove the waste over a three-year period starting this month, and to pay more than $24,000 in fines.
She said the manure could be taken off-site, moved inside, or dispersed into soil as fertilizer at state-approved rates. She said if the business follows the schedule, it won’t have to pay additional penalties.
KLCC was unable to reach Lakeview Stables for comment.
