WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Bradford County farmer Ralph McNeal received a $5,718 fine from the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection for polluting the French Run Watershed last spring with runoff from his farm in Burlington Township.
Department inspections of the farm in mid-March and early April 2004 revealed that silage leachate from a silo had flowed downhill into a wetland at the headwaters of a tributary to French Run.
In addition, manure runoff from a loading area also entered the wetland.
‘Severely impaired.’ In late April, DEP staff conducted a biological investigation of French Run and two of its tributaries. The conclusion was that silage leachate and manure from McNeal’s farm had caused severe damage to aquatic life in the French Run Watershed.
A department biologist found that more than one mile of an unnamed tributary to French Run, and about 1.5 miles of French Run itself, had been severely impaired.
The fine was paid to the Pennsylvania Clean Water Fund.
Get 4 Weeks of Farm and Dairy Home Delivered
