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Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Environment - Focus on confined feeding continues
I looked back to the first month of this incarnation of The Indiana Law Blog today, and found that the fourth item I posted, on March 17, 2003, concerned confined feeding operations. The first item was "Welcome," the third was "What is a 'blog'" (back when the word was new), and the fourth was "Environment - Confined feeding." Many, many thousands of entries later, stories about confined feeding operations and CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) continue to be an Indiana news focus.
Today the Seymour Tribune reports on the approval of a hog farm in Vallonia by the "Jackson County Board of Zoning Appeals ... Tuesday night, that cleared the way for an 8,000-head confined hog operation in Redding Township." There is much that is interesting (to me at least) in this story. Some quotes:
Although Lykins’ proposal received a 3-1 vote to gain the county’s approval, building of the facilities could be halted if an appeal and stay by Jennings County Water Inc. to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management is granted, said Lykins’ attorney, Joe Miller.IDEM requirements have been met or exceeded and the agency has issued approval of the proposed operation, Miller said.
“The risk to her to start building now is that she would have to stop building if the stay is granted, which I don’t think it will be,” Miller said after the meeting.
BZA members Tom Bryant, Jerry Otte and Gene Speaker voted to approve Lykins’ application, while Kenny Turner cast the lone opposing vote. “I really don’t have a problem with putting a business building on zipp soil,” Speaker said.
Zipp soil was defined by a soil scientist speaking in favor of the confined feeding operation as soil with poor to very poor drainage, high clay content and slow permeation found in low terraces or floodplains. * * *
No open pits will be part of the operation, Miller said. Manure from the operation’s concrete underground storage tanks will be removed on an annual basis and knifed into nearly 500 acres of land, including the land surrounding the hog buildings, he said.
Opponents contend the concrete tanks will crack and manure will seep through the soil to the drinking water supply. “There are two things a contractor will guarantee: concrete will get hard and it will crack,” Reddington resident, farmer and builder Charlie Fox told the BZA.
“The only place to drain that is the Lucky Tally ditch or the road ditch, which lead to the aquifer that thousands of people drink from,” he said.
According to a letter from the Jackson County Drainage Board read during the meeting, however, runoff from the operation would not adversely affect the Lucky Tally ditch as FAIR members contend.
The pits’ 6-inch walls and 8-inch floors would not pose a leakage problem, Miller contended. “This is basically organic fertilizer. That’s what it is,” Miller said of the manure, adding that its application to soil is regulated much more heavily than commercial fertilizer applications.
The amount of manure worked into farmland is determined by soil tests sent through an approved lab, such as Purdue University. Amounts of knifed manure could vary from year to year and from field to field, he said.
A licensed engineer employed by Jennings County Water Inc. said the operation’s effect is a “very, very technical and complex” issue.
Robert Curry, who specializes in water supply and wastewater engineering, said the hogs’ waste will be equal to that of 100,000 people. “I think you need to get your hands around the magnitude of the problem because it is a very serious environmental issue,” Curry told the BZA during his presentation. He also called the site plan “totally incomplete.”
“You don’t have any document that shows where the water actually would go,” he said, adding that a residential septic permit could not be granted with the information presented by Lykins’ plan.
Miller said dead hogs will be composted in an enclosed facility, using sawdust to create a heat source and control moisture that affects the decomposition rate. Miller also said the compost facility will not smell, a comment that drew collective laughter from the crowd.
Dead animals may be picked up by vendors that process the carcasses to produce fats and shoe leather, or incinerated. Incineration is considered the most costly method of disposal. * * *
Jennings County Water Inc. president Dave Beasley also spoke in opposition to the operation, citing the potential for water well contamination.
“Jennings County Water is not opposed to agriculture; however, Jennings County Water does have an objection to the proposed location,” he said. Water wells lie within one and a fourth miles “as the crow flies” from the Lykins property, Beasley said.
“There is no room for error. Any amount of contamination is too much for public welfare,” he said. The hog operation would have “serious financial ramifications” for the company, he added.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 12, 2005 05:05 PM
Posted to Environment | Indiana economic development