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Thursday, September 30, 2004

Environment - Stories today

"Another dairy CAFO, another fight" is the headline to this lengthy story today in the Muncie StarPress. Some quotes:

HARTFORD CITY - Citizens are starting a campaign to stop a Netherlands couple from building a 2,000-head dairy CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) two miles northeast of the city. Gerwin and Marinke Oolman intend to apply within two weeks for a permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to construct and operate the dairy, according to one of their consultants.

It would be the 13th dairy brought to Indiana by Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development, a Wauseon, Ohio-based firm that helps Dutch and other European dairy farmers re-locate to Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

"Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations ... are more akin to industry than they are farms," legal assistant Elizabeth Thomas told the Blackford County Commissioners at a meeting last week. "That is the reason why they are frequently known as factory farms. Just as industry is subject to local zoning regulations, I believe factory farms should be also."

Commissioners are considering a request from Thomas and other CAFO opponents to adopt an ordinance that would give the Board of Zoning Appeals authority over the siting of CAFOs.

The proposed Oolman Dairy would be Vreba-Hoff's fourth dairy project in East Central Indiana.

"Evanston Hospital speeds incinerator's end is the headline to this story today in the Chicago Tribune Some quotes:
With a nudge from Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Evanston Hospital is a step closer to shutting down its controversial medical-waste incinerator by next month. * * *

Blagojevich helped speed up the project by ordering the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to grant the hospital a permit quickly to shut down the incinerator. He is threatening to force the state's 10 other hospital garbage burners to close if they fail to do so voluntarily.

"Evanston Hospital is the first to step up and do the right thing and is setting a good example for the other hospitals that will follow," Blagojevich said in a statement.

Concerns about dioxin--a cancer-causing pollutant created when chlorinated plastics are burned--led the U.S. EPA in the late 1990s to require a dramatic reduction in air pollution from incinerators. Most hospitals closed their trash burners and hired contractors to recycle the waste or put it in landfills.

Fewer than 100 medical-waste incinerators remain nationwide, down from 5,000 in the mid-1990s. Only Florida has more still operating than Illinois.

"EPA cites Indiana plant for violations" is the headline to this AP story that reports:
WASHINGTON -- An Indiana public utility was told today by the Environmental Protection Agency that it has violated air pollution laws at four coal-fired power plants.

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. received a notice from the EPA saying it had improved those plants between 1985 and 1995 without the proper permits and additional pollution controls.

The EPA plans to refer the case to the Justice Department for prosecution. EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt cast it as a sign the Bush administration is tough on polluters.

"They are for increases in pollution that occurred in the '90s," Leavitt said in a telephone interview from Cincinnati. "This is the fourth such enforcement action I've authorized in just under 300 days."

"Easements popular for preservation: Oldham County farm donated for protection" is the headline to this interesting story about conservation easements today in the Louisville C-J. Some quotes:
With a herd of bison grazing in a field behind him, Steve Wilson announced yesterday that his family is creating a conservation easement to preserve 244 acres of fertile Oldham County farmland. It's the first step toward protecting the entire 1,000-acre Woodland Farm from development, Wilson said, which would make it one of the largest conservation easements in Kentucky.

"Subdivisions are eating up the countryside now," said Wilson, who estimated that the entire farm would be worth millions of dollars if it were developed. The easement announcement came as the National Trust for Historic Preservation opened its annual meeting yesterday in Louisville. * * *

At least 19 states have easement programs operated by state government, according to the American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit organization. Those programs have protected 1.2million acres, with Pennsylvania protecting 275,594. Pennsylvania is considered a leader in easements because the state dedicates a portion of its cigarette and tobacco taxes to farmland protection, said Jennifer Dempsey of the farmland trust.

The story includes a national map showing the 19 states. Indiana is not among them, but surrounding states Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky are. A sidebar to the story provides more information about conservation easements:
They are legal agreements between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limit the use of the land in order to protect it.

They can allow development of parts of property or totally prohibit it.

Land can be passed to heirs or sold, but an easement is binding on all future owners.

Its value becomes a charitable donation for tax purposes that can be spread over five years. The amount depends on such things as owner's annual income and other deductions.

With development restrictions leading to lower land value, heirs likely would pay less in estate taxes.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 30, 2004 06:45 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues