SNOHOMISH – A dairy farm is cleaning up “multiple dead cows” that were improperly disposed of, according to the Snohomish Health District.
After a tip was made to the district, an investigator visited Bartelheimer Brothers Dairy on 92nd Street SE three times over the last week, finding at least two mostly decomposed cows in a wetlands area and an unknown number of cows partially buried under piles of straw.
The health district report was released Wednesday.
This is the second time multiple dead cows have been found improperly disposed of in Snohomish County this year.
Investigators have charged James Cupp of Marysville with two counts of failure to bury animal livestock and one count of animal cruelty in Cascade District Court in Arlington. The charges stem from an incident in February when several dead cows were left in a field outside Marysville.
In the Snohomish case, health district investigator Phebe Wall reported finding “multiple dead cows laying in several areas in a field between an agriculture lagoon and a duck pond. The cows are in varying states of decay, and some are partially buried.”
It’s OK to bury dead cows on private property, but there are restrictions on how it can be done, said Gary Hanada, waste and toxics program manager for the health district’s environmental health department.
Cows must be buried under at least 2 feet of dirt, have at least 3 feet of unsaturated dirt separating them from the water table, and be buried at least 100 feet away from any standing water.
Hanada said the Bartelheimers removed the cows quickly. He said the district will keep tabs on how the dairy disposes of dead cows in the future.
“Generally, what we try to do is get people to comply rather than fining them for whatever violations they might have had,” Hanada said.
Dale Bartelheimer, one of the owners of the family diary, told investigators he had been trying to compost the cows. He told The Herald that the cows were buried in a dry area, but because of heavy rains the burial area became flooded.
Bartelheimer said the cost of having a rendering plant pick up the dead cows has gone from nearly nothing two years ago to $150 per cow today, which he said he cannot afford to pay.
He said the health district approved of his plan to rebury the cows in a drier location.
Herald writer Jim Haley contributed to this report.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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