Cecil County, Maryland · Updated November 13, 2026
Basin Run is a trout stream. It is being treated like a manure ditch.
Since 2025, state inspectors have documented manure, silage leachate, wastewater and sediment flowing from a dairy operation on Fire Tower Road into Basin Run, through a settlement, a court order and two fish kills. This site gathers the public record in one place and lays out what the law allows the State to do about it.
MDE v. Kilby Farms, LLC, et al. · C-07-CV-26-000234Contempt petition: awaiting rulingSettlement conference: Apr 14, 2027
Basin Run. Photo: Gabe Woodrow, shared in the Protect Basin Run group.
The stream
A cold, clear run through a hemlock gorge
Basin Run rises in the farm country around Colora and drops through a steep, rocky, wooded valley to Octoraro Creek, which joins the Susquehanna River just above the Chesapeake Bay. It is one of the few streams in this corner of Maryland cold and clean enough to hold brown trout, and it carries the State's protections for that.
Families have fished, waded and caught crayfish here for generations. The old railroad trestle, the stone ledges and the pools under Colora Road are local landmarks. Before the September 2026 fish kill, MDE and DNR crews found brown trout, bass, river chub, blacknose dace, white sucker and American eel in this reach.
Designated use
Class III-P: natural trout waters and public water supply
Antidegradation
Tier II high-quality water
Flows to
Octoraro Creek → Susquehanna River → Chesapeake Bay
Fish killed, Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2026
~11,000 fish of 25 species, over 4+ miles
A Basin Run brown trout. Photo: Gabe Woodrow, shared in the Protect Basin Run group.Catch and release on Basin Run. Photo: Gabe Woodrow, shared in the Protect Basin Run group.Basin Run in winter. Photo: credit to be confirmed.Octoraro Creek gorge, about half a mile below the mouth of Basin Run. Photo: John C. Melcher, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Everything below comes from Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) inspection reports, court filings and the circuit court docket. The operator, Kilby Farms, LLC and Hartland Holdings, LLC, disputes that it willfully violated any order; its position is summarized under The law.
Who runs the farm, and who owns the land. MDE's inspection reports name Benjamin Flahart as the person who controls and operates the dairy, and MDE's October 20, 2026 court filing describes him as the owner and corporate representative of both defendant companies. State tax records list the 260-acre property at 785 Firetower Road as owned by Kilbys Inc., a separate company. The landowner is not a party to the case.
~11,000fish killed in Basin Run, Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2026 (MDE estimate)
650 → 2,250animals, per MDE's comparison of 2018 and 2025 permit filings (the 2025 filing covers all three production areas)
0discharge permits. The operation has never received coverage under the CAFO general permit
8+ mo.that the new manure lagoon, which MDE called pivotal to fixing storage shortfalls, went unstarted (MDE, July 15, 2026)
September 30, 2026: clear above the farm, brown below it
MDE inspectors walked the stream the evening of the fish kill after the operator refused them entry to the farm. Only 0.17 inches of rain had fallen in the previous 15 days.
Source: MDE Discharge Investigation, Sept 30, 2026, and MDE Discharge Investigation, Oct 5, 2026. Not to scale.
Timeline
HarmNeighbors find hundreds of dead fish in Basin Run over Labor Day weekend; an MDE inspector tallies about 200.
OrderSettlement Agreement and Consent Order with MDE: a $50,000 penalty and a commitment to operate all three production areas under the CAFO general permit, with no discharges.
InspectionsMonthly MDE inspections document repeated discharges of manure, silage leachate and wastewater to Basin Run and lagoons with no freeboard (Sept 16, Dec 4, Dec 22, Jan 13, Feb 20, Feb 25, Mar 10, Apr 23).
NoticeMDE Dam Safety declares the farm pond's dam unsafe and orders repair or breach.
InspectionA black corrugated pipe discharges a white substance, later described by the farm as milk spillage, toward a county ditch and Basin Run.
CourtMDE sues in Cecil County Circuit Court; the court issues a temporary restraining order against unauthorized discharges.
CourtThe operator consents to a preliminary injunction barring discharges and requiring compliance with the settlement and permit.
InspectionMore than an acre graded and a tributary re-routed with no sediment controls or construction permit; sediment entering Basin Run.
ReportMDE's 10-month summary: the calf-hutch, leachate and milk-drain fixes are still outstanding, the new lagoon is unstarted, weekly self-inspections are "being neglected."
CourtMDE moves to enforce the injunction and petitions to hold both companies in civil contempt. Show-cause orders follow on July 24.
HarmAbout 11,000 fish of 25 species die over more than four miles. The operator refuses inspectors entry that evening. MDE recommends referral to the Attorney General.
InspectionManure pit #3 is full, with evidence of an overflow down the berm into wetlands that drain to Basin Run. The leachate system is still clogged.
CourtContempt hearing held; the judge takes the petition under advisement. Written closings follow on Oct 20, Oct 27 and Oct 30.
CourtMDE discloses six expert witnesses, including fish-kill and fisheries experts, for the next phase of the case.
NextSettlement conference scheduled in Cecil County Circuit Court.
The law
The case for full enforcement
Maryland law gives the State strong tools for exactly this situation: repeated, documented discharges by an operator who agreed in writing, twice, to stop. A $50,000 settlement did not change the outcome for Basin Run. Enforcement should now use every tool the law provides.
Maryland Rule 15-207 · contempt
1. Enforce the court order with dated, specific deadlines
Find the operator in contempt of the June 8, 2026 preliminary injunction, as MDE has requested.
