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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Environment - "House panel stiffens confined feed rules"

A week ago, Jan. 9th, the ILB posted an entry headed "Proposal calls for 3-year moratorium on CAFOs," about SB 61. Today Niki Kelly of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports about HB 1168, in a story that begins:

The debate over confined feeding operations returned to the Statehouse on Tuesday when the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee gave initial approval to a bill tightening authority over the facilities.

Last year, the General Assembly negotiated for months before the bill fell apart in the waning hours of the session. [see below]

There are about 2,200 confined feeding operations in the state, of which 625 are large enough for a separate distinction of confined animal feeding operations. Generally, these facilities are the result of industrializing agriculture operations in the state.

But neighbors have concerns about odor, the effect on real estate values and health risks related to large amounts of manure stored and spread on land.

House Bill 1168 contains five major provisions:

• Requires operators to disclose “good character” information, including violations in other states or pending legal action. It allows the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to consider this information before granting a permit.

• Requires operators to provide evidence of financial assurance, or a bond, to ensure they stay in compliance with environmental laws.

• Increases initial license fees slightly and establishes a range of annual fees based on the size of the operation. IDEM also is to pass rules establishing fees for modifications to the facilities.

• Requires IDEM to inspect the operations at least once a year. Currently, the inspections occur about once every five years or when complaints are received. The bill also allows IDEM to revoke a permit if three violations of confined feeding or water pollution control laws occur at the operation in any two-year period.

• Creates a manure hauler certification program administered by the state chemist.

Here is an interesting ILB entry from May 2, 2007, headed "Debriefing on why [2007] confined feeding changes failed."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 16, 2008 07:49 AM
Posted to Environment