Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a complaint in the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County Friday against Deborah Brenner, owner and operator of J&D Brenner Farms in Hopkins Township.

The attorney general’s office is suing the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), alleging it has been has been dumping unlawful wastewater into the Rabbit River, which eventually empties into Lake Michigan.

The suit, filed on behalf of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), claims that waste from the farm flows into a ditch leading to Rabbit River, which flows into the Kalamazoo River, a tributary of Lake Michigan. EGLE officials have reported that they have tried to stop the farm from dumping the waste since 2016, but efforts “have not resulted in meaningful reductions in the ongoing water pollution.”

The lawsuit alleges unlawful discharges of wastewater to surface waters; unlawful injurious discharges of wastewater to groundwater; failure to obtain required permits to discharge, and being a public nuisance. 

EGLE officials, while monitoring a tributary near the farm late last year, determined that E. coli was found more than 14 times the statewide water quality standards.

The attorney general’s office said in a press release, “These high concentrations of E. coli bacteria were likely due to continued discharges from the dairy farm CAFO. The unlawful and hazardous discharges continue to this day.”

The state wants the farm to stop discharging into state waters, to obtain and follow required permits and to pay civil fines, enforcement costs and attorney fees.

J & D Brenner Farms primarily has been operating in the dairy farms business / industry within the agricultural production livestock and animal specialties sector for the past 32 years.