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 Nebraska
http://www.theindependent.com/stories/031502/new_courtzoning15.html
 Last modified at 11:47 a.m. on Friday, March 15, 2002

High court sides with county in livestock zoning case
 By Kevin O'Hanlon
The Associated Press
 
LINCOLN -- The Nebraska Supreme Court granted counties broad authority Friday to regulate large livestock farms within their borders. The court ruled in favor of Holt County, which had been trying to regulate the building of a large hog farm.
 
Zoning has been a hot-button topic in recent years as mega-hog farms and other large producers seek to expand in Nebraska.
 
Critics of such operations -- which often have tens of thousands of animals -- argue the smells and environmental threats posed by the facilities destroy the quality of life of neighbors.
 
Supporters maintain the large operations are doing a better job of controlling waste and provide a major economic boost to communities.
 
Neligh-based Premium Farms argued that Holt County's ordinances are illegal because they try to regulate the use farm buildings, which it argued were exempted from zoning under state law.
 
It said state law allows counties only to regulate land use.
 
The high court, which reviewed transcripts of the legislative debate when the 1967 zoning law was passed, disagreed.
 
"The legislative history does not support the contention that" the law "exempts farm buildings from all county zoning regulations," said Chief Justice John Hendry. "Land use does not stop at the walls of a building. Instead, land use is inextricably interwoven with what occurs on the inside and the outside of buildings."
 
Attorney James Kube, representing Holt County, hailed the ruling.
 
"It really helps the counties out there as to what it is they have the authority to do," Kube said. "It does put the authority to regulate all phases of land use back into the hands of the local governing agency -- where it belongs."
 
He said the ordinance allows county officials to review and evaluate not only the type of operation, but what kind of effect -- both positive and negative -- the operation may or may not have on the area.
 
Kube had told the high court that the state law is ambiguous in that it prevents a county from passing zoning ordinances pertaining to the construction of farm buildings, but allows counties to set rules for how the land under the building may be used.
 
Premium Farms attorney Rodney Confer was not in his office Friday and could not be reached for comment.
 
In 2000, the high court ruled that county governments cannot haphazardly adopt rules to thwart large livestock operations from being built within their borders.
 
That case involved a facility that Enterprise Partners started building in the summer of 1998 in Perkins County to house thousands of hogs.
 
In December of that year, however, the Perkins County Board passed two ordinances saying such facilities must meet special environmental requirements.
 
Enterprise Partners argued that the power to regulate livestock operations rests with the state Department of Environmental Quality, which approved the facility.
 
The company said the law prohibits local governments from trying to impose zoning restrictions on farm operations that already exist.
 
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 Nebraska
 http://www.theindependent.com/stories/031602/new_zoning16.html

Last modified at 1:43 a.m. on Saturday, March 16, 2002

Counties score farm zoning win
State high court rules counties can regulate livestock farms
 
By Kevin O'Hanlon
The Associated Press
LINCOLN -- The Nebraska Supreme Court granted counties broad authority Friday to regulate large livestock farms within their borders.
 
The court ruled in favor of Holt County, which had been trying to regulate the building of a large hog farm.
 
Zoning has been a hot-button topic in recent years as mega-hog farms and other large producers seek to expand in Nebraska.
 
Critics of such operations -- which often have tens of thousands of animals -- argue the smells and environmental threats posed by the facilities destroy the quality of life of neighbors.
 
Supporters maintain the large operations are doing a better job of controlling waste and provide a major economic boost to communities.
 
Neligh-based Premium Farms argued that Holt County's ordinances are illegal because they try to regulate the use farm buildings, which it argued were exempted from zoning under state law.
 
It said state law allows counties only to regulate land use.
 
The high court, which reviewed transcripts of the legislative debate when the 1967 zoning law was passed, disagreed.
 
"The legislative history does not support the contention that" the law "exempts farm buildings from all county zoning regulations," said Chief Justice John Hendry. "Land use does not stop at the walls of a building. Instead, land use is inextricably interwoven with what occurs on the inside and the outside of buildings."
 
Attorney James Kube, representing Holt County, hailed the ruling.
 
"It really helps the counties out there as to what it is they have the authority to do," Kube said. "It does put the authority to regulate all phases of land use back into the hands of the local governing agency -- where it belongs."
 
