Two members of the public used the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency’s June 12 public-comment period to raise allegations of water pollution from cluster dairies and to question the agency’s budgeting and use of designated funds.

Jean Mendoza of White Swan told the board she had provided legal documents she said demonstrate “serious water pollution violations by the cluster dairies” and accused board members Amanda McKinney and Dr. Steven Jones of having “stood up for polluters and ignored public interests” at a March meeting. “For decades, these dairies violated Washington laws and polluted the groundwater,” Mendoza said. She also said the board’s May discussion of the budget lasted only eight minutes and argued that the Open Public Meetings Act requires more thorough public decision-making.

Nancy Lust, chair of Friends of Rocky Top, concurred with Mendoza’s concerns and criticized what she called insufficient thoughtfulness about the budget and its effect on staffing and enforcement. Lust praised Director Mark Thornsberry for pressing consultants on handling petroleum-contaminated soils and said she plans to raise the topic further at a regulators’ meeting scheduled for June 26.

Mendoza asked the board whether monies that had been allocated for Clean Air staff work could lawfully be held in agency reserves instead of being spent on the designated activities. She requested that the board discuss that issue in open session. Director Thornsberry later described the agency’s reserves as funds set aside following state-auditor guidance to cover unexpected needs such as vehicle replacement, equipment purchases and potential legal liabilities; he said the reserves were funded in part because of unspent salary authorizations caused by vacancies.

The board did not take any enforcement action on the allegations at the meeting. The record shows the board proceeded to debate and then adopt the FY2025–26 budget and the supplemental assessment rate; the meeting packet included a separate notice from the state Pollution Control Hearings Unit, which the executive director characterized as informational and awaiting a final determination.