Lower Valley Residents Get Clean Drinking Water

Residents living near dairies that have been deemed an imminent threat to public health in Yakima County will have access to clean drinking water.
The Sunnyside nonprofit organization, Nuestra Casa, announced Tuesday that it will coordinate the efforts to provide bottled water and mechanically filtered systems to residents near the dairies north of Granger and Sunnyside.
An environmental group in 2013 sued Cow Palace, Bosma-Liberty Dairy and George DeRuyter and Son Dairy, alleging that the dairies had allowed cow manure to leach into groundwater. A judge ruled in May that the dairies posed a danger to public health.
The dairies settled with the environmental group in August and agreed to pay for the clean water distribution program.