He said the ordinance allows county officials to review and evaluate not only the type of operation, but what kind of effect -- both positive and negative -- the operation may or may not have on the area.
 
Kube had told the high court that the state law is ambiguous in that it prevents a county from passing zoning ordinances pertaining to the construction of farm buildings, but allows counties to set rules for how the land under the building may be used.
 
Premium Farms attorney Rodney Confer was not in his office Friday and could not be reached for comment.
 
In 2000, the high court ruled that county governments cannot haphazardly adopt rules to thwart large livestock operations from being built within their borders.
 
That case involved a facility that Enterprise Partners started building in the summer of 1998 in Perkins County to house thousands of hogs.
 
In December of that year, however, the Perkins County Board passed two ordinances saying such facilities must meet special environmental requirements.
 
Enterprise Partners argued that the power to regulate livestock operations rests with the state Department of Environmental Quality, which approved the facility.
 
The company said the law prohibits local governments from trying to impose zoning restrictions on farm operations that already exist.
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Oklahoma
http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=779681&pic=none&TP=getarticle

Hog farm assessed record fine
2001-11-09
By Mick Hinton
Staff Writer

The state Agriculture Department is assessing a record fine of more than
$380,000 against a large hog farm in Woodward County, officials said
Thursday.

Hanor-Kronseder Farms Inc., which operates the Roberts Ranch southeast of
Mooreland, is being fined for overfilling its 43 lagoons 657 times since 1977
and for having too many hogs on site.

"The amount of the fine will set a record in the state and perhaps the
nation," state Attorney General Drew Edmondson said Thursday.

"The money is important in that is signifies that the state of Oklahoma is
very serious in enforcing its standards."

Although the farm is authorized to have 180,800 hogs at one time, its records
show that Hanor-Kronseder has exceeded that amount by 70,000 pigs over the
past three years.

The agreement also requires the company to provide operating instructions in
both English and Spanish because many of its workers are from Mexico.

Roberts Ranch was cited in February by the Agriculture Department with scores
of violations. Settlement conferences have been ongoing since.

The agreement, signed by the department and Hanor- Kronseder, still must be
approved by the state Board of Agriculture when it meets Thursday, although
the company is sending checks to the department in anticipation.

Efforts to get comments from Hanor-Kronseder, based in Wisconsin, were
unsuccessful Thursday.

Edmondson said he is happy with a provision that requires Hanor-Kronseder to
document its hog population monthly.

The agreement also calls for the construction of two new lagoons and the
replacement of another, the bottom of which reaches into the water table.

When the farm was proposed for western Oklahoma, one of its selling points
was that it could rely on evaporation rather than spreading manure and water
from the waste lagoons onto the land. However, the Agriculture Department
says the company has done land application. The settlement forbids the
company from land application in the future.

Hanor-Kronseder operates on 4,300 acres that contain eight nursery operations
and 12 sites with feeder pigs. Feeder pigs are kept on that site until they
go to market. It has been operating in Oklahoma since 1996.

The company has agreed to build a 7-foot fence to keep the animals from
tearing the plastic lining of the lagoons. It also will repair 27 monitoring
wells that the Agriculture Department says were not put in properly, said Dan
Parrish, head of the department's water quality division.

The next highest fine assessed by the department was $88,200 against Seaboard
Farms Inc. The company lost a high number of hogs in bad weather. The
carcasses were stacked in bins, posing a health danger, officials said.

.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Published Wednesday, October 17, 2001
Illinois
State denies hog farm permit
Proposed operation near Casey failed to notify neighbors

By CHARLYN FARGO
AGRIBUSINESS EDITOR

The Illinois Department of Agriculture has denied a permit to construct
four hog barns in Cumberland County because the owner failed to notify
adjacent property owners of the project.

Under the Livestock Management Facilities Act, the owner of a proposed
project of this size has 10 days after filing an intent notice with the
state to tell people who own land within a half mile of the facility.

Owners Tony and Wes Pitcher of Newton failed to do that, state officials said.

The Agriculture Department earlier determined that the project met the
required setbacks for a facility of fewer than 2,500 head of swine.

"Whenever a notice to construct is filed, there are several steps for
approval," said Jeff Squibb, spokesman for Agriculture. "The first thing
we do is go out and make sure it meets the setback requirements. That much
had been established. No action had been taken on approving the rest of
the project. We had only done the first step, and we were still awaiting
construction plans on the proposed facility."

