WORCESTER, Vt. (AP) – Neighbors of a dairy farm are raising money to keep manure pollution out of the state’s waterways.

Until autumn, there was no barrier between a manure pile at Bob Compagna’s dairy farm and the North Branch of the Winooski River, 75 feet away.

Manure run-off trickled into the river each spring for years. Solving the problem by building a concrete-walled storage bunker would cost $65,000 to $70,000 — too big an investment for a small farm in a time of erratic milk prices, Compagna told his neighbors.

A federal program rejected his application for financial assistance.

A state program would cover half the cost, still not sufficient.

That’s when the neighbors stepped in.

Fund raising for a new manure pit at Compagna’s Old Tavern Farm was expected to go regional on Saturday, with a Montpelier benefit performance of readings from Shakespeare by actor Sam Lloyd.

The campaign has raised nearly $15,000 of Compagna’s $30,000-plus share of the bill. Some of the money has come in large checks, some in pennies and nickels dropped in coffee cans at the town’s 4th of July parade.

“People swim in the North Branch. I teach canoeing on the Wrightsville Reservoir, right downstream from Bob’s farm. The river is important to all of us,” said retired teacher Bill Haines, Compagna’s upstream neighbor and leader of the campaign.

Vermont banned wintertime spreading of manure in the mid-1990s as an anti-pollution measure. After that, the manure pile at Old Tavern Farm swelled like an active volcano all winter, then erupted when spring thaws set in.

“It reminded me of a lava flow, running right down to the river,” the 64-year-old farmer said last week.

State and federal laws are increasingly insistent that farms limit the amount of manure run-off that reaches Vermont’s lakes and streams. Manure is rich in phosphorus, which promotes algae growth that can choke waterways.

Upstream, Haines feared if regulators cracked down, the problem could drive Compagna out of business.

Compagna’s is the only working dairy farm left in Worcester.

“That farm has been part of our homestead since we got here. I’d hate to see it lost,” Haines said.

Haines enlisted the help of Friends of the Winooski River, a central Vermont group dedicated to cleaning up the river. A 2003 report to the group identified Compagna’s farm as a major source of phosphorus pollution on the North Branch.

The group brainstormed fund-raising ideas, including a benefit concert last summer and an adopt-a-cow program.

At first the campaign grew a few dollars at a time. Then an anonymous donor sent a check for $10,000.

Haines’ success gave Compagna confidence that he could afford manure storage. He borrowed $25,000, hoping the fund-raising effort will repay at least some of the loan. A state Agriculture Agency engineer helped design a system that contains the manure within concrete walls. Work began Oct. 15. As snow turned to sloppy rain last week, Compagna’s manure was safely roofed and enclosed. The project will be finished in the spring.