By STEVEN Oberbeck

| The Salt Lake Tribune

The Utah Court of Appeals has given a major boost to Utah dairy farmers suing the Intermountain Power Plant (IPP) near Delta over what they contend is stray electricity sickening and killing their cows.

The appeals court has ruled the farmers’ key expert witness, a veterinarian who has studied the effects of electric currents on cattle, will be allowed to testify once the matter comes before a jury. The ruling overturns a lower-court decision that barred his testimony.

Photos

• 
• 

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

"This is a huge and very important ruling for us," said Los Angeles attorney Suzelle Smith, who represents the dairy farmers. "Without our expert witness this case would have been all but over. Now we’re going to have a jury trial."

Well over a decade ago, dairy farmers operating near the power plant in Millard County began to complain that inordinate numbers in their herds were getting sick and cows were dying of ailments that should have been treatable. They came to believe that electrical currents surging though the ground from the nearby coal-fired power plant were compromising the cows’ immune systems.

The Utah farmers, along with several California dairy operators whose farm operations are at the end of another IPP power transmission line, filed a lawsuit in 2003 in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles against the Intermountain Power Agency, IPP’s operator. They have also sued the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which buys nearly half of the electricity generated by the massive coal-fired facility.

Smith said the losses suffered by the dairy farms have exceeded more than $250 million as a result of cow deaths and lost milk production. After several changes in venues over the years and other legal wrangling, the dispute finally may go before a Utah jury in as little as three to six months.

Power plant operators dispute the dairy farmers’ claims.

"They [the IPA] have had our own experts look into it,’’ said Dale Zabriskie, a spokesman for the Intermountain Power Agency. "If there is electricity in the ground it is naturally occurring. It is not coming from the plant."

Zabriskie noted the lower-court judge questioned the methodology used by the diary farmers’ expert witness, Andy Keeler; ruled it wasn’t acceptable; and said Keeler shouldn’t be allowed to testify. Zabriskie said the IPA is considering asking the Utah Supreme Court to review the appeal court’s ruling.

Dairy farmer John Nye said that the number of sick cows in the area and lost milk production makes it difficult for farmers in the area.

"We’re just not as able to do as well our peers whose farms are elsewhere," Nye said. He said the dispute with the IPP is something he’d like to see resolved for the good of the region.

"Everyone recognizes the power plant is an important part of the local economy around here and dairy farmers are, too," Nye said. "And it is unfortunate that two important industries have a dispute with one another."