The Vermont Supreme Court this month found the owners of a Panton dairy farm in contempt of court for their failure to reduce agricultural runoff produced by their large operation.

The latest decision in a long-running legal case could further mire the farm’s application for state approval of its plan to add 580 cows. The expansion has already prompted concerns from neighbors who complain that the farm is worsening the water quality in nearby Lake Champlain.

Owned by Rudy, Hans and Gerard Vorsteveld, the property is recognized as a Large Farm Operation by the state. The farm’s 1,500 mature dairy cows and 1,500 heifers produce 19.87 million gallons of liquid manure annually. The proposed 580 cow expansion would generate an estimated 6.1 million additional gallons of waste each year, according to their permit application.

In response to Vorsteveld Farm’s application, 18 concerned Addison County residents urged state leaders to deny the expansion in an April letter to the secretaries of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and the Agency of Natural Resources as well as Gov. Phil Scott. The neighbors cited the farm’s multiple violations, lack of compliance and defiance of court orders.

Additionally, a crowd of roughly 60 people gathered at an April 3 public meeting held by the Agency of Agriculture to discuss the farm’s expansion plans. After a five-day public comment period following the meeting, the agency began reviewing the farm’s expansion application and plans to approve or deny it June 16.

In response to neighbors’ claims, Gerard Vorsteveld has said the farm would gradually increase the herd, rather than adding all 580 cows at once. He acknowledged public concern and said he and his brothers were following orders from the state regarding the farm.

Neither the Vorstevelds’ attorney, Claudine Safar, nor Gerard Vorsteveld returned multiple requests for comment.

A HISTORY OF CONFLICT

The brothers have already been accused of releasing pollution into local waterways, including Lake Champlain — one of Vermont’s primary drinking water sources.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a civil suit against the Vorstevelds last summer for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act and destroying wetlands. The brothers denied the charges, and the case remains open.

In 2022, Addison Superior Court Judge Mary Miles Teachout found the Vorstevelds liable for trespass due to polluted runoff crossing a neighbor’s land and flowing into Lake Champlain. The contaminants included nitrates, phosphorus, suspended solids and E. coli levels comparable to untreated sewage, according to the court decision.

Though the court ordered the farm to stop the runoff in 2022, the Vorstevelds were held in contempt in September 2024 for failing to comply. Teachout ordered they pay a $1,000 fine for each day the farm was out of compliance, starting Nov. 15, 2024.

The Vorstevelds, through their attorney, appealed the decision and invested an estimated $60,000 in improvements to their tile drainage system to prove their compliance with court orders.

“The Farm did its best to address the issues that were raised by every point, and spent a significant amount of time and money addressing these issues,” Safar said in an argument before the Vermont Supreme Court.

In rebuttal, the Hoppers’ attorney Merrill Bent argued much of the $60,000 the Vorstevelds spent on improvements was geared toward the EPA’s lawsuit against the farm, rather than in response to Teachout’s contempt order. Bent said “there is a robust record” of evidence validating Teachout’s motion for contempt.

At evidentiary hearings on April 24 and 25, Gerard Vorsteveld testified that he had capped the tile drains, successfully preventing water from flowing into neighbors’ property. Although the excess runoff was halted temporarily, the court found that Vorsteveld’s solution did not meet the clear and convincing standard to prove permanent compliance with the initial contempt order, according to Teachout’s May 1 Superior Court decision.

To conclude the three-year legal battle, a final Supreme Court decision on May 9 upheld the lower court’s contempt order. However, Teachout relieved the Vorstevelds of any fines due to their attempt to comply during the period between Nov. 16, 2024, through April 25, 2025.

COMMUNITY COMPLAINTS

In their letter to state agencies and the governor, neighbors pointed to the contempt ruling as evidence that Vorsteveld Farm has not addressed the continued harm to Vermont’s waterways, therefore, “the question the Secretary of Agriculture must determine when evaluating an LFO Amendment application has already been conclusively determined.”

Neighbor Glen Macri pointed to the EPA’s separate lawsuit accusing the Vorstevelds of illegally discharging pollution into wetlands, calling it a clear contradiction against the farm’s ecological practices such as cover-cropping and no-till farming.

“They are trying to maximize yields, but there’s no countermeasure to control the accelerated runoff that’s going directly to the lake or surrounding waterways,” Macri said. “I guess there’s no regulation or requirement to prevent that.”

He said the farm is situated in an environmentally sensitive area with the Dead Creek watershed to the east and Lake Champlain directly to the west, both of which provide popular public recreational sites.

Paulette Bogan, another neighbor and longtime Addison County resident, said algae blooms near her Lake Champlain property have rapidly increased since the Vorstevelds built their tile drainage system, which she believes to be the cause of the pollution.

“We have a dock … I used to swim in it, and I would not swim in it anymore. It’s directly a result of the algae blooms,” she said.

In an email to VTDigger, Safar (a Vorsteveld attorney) wrote that these claims from neighbors were “completely baseless.”