Ontario’s small, independent cheese factories might soon become an endangered species as they struggle to meet the requirements of the Nutrient Management Act.

The plants have been spreading their whey on fields or, in some cases, disposing of it at the Saputa plant at Trenton. But the Ministry of Environment will ban winter spreading at the end of 2008 and current agreements with Saputa are tenuous at best.

There are seven small, independent plants east of Oshawa, employing more than 400 people.

"We’ve been meeting with Ministry of Agriculture people and they can find no alternative," says Jack Oliver, the manager of Empire Cheese in Campbellford.

Murray Campbell, owner of Forfar Dairy, says his biggest barrier to expansion and even survival will be to put in a system of whey disposal that could cost up to $100,000.

"Forfar’s been around for 144 years," he says. "I don’t want to be known as the guy who closed Forfar Dairy."

Bought in 2001 from a farmer co-operative, Forfar Dairy Ltd. is one of the smallest plants in Ontario. It has sales revenues of $1.3 million and a payroll in excess of $400,000. Most of the shares in the company are owned by Campbell. His son Kenneth is the manager.

"They (government) are shutting down the rural areas," Kenneth says. "No doubt about it."

The whey and wastewater from the plant are spread over three licensed fields, which the Campbells thought met requirements because the fields were monitored and there was no indication of pollution.

But after Walkerton, the Ontario government changed the rules; and the changes could deliver the rest of the independents unintentionally into the hands of the big processors. Forfar processes 850,000 litres of milk annually but that’s not much among today’s giants. "We’re dealing with economies of scale," says Murray. The large companies have enough whey to process it without losing money.

The Campbells are faced with either building storage or shutting down operations for four months in the winter.

"The government is taking a soft approach trying to get to a solution," says Bruce Kingston, owner of Ivanhoe cheese factory. "They’re afraid of bad publicity."

But while government officials are treading softly, no one has offered financial assistance, and officials on the ground say that if a rule is created they will have to enforce it.

"We’re all quite willing to spend money, but this is a big expense," says Kingston. "It’s like pouring money down a sinkhole."