Wes Pitcher said he wasn't surprised the facility was turned down.

"It's a simple thing to correct," said Pitcher, who has been in the hog
business 20 years. "We may refile; we're undecided at this time due to the
current economy. There's no time limit for refiling the project. All the
paperwork has been done."

Pitcher said the process makes things difficult for someone in the
beginning stages of a hog operation.

"Our facility wasn't even necessarily a go, so you hate to stir everyone
up around it if you're not sure. But the law requires you to notify
everyone within a half mile," Pitcher said. "We figured, why stir
everything up if we're not sure we're going to do it."

Nevertheless, some area residents are fighting the proposal.

"When we came out of church Sunday, people were standing with petitions
for people to sign against it," Pitcher said.

Pitchco Inc. planned to build four hog barns about a half mile apart on
the outskirts of Casey, in east-central Illinois about 25 miles from the
Illinois-Indiana border. Pitchco planned to house 2,000 hogs in each of
the barns.

"A lot of the questions we got about this facility dealt with setback
distances and whether the farms were considered separate facilities or a
single facility," Squibb said. "The law specifies what the setbacks must
be and when a facility is considered one or separate. It's pretty black
and white.

"Our duty as the Ag Department is to enforce the law. The proposal in
terms of setbacks complied with the letter of the law."

Charlyn Fargo can be reached at 788-1521 or charlyn.fargo@sj-r.com.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................
 

 http://www.thetimesonline.com/
Illinois, October 15, 2001
Farm or factory? A loophole so big you could drive a truck through it
 

CASEY, Ill. -- A law passed five years ago was designed to protect communities from large-scale hog farms and the stench and pollution that can accompany them.

Residents of this east-central Illinois town of 2,914 say that law is about to fail them.

Pitchco Inc. plans to build four hog barns on the outskirts of Casey in the coming months, a huge operation that will not be subject to the state's toughest oversight guidelines because of what environmental advocates call a loophole in the law that is easy to exploit.

Because the barns are being built in four different locations, each about a half mile apart, the state considers them separate facilities.

And each barn is just small enough to avoid regulations that were meant to allow growth of factory-scale livestock farms but prevent them from encroaching on populated areas such as Casey.
 

"If you can bring an operation like this one within a half-mile of the city, what does that tell you? There is no protection for us," said Sandi Ramsay, a longtime Casey resident whose family runs a motocross track near the proposed hog site.

The Livestock Management Act was passed in 1996 in response to industry changes and the sudden rise of so-called mega-livestock farms.

Under the act, a hog farm that houses more than 2,500 animals must:

-- Attend a public informational meeting with the county board where the operator is required to outline the proposed project. The board can issue a recommendation that has a "significant role" in determining whether the state approves the facility.

-- Meet eight siting criteria, including whether construction of a facility is consistent with existing community growth, tourism, recreation or economic development projects; whether the owner has submitted plans to minimize the likelihood of any environmental damage.

-- File a certified waste management plan with the state.

Pitchco, which plans to house 2,000 hogs in each of its barns -- for a total of 8,000 -- is not subject to any of those guidelines. Its barns are far enough apart, about a half-mile, to be considered four separate farms.

"This is exactly what we feared. It's a loophole so big you could drive a truck through it, and that's what they've done," said Karen Hudson, head of the environmental advocacy group Families Against Rural Messes.

That may be the case, but the Newton, Ill.-based company is not in violation of the law, said Jeff Squibb, a spokesman with the state Department of Agriculture.

Squibb said unless the act is changed, the department has no legal reason to deny companies such as Pitchco permits to operate their livestock farms. Squibb said Pitchco was the first company he could recall to file for multiple permits in a concentrated area since the act was passed.

"Perhaps the law needs to be rewritten, if they want to look at it that way," Squibb said. "But if the operator doesn't meet the definition (of a large-scale farm), I don't see how you can accuse them of violating the spirit of the act."

Messages left at the company's headquarters were not returned. Tony Pitcher, who filed all four intent to construct permits on behalf of Pitchco, did not return messages left at his home.

Martha Reed, a retired school teacher from Casey, said a public hearing with the County Commission and Department of Agriculture could have gone a long way toward stopping the project, had one been held.

Instead, she said most residents who live within a half-mile of the four proposed barn sites didn't even learn of the project until recently.

