Ostrom's appealed 48 citations, $88,000 in fines issued in May

By STEVE BROWN

Capital Press

LACEY, Wash. -- In many ways, Ostrom's is like most other farms: Labor and investment turn natural resources into food.

In other ways, Ostrom's is unique. For one, production is consistent, turning out 190,000 to 200,000 pounds of product a week, year-round, no matter the weather.

And with all the growing done indoors, there are no green fields under the sky, no animals in the pasture. It doesn't even look like a farm.

"It looks like manufacturing, but that word does mushroom-growing a real disservice," said David Knudsen, president and CEO of Ostrom's. "It's an incredibly demanding agricultural process you keep trying to repeat. No question -- it is farming."

For the past 60 to 70 years, mushrooms have been grown on this 37 acres.

"Back then, we were out in the country," Knudsen said. "Now the city has grown around us."

The Knudsen family has been involved in the company since the 1980s, and David Knudsen has been in his present position for the past two years.

As neighbors moved closer, some started complaining about the smell of the farm and "tried to force us out," he said. "Ostrom's went through a period of spending a lot on attorneys over the odor, and now we are protected under Washington state's right-to-farm act."

He said the company also spent a lot of money to reduce the odor, putting much of that problem in the past.

Now Ostrom's faces new challenges over its wastewater discharge. In May, the state Department of Ecology fined the company $88,000, citing 48 violations of groundwater pollution. Ostrom's has appealed the fines.

Water is a key ingredient in the production of mushrooms as well as the production of the compost medium the mushrooms grow in.

"Farmwide, we use 80,000 gallons a day -- from stored stormwater and one well -- and we recycle most of that back into the crop. The average land application is 6,000 gallons a day," Knudsen said.

In its news release about the violations, Ecology reported: "Some ... pollutants, such as formaldehyde and diazanon, could cause people to become sick based on exposure."

However, Knudsen said, "We don't use formaldehyde. Back in the day it was used to steam-sanitize the growing trays. ... Groundwater monitoring since 2007 has never tested near the limit for formaldehyde."

As for the diazanon, which is approved in mushroom growing for controlling flies, "We have never tested over the limit for chemicals in the groundwater," he said. "We have tested over the limit for total dissolved solids, but TDS has zero health risk. ... There was never a baseline established for TDS in the groundwater."

Marc Pacifica, water quality permit compliance specialist at Ecology, said he has been told that Ostrom's plans to start putting its wastewater back into its compost instead of applying it to the ground.

"Over time, the TDS levels should come back down," he said. "diazanon breaks down over time, and it should break down in the composting operation."

Knudsen said, "This issue does not affect our end product. We work under a GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) developed specifically to mushroom growers." Management systems also include Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, Global Food Safety Initiative Standards, Safe Quality Food and "many third-party tests."

A hearing is scheduled in January before the Pollution Control Hearings Board, Pacifica said. "We hope to work with Ostrom's to resolve these issues and bring them into compliance with the standards."

Knudsen said he has tried to get together with Ecology the past several months, "but we've had fines and lawsuits instead of conversation. We could have solved this by now.

"I'm not going to do anything until I get Ecology to sign off on it, and I can't get them to the table."