Grand View Feedlot Clean Water Act Enforcement

June 24, 2024 — A federal judge issued a memorandum decision and order denying Simplot’s motion to dismiss the case. Simplot filed a motion to dismiss the case in July 2023, arguing that Snake River Waterkeeper (SRW), our client-partner in the case, “failed to describe exactly where, when, and how such alleged illicit discharges occur” and that its claims against the facility were vague and insufficient. The court’s ruling denies Simplot’s motion in its entirety.

In the decision, Idaho Chief District Judge David C. Nye stated that allegations contained in the lawsuit “are not mere legal conclusions, but rather are rendered plausible by facts including Simplot’s failure to obtain a NPDES permit since 2012, Simplot’s parcel ownership, the flow map SRW prepared, aerial imagery showing a lack of clean water diversion equipment on the Feedlot, Simplot’s admission that it is unable to control, divert, or detain the precipitation falling onto the Feedlot, photographs of piping infrastructure on Simplot’s land application fields, and extensive sampling data from locations in and around the Grand View Facility, as well as from the Snake River itself, illustrating such waters are polluted with manure.”

May 9, 2023 — Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit against the J.R. Simplot Company and Simplot Livestock Company for years of unlawful pollution discharges from the Grand View Feedlot into the Snake River in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The Snake River is a source of water as well as an important site for recreation and fishing—activities that are threatened by continued agricultural pollution. The river contributes to Idaho’s $3.7 billion tourism industry, which employs more than 45,800 Idahoans and generates $475 million in local, state, and federal tax revenues. But the Snake River—especially the middle Snake River near Grand View—is heavily polluted.

Simplot’s Grand View Feedlot, located in the Snake River canyon about a one-hour-drive south of Boise, is one of the largest Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) in the country, with a capacity of up to 150,000 cattle. On a typical day, the feedlot is home to at least 65,000 cattle, which generate at least 47,450 tons of manure each year. This untreated animal waste—along with the hormones, antibiotics, and pathogens contained within—contributes to the pollution of the Snake River and its tributaries through runoff from the feedlot as well as over-application of manure to area crop fields.

Simplot is operating the Grand View CAFO without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, which violates the CWA.