"We have a lot of family farmers here in our county. The difference is their barns are on their grounds, next to their houses. They tend to them," she said. "These people aren't going to be living here."

A citizen's group organized by Reed and Ramsay is preparing to file a lawsuit to stop the Pitchco project, claiming it will create a pollution problem, be a health hazard and will lower their quality of life and their property values.

The group has retained Naperville attorney Fred Roth, who also represents 19 residents in a lawsuit to block the proposed Stone Ridge Dairy near Bellflower. Roth expects to file the lawsuit by the end of the month.

In the meantime, both the Casey city council and the Clark County board of health have passed resolutions opposing the Pitchco hog farm.

The state has yet to act on Pitchco's permit requests to construct the hog barns, which will be located in adjacent Cumberland County about a quarter-mile from nearby residences in Casey.

Ramsay still holds out hope the state will deny the permits, but is prepared to take the fight to court if that doesn't happen.

"We've worked very hard to breathe life back into this little community of ours, and this operation will just devastate us," Ramsay said.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................
Oklahoma,

 http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=765186&pic=none&TP=getarticle

Swine farms to receive new orders
2001-10-09
By Mick Hinton
Staff Writer
 

Gov. Frank Keating on Monday signed controversial rules on hog odors, intended to clamp down on large swine operations where neighbors have complained frequently to the state Agriculture Department.
Today, 10 farms -- including six owned by Seaboard Farms Inc. -- will be sent letters telling them they must abide by the new rules. Those farms have received three or more complaints. Seaboard produces more than half of the hogs raised in Oklahoma.

"When it comes to being responsible about the environment, we must remain vigilant," Keating said Monday. "This odor abatement rule for swine operations is another tool at our disposal to ensure a clean and safe land."

One of the Seaboard farms, known as Kendra Farms East, will receive an additional letter because the department has received what is termed three or more "verified complaints" within the past six months. Such a complaint must be signed and filed by a neighbor living within two miles of the site. The more general complaint can be filed by neighbors living farther away.

Kendra Farms East in Texas County will have to work with the state and come up with a specific plan to abate odors and install appropriate technology.

Neighbor Jo Johnson has filed several complaints.

The other farms cited will have to quit spreading effluent onto the land on weekends, holidays and when the wind is blowing more than 20 mph.

Other Seaboard properties to get letters are three Fairview Farms operations in Major County, the Janzen Farm in Major County and the Dorman Sow Farms in Beaver County.

Others cited are Land O'Lakes Randolph Sow and Nursery Farm in Caddo County, Hanor Roberts Ranch in Woodward County and Clifford Wilson's operations in Hughes County.

Dan Parrish, head of the Agriculture Department's water quality division, said all hog farms where more than 2,500 swine are raised will receive copies of the new rules.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
 

 http://www.startribune.com/stories/468/733797.html
Minnesota
Thousands of gallons of manure spill in Pipestone County

Statewire

Published October 4, 2001
ST. PAUL (AP) -- State pollution officials were investigating the spill of an estimated 42, 000 gallons of manure from a hog farm in Pipestone County.

They said the manure contaminated about four miles of a Flandreau Creek, which leads to the Big Sioux River, a drinking water source in South Dakota.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency supervisor Mark Jacobs said a farmer pumping liquid manure out of a basin apparently released it onto a field Tuesday afternoon, where it flowed into the creek.

Steve Lee, leader of the MPCA' s emergency response team, said drinking water is not threatened by the spill.

South Dakota officials have been notified, though it' s unlikely that the contamination will cross the border, he said.

Some fish were killed, but the number was unknown.

The manure was being pumped out of the creek and onto nearby fields.

..........................................................................................................................................................................................
Lafayette, Indiana, Journal and Courier Online - In the News
August 14, 2001
 http://www.lafayettejc.com/news0814/0814l05.shtml

State's largest hog farm faces fine for pollution
Farm is site of at least 7 manure spills
By David Rohn, The Indianapolis Star

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- As a child, John R. Smith played in Little Sugar Creek, delighting in the varieties of fish that swam there -- smallmouth bass, rock bass and bluegill, among others. But now he takes little pleasure in the waterway near his home.

