poop lagoon bubbling up in indiana

WINCHESTER, Ind. (AP) -- State environmental officials plan to visit a dairy farm next week as part of an effort to determine what is causing huge bubbles in the operation's manure lagoon.

Neighbors fear the bubbles are caused by methane gas getting under the liner of Union-Go Dairy's lagoon. Allen Hutchison, who lives nearby, said the biggest bubble was about 200 feet across and 20 feet above the top of the lagoon.

Rachel Carpenter, a member of a group that flew over the lagoon to take aerial photographs recently, said she fears if gas can create the bubbles it might be getting into the ground water.

But an Indiana Department of Environmental Management spokesman said that while gas may be making the bubbles, monitoring shows it isn't getting into the groundwater at the 1,650-cow operation.