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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Ind. Law - Debriefing on why confined feeding changes failed

In this ILB entry from April 29th, we quoted from a story by Angela Mapes of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that SB 431 looked to be in trouble because of a dispute about inclusion of a prohibition against new confined operations locating within 1 mile of a city or school.

Yesterday Pam Tharp of the Richmond Palladium-Item reported:

Attempts to impose more regulations for confined animal feeding operations died when the Indiana General Assembly adjourned Sunday, with setbacks for the location of the mega livestock farms the primary sticking point.

Rep. Phil Pflum, D-Milton, and Rep. Tom Saunders, R-Lewisville, who authored the original House bill with setbacks, refused to compromise on that issue and couldn't convince the other House-Senate conferees setbacks were needed.

Their bill originally asked for a two-mile setback, which they reduced to a one-mile setback for CAFOs from towns, schools and child care centers.

Both representatives said citizens supporting the legislation were firm on the issue.

"We represent the epicenter of the CAFO issue," said Saunders, whose district includes Randolph County, which led the state last year in the number of new CAFO permits. "We told them we can get everything but the setbacks and they said they wanted the setbacks. We stood on principle."

Pflum said the bill, which also called for training on applying livestock waste on farmland and more frequent inspection of the regulated farms, would have otherwise have passed.

"We had commited citizens that we couldn't let down. We're awfully disappointed," Pflum said. "We want the pork industry to grow, but responsibly. It's all about location. They do devalue property near them. There are studies from Iowa to show that."

Lawmakers offered to adopt the one-mile setback for only two years, to give local zoning and planning boards time to adapt to the explosion of large livestock farms. That compromise also was rejected, Saunders said.

The Indiana Farm Bureau also expressed regret that the legislation was lost, but defended defeating the setbacks because it said those should be local decisions. * * *

Some of the bill's provisions will occur administratively without legislation, Pflum said. The new biennial budget includes money for more inspections of the farms by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Saunders said.

A key provision of the bill would have directed the Office of the State Chemist to oversee a training and certification program for applying manure on farmland.

Indiana livestock producer organizations have pledged to support such a program, as well as a voluntary certified livestock producer program.

Today Rick Callahan of the AP reports:
A state senator who sponsored a bill targeting Indiana's big livestock farms blames the Indiana House for dooming the legislation in the session's waning hours by refusing to compromise on some of its provisions.

State Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, said the bill died in the General Assembly's session that ended Sunday in part because state Rep. Phil Pflum, D-Milton, refused to drop a provision calling for a one-mile setback between the largest of the farms and schools.

Gard said Rep. William Friend, R-Macy, also was steadfastly opposed to the bill's fee hike provisions for livestock farm permits - money that would have funded more inspections of the state's 2,200 farms where thousands of hogs, poultry or dairy or beef cattle are raised.

"The public's the big loser in this and the blame clearly falls on the House," Gard said Tuesday.

One provision of the bill would have required prospective operators of so-called confined feeding operations to declare whether they have been convicted of an environmental crime, faced administrative penalties or had a permit revoked.

Gard said that would have allowed the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to place about 45 pending permits for new livestock farms on hold until the applicants submitted that information.

"By not being willing to work with us the House gave up a lot," Gard said.

An environmentalist who followed the issue throughout the session, however, said she's happy the legislation failed.

Rae Schnapp, the Hoosier Environmental Council's water policy specialist, said the bill contained none of steps she believes the state needs to make control the large amounts of manure produced by factory-style farms.

Schnapp said she mainly opposed the bill because a provision limited the authority of local governments to land use and zoning issues - not health-related issues the large farms often raise.

"That means rural residents would be left to call the state when they have a health problem, which is very scary," Schnapp said. "So I'm very glad it didn't pass."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 2, 2007 12:21 PM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Law