---------
Photo - PIGS IN A ROW: Many hog barns make up just a portion of the Pohlmann Hog Farms in Crawfordsville. Pohlmann Hog Farms has been the site of six documented spills from 1976 to 1995, killing nearly 64,000 fish. (Photo by Rob Goebel, The Indianapolis Star)
----------

"The only thing in there now is carp and suckers," he said.

Smith blames the declining fish population on Pohlmann Hog Farms, the state's largest hog-feeding operation and the site of numerous manure spills since the mid-1970s. Six documented spills from 1979 to 1995, killing nearly 64,000 fish, have led to penalties totaling $54,205.86.

Yet the problems continue. During the Fourth of July weekend, a manure spill killed an estimated 5,700 fish in Little Sugar Creek.

State regulators are negotiating a settlement of the most recent spill with owner Klaus Pohlmann that could result in penalties of up to $25,000, plus the cost of replacing the dead fish. But some think problems at the farm will persist until severe penalties are imposed.

Bill Woodall, who investigated most of the earlier incidents during his years as an Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, said he had urged that Pohlmann Hog Farms be hit with a $500,000 fine following a huge spill in August 1993, the year before he retired.

But his agency ultimately assessed penalties totaling just $21,664.08 for that incident. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management also could have imposed penalties, but there is no record that it did so.

"When you bring in a confined feeding operation of the magnitude of Pohlmann's, I don't care how much care is taken," Woodall said. "When there is that much waste, there is the potential for problems."

Farmer blames vandals

The Pohlmann enterprise, near the intersection of Interstate 74 and Indiana 32, is immense. According to Pohlmann, 36, who assumed ownership in 1987 from his parents, 35,000 hogs are kept on 26 acres of connected buildings on the 2,500-acre farm. Those hogs produce 40,000 gallons of manure a day.

The waste eventually is pumped to a 12 million gallon concrete lagoon about 300 yards away. From there it goes to a dozen stations in the field, where hoses are attached to tractors that inject manure in the ground as fertilizer. Pohlmann blames all problems up to and including the 1993 spill on firms hired to apply manure to the fields.

But the most recent incident, he said, appears to be the work of vandals -- possibly disgruntled former employees.

Because of the earlier spills, Pohlmann said, he took over applying manure after 1993 to have better control over it. He said he has spent more than $250,000 to prevent spills. And he plans to build a storm water ditch floodgate, install security cameras and padlock valves.

"I don't feel like I did this on purpose, so why should I get a fine?" he said with frustration.

But critics, including Woodall, said Pohlmann has refused to accept responsibility for what his operation does to the environment.

"I don't dislike Klaus," Woodall said. "I dislike the operation and the effect it has on this county. They rape and abuse the environment and offer nothing back." Woodall said Pohlmann long ago should have been fined enough to break him of the habit.

The eventual penalty for the 1993 spill, he added, "was a joke." Woodall thinks the best way to make such operations environmentally safe is to require them to build dikes -- much as fertilizer companies do -- around their facilities to contain spills and leaks.

And fines should be based on an operation's overall history -- not on each incident. Many spills or over-applications of manure never get documented, Woodall said. For example, in mid-April, Smith, whose farm is downstream from Pohlmann's, saw dead fish in the creek and smelled hog manure.

But he didn't call authorities because he thought a bridge inspector who also saw the dead fish was going to report it. By the time investigators arrived a week later, the fish were gone. There was no evidence the spill was caused by Pohlmann.

"I've gotten to the place where I'm tired of fighting it," Smith said of the ongoing problems at Pohlmann's farm.

Officials say they are taking some action. The Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District is seeking approval of a grant to fund a study of Little Sugar Creek. It calls for water quality tests throughout the river -- above and below the Pohlmann operation.

"Obviously, with three or four fish kills, they're definitely a big problem," said Jennifer Sobiecki, who wrote the grant request. "But they're not the only problem."

After the July spill, the state ordered Pohlmann to obtain a National Pollution Elimination Discharge System permit, normally given to cities and industries to allow them to discharge treated wastewater in rivers and streams.

...........................................................................................................................................................................................
August 11, 2001
Minnesota

 http://www.pioneerplanet.com/news/mtc_docs/107589.htm

Hog farms now under federal scrutiny
ValAdCo operations face new assessment
BY DENNIS LIEN Pioneer Press

Prompted by local requests, a sister agency of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is looking into potential health-risk problems at a controversial hog cooperative in Renville County.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has asked the Minnesota Department of Health to conduct a public health assessment of the cooperative that would deal with long-standing air-quality complaints and, for the first time, groundwater contamination concerns.

