YAKIMA, Wash. AP – A group of Washington state farmers have joined two environmental groups in filing a lawsuit to block a proposed feedlot from using a well that is exempt from requiring state permits to water up to 30,000 cattle.

Easterday Ranches Inc., a longtime cattle company and one of the largest feedlot operators in the Northwest, wants to build the region’s first new feedlot in years on dry land near the small town of Eltopia, about 25 miles northeast of Pasco.