PLAINVIEW, Minn. – The farmer-owned dairy co-op in Plainview has been fined again for sloppy and environmentally unfriendly practices, this time for $20,000. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency levied the fine after finding that 6,900 gallons of cream were spilled at the dairy. The cream flowed into the Plainview municipal water system and clogged wastewater tanks. Worse, said the agency, the dairy failed to report the spill immediately as required by law. In a previous spill, in May, the dairy was fined $17,000 for an illegal dischgarge of milk-laden industrial wastewater. In the latest transgression, the MCPA said:
> Suspended solids exceeded state limits by a multiple of 15.
> Carbonaceous biological oxygen by 11.
> Phosphorus levels by three.
The MPCA says the spill sent cream-laden wastewater into a city storm sewer and into a ditch.