11/23/2013 8:11 AM
For the last two months a local dairy operation has been manuring any and all fields he can get his waste onto. It's a community that is quasi-rural, but moving more residential - our golf course is across the road from one of the fields he manures. The stream that flows into our property and fills our pond, enters from his fields. I don't have issue with this - we're downstream from an ag operation..things are going to be what they're going to be. We deal with it.
My problem came the other day, as I guess the operator is taking an incredible amount of heat from the local neighborhoods, schools, and concerned landowners. Lots of complaints and facebook crying and wailing. People are threatening lawsuits now, and looking for legal inroads to have him spread elsewhere. The dairy lobby is strong in NY though, so that'll likely go nowhere.
So, I get a text two days ago from another Superintendent stating, "dude, someone's using your picture on FB" then links me to the dairy operator's page. There, I find in his attempt at defending himself to the local home owners, (through FB) he decided to snap a picture of me on our greens sprayer as I was making a snow mold application. He then wrote remarks that insinuated "whatever he was spraying must be non-toxic because I couldn't detect any odor, but if there's no odor why is he wearing protective gear?" As if to say, "you people complain about how bad what I'm spreading is when the golf course across the street is spraying god-knows-what"
It was a bummer. I'll hang fire on it for now, but would be interested in your opinions or experiences on dealing with someone like this. I realize he's under pressure for his own decisions and he's taking heat from all angles, but to be dragged into his problems like that makes me want to punch him in the face with a can of soup.