Response to Mendoza critique of lagoon-septic comparison

Anti-dairy farm activist Jean Mendoza has continued to insist that the information we presented that compares residential septic systems and manure lagoons is wrong. She continues to believe that farmers are promoting lies and that readers are not as “gullible” as we think.

In her detailed rebuttal of our information, she challenges much of the content and attempts to explain how and why we are wrong. She asked us to publish her rebuttal on our website and we agreed to do so alongside our comments about her statements. We also asked her to publish our information on her website but she has so far refused.

While there is a lot of technical detail to get into, it is clear that the primary issue is understanding the nitrogen cycle. Nitrogen, a very common and necessary element, converts to other forms in specific conditions. It converts to nitrate when exposed to air, water and microbes. Nitrate is also the material of concern in ground or drinking water. So understanding how septic systems are designed to facilitate this conversion while manure lagoons are designed to prevent it is the crucial issue in this dispute.