By Tom Gilchrist
For The Advertiser
ELLINGTON TWP. — Tuscola County Road Commission officials have advised a police deputy to contact prosecutors following a “large” spill of liquid manure on Hurds Corner and Dutcher roads here.
Deputy Ryan Herford, of the Road Commission’s Weighmaster Division, video-recorded the scene following the May 28 spill, according to his report on the incident. Herford described the situation as a “mess” in the report and wrote that “a large amount” of liquid manure was spilled at the intersection of the two roads.
Julie Matuszak, one of five members of the board overseeing the Road Commission, said at Thursday’s board meeting that she told Herford he needs to present the video and a report to county Prosecutor Mark E. Reene’s office.
“This is a commercial operation that’s coming in and getting paid to haul this (manure) out,” Matuszak said.
Herford reported the spill took place as a worker hauled manure from a dairy farm to a field on the east side of Hurds Corner Road. The spill “started on Dutcher Road west of Hurds Corner Road and then went north on Dutcher Road,” Herford wrote.
“The largest amount was at the intersection and northbound on Hurds Corner Road for several hundred feet,” Herford wrote.
The deputy reported that after he observed the spill, he contacted workers at the dairy farm, who later drove to the scene with a vehicle — with a broom attached to it — to sweep the manure onto the road shoulder.
Herford reported that, earlier that day after spotting the spill, he observed a tractor hauling a manure spreader on Dutcher Road but “traveling too fast, the manure spreader was whipping back and forth behind him.”
Herford wrote that he told the driver “that if he slowed down he would not have that problem.” The driver told Herford that another tractor driver caused the manure spill because he “forgot to shut the (tractor’s power take-off) off when he came on the road.”
During Thursday’s Road Board meeting, board member Pat Sheridan called the spill “a black eye on the 99 percent of agriculturists that do it right.”
Manure spills “happen occasionally,” Sheridan said.
“I know it has happened in other parts of the county,” Sheridan added. “The difference was that the person who was responsible was extremely proactive and took care of it.”
Herford’s report indicates that after he spotted the spill, he visited the dairy farm and located a worker who said he was in charge. When the deputy told the man of the manure spill, he “got very agitated and told me that they always clean it up and started to walk away from me.”
“I told him that I was not done talking to him and he got even more agitated,” Herford wrote. When the officer asked for the worker’s driver license, the worker refused to provide one but told Herford his name, according to the report. When Herford asked the whereabouts of a man identified as the dairy farm supervisor, the worker replied that “it was not his day to baby-sit him,” the report stated.
Herford reported he then told the worker he could write a ticket to the farm for the manure spill, and the worker stated “Go ahead and write a ticket.”
Herford wrote that after he told the worker about stopping a tractor because it was driving too fast on Dutcher Road and the manure spreader was whipping back and forth behind it, the worker said “that was not his problem because they are contracted through the farm to haul the manure.”
The report indicates Herford spoke to another tractor driver and “told him they all needed to slow down.”