Set purge conditions with dates, not "immediately": restore 12 inches of freeboard in every manure pit and keep it; clear and replace the silage leachate system; build a collection system for the calf-hutch pad; stabilize the graded dam area and file for construction stormwater permit coverage.
Attach daily fines that run for every missed deadline, and require regular status hearings with photo and inspection evidence.
Env. Art. § 9-342 · civil penalties
2. Seek the maximum civil penalty
In a court action, each violation carries a penalty of up to $10,000, and each day is a separate violation.
MDE has documented discharges on more than a dozen inspection dates, before and after the court order, across three production areas.
The statute's own penalty factors weigh heavily against the operator (below). A penalty should exceed the cost of the storage and controls that were skipped, so that non-compliance is never the cheaper choice.
Env. Art. § 9-343 · criminal penalties
3. Refer the fish kills for criminal review
Violating the water pollution subtitle, or an order or permit under it, is a misdemeanor: up to $25,000 and/or 1 year for a first offense, and up to $50,000 per day and/or 2 years after a prior conviction. Each day is a separate violation.
MDE inspectors recommended referral to the Office of the Attorney General in both their Sept 30 and Oct 5, 2026 reports.
The Attorney General's Environmental and Natural Resources Crimes Unit exists to investigate and prosecute exactly these cases.
CAFO general permit · COMAR 26.08.04
4. No permit until the operation fits its storage
The operation has run without permit coverage while its herd grew to roughly 2,250 animals. MDE should deny coverage until manure storage can hold all waste plus a 25-year, 24-hour storm.
If capacity cannot be built, herd size must come down to what the site can contain.
Require a complete, signed nutrient management plan and five years of annual implementation reports, as the permit requires.
Env. Art. § 9-342(b)(2)(ii) · restoration
5. Make the stream whole
Require the operator to pay for restocking, habitat restoration and the cost of cleanup, which the statute names as penalty factors.
Fund independent, continuous water-quality monitoring above and below the farm, with results published.
Apply the same standards to the operator's other production areas in Rising Sun and Caroline County, where MDE also found manure problems.
How the statute's penalty factors apply
Factor in § 9-342(b)(2)(ii)
What the record shows
Willfulness; violation known but uncorrected; reasonable care
Two consent orders. Monthly written notice since Sept 2025. The clogged leachate pipe was flagged for a year; the farm engineer's simple milk-spill fix was never installed; the lagoon went unstarted for 8+ months.
Actual harm to the environment or the use of State waters
Two fish kills: about 200–500 fish in Aug 2025 and about 11,000 fish of 25 species in Sept–Oct 2026.
Cost of cleanup and restoration of natural resources
Restocking a Class III-P trout stream and restoring habitat over four-plus miles.
Location near waters of the State
Pit #3 sits closest to the Basin Run tributary; calf-hutch runoff pools about 100 feet from the stream.
Available technology and economic reasonableness
Standard practices: storage sized for the herd, freeboard, cleared drains, curbing and collection. The operator's own engineer designed several of them.
Recurrent pattern of the same violation
The same discharge types, at the same locations, on inspection after inspection before and after the court order.
The operator's position
In its Oct 27, 2026 closing, the operator argues that MDE proved regulatory problems but not willful disobedience; that the injunction is too general to support contempt; that it hired engineers, removed the unsafe dam under a permit, installed riprap, seeded disturbed ground and submitted an updated nutrient plan; that MDE treated the two companies as one; and that farming exemptions may cover some grading work. The owner has also suggested an upstream source. MDE inspectors checked that claim on Oct 5, 2026 and found no evidence of one. Read both closings below and judge for yourself.
Documents
The public record
Court filings and MDE inspection reports, posted in full. Home addresses and personal phone numbers of private individuals have been blacked out; nothing else has been changed. Court filings are public records of the Circuit Court for Cecil County.
Defendants' Closing Argument
Kilby Farms, LLC and Hartland Holdings, LLC · 18 pages · asks the court to deny contempt
More records: the full docket is on Maryland Judiciary Case Search (search case number C-07-CV-26-000234). Additional MDE inspection reports from April–June 2026 are posted by the Protect Basin Run community group. Statute text: § 9-342 and § 9-343.
Take action
Who decides, and what to ask them
The contempt ruling belongs to the court, but most of what happens next, from penalties and criminal referral to the permit and herd size, is decided by State agencies and shaped by elected officials. Write to them, and ask the same specific things.
Please do not contact the judge. The contempt petition is pending, and Maryland rules bar outside communications with a judge about a pending case. Direct letters to the agencies and officials below.
Maryland Department of the Environment
Seek maximum civil penalties under § 9-342; deny permit coverage until storage fits the herd; publish monitoring data.
Ask MDE and the Attorney General for a status report; support penalties that outweigh the cost of compliance.
District 35 (Colora, Conowingo, Rising Sun): Sen. Jason Gallion; Dels. Mike Griffith, Teresa Reilly, Kevin Hornberger (through Jan 2027). Live elsewhere? Find yours ↗
The email buttons open your own email program with the letter filled in, including any edits you make here. Add your name and address before you send. “Email it to all offices” goes to MDE, the Attorney General's Crimes Unit, the Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Management Program, the Cecil County Executive and Council, and the District 35 delegation. The Governor and EPA take messages only by web form, so use their buttons above. If no email program opens, copy the letter and send it to: MDE.Secretary@maryland.gov, ENRCU.OAG@maryland.gov, nminfo.mda@maryland.gov, astreight@cecilcountymd.gov, council@cecilcountymd.gov, jason.gallion@senate.maryland.gov, mike.griffith@house.maryland.gov, Teresa.Reilly@house.maryland.gov, Kevin.Hornberger@house.maryland.gov