Residents near ValAdCo's seven hog operations have complained for years about odor problems. After violating hydrogen sulfide standards more than 270 times in 1999 and 2000, ValAdCo agreed in June to pay $125,000 in penalties to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Attorney General Mike Hatch, who still must approve that agreement, is conducting a separate investigation into whether the cooperative near Olivia and similar operations are violating nuisance laws.

Rita Messing, supervisor of the site assessment and consultation unit in the Health Department's environmental health division, said area residents, believing they have gotten no relief from the MPCA, submitted the request to the federal agency this spring. Under a cooperative agreement, the federal agency asked the state to do the work.

Although the Health Department hasn't made a final decision, Messing said it likely will proceed with what essentially is a more formal, deliberate and public review. Not only would such an investigation update an earlier look into air-quality data there, but she said it would address whether ValAdCo's lagoons are leaking into the groundwater, as some nearby residents have alleged.

"That has never been done before by the Health Department,'' Messing said. "People in the area have been complaining that their wells have been contaminated by ValAdCo.''

Monitoring equipment is in place to determine if the lagoons are leaking, but Messing said she isn't sure that data ever has been examined.

Eddie Crum, ValAdCo's chief executive officer, said he welcomes the assessment and thinks it will introduce some science to what has been a contentious debate, but he still believes the company has been singled out for scrutiny. Crum said there have been no air-quality violations there since a nonpermeable cover was placed on the largest lagoon in early June. He added he's confident the monitoring wells will show no sign of contamination.

Dennis Lien can be reached at dlien@ pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5588.
 

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

Kansas City-based hog company cited for waste spills
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2001 5:37 p.m.

http://www.newsobserver.com/ncwire/news/Story/809512p-806333c.html

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A large Kansas City-based hog company faces scrutiny after spilling waste into north Missouri streams seven times within the last month, killing fish and tainting nearby streams.

Premium Standard Farms promised in 1999 to clean up its act. However, the company's recent actions have led to the spilling of thousands of gallons of the noxious wastes and has resulted in new violation notices, according the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

"Both the DNR and the attorney general have expressed their concern and disappointment in our performance," said Charlie Arnot, a spokesman for Premium Standard. "We acknowledge that. We're disappointed with it as well."

Regulators are continuing to investigate two of the recent spills, but they had issued notices of violation for spills on July 11, 25 and 31, said Irene Crawford, director of natural resources' northeast office in Macon.

Currently, millions of gallons of hog wastes, flushed from barns, are stored in lagoons. From there the wastewater is pumped and sprayed onto farm fields as fertilizer.

But some of those applications have resulted in the recent spills.

"When moving that many millions of gallons," Arnot said, "it's difficult to assure none of it is going to leave the system."

In 1999 the hog company, among the nation's largest, promised state officials it would spend $25 million on new technology to solve the pollution problems in northern Missouri, where it has hundreds of lagoons and thousands of hogs.

Arnot said the company had brought in an attorney to evaluate its procedures and "see if there's anything we can do while we're developing new technologies."

The technologies the company is exploring includes the possibility of producing fuel oil from the hog wastes. This procedure will be used at a ConAgra turkey processing plant in Carthage to turn offal and turkey wastes into oil and other marketable products.

Ken Midkiff, director of the Sierra Club in Missouri, said his group was disappointed to see the recent spills and believed the company violated its 1999 consent agreement with Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon.

"It appears there's been no improvement in their operations," Midkiff said. "At some point someone has got to decide to shut them down."

Premium Standard operates hog farms in Mercer, Putnam, Sullivan, Daviess and Gentry counties in Missouri. It also has hog farms based in Dalhart, Texas, and Clinton, N.C. The company processes 7,000 hogs daily at its plant in Milan, Mo.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................

New rules restrict S.C. hog farms
August 10, 2001
The State SOUTH CAROLINA'S LARGEST NEWSPAPER
By JOSEPH S. STROUD   Staff Writer

 http://web.thestate.com/content/columbia/2001/08/10/a1/webhogs10.htm

State regulators temporarily imposed stringent new controls on large, factory-style hog farms Thursday and launched plans for permanent environmental guidelines.

An industry official said the new "emergency regulation" imposed by the Department of Health and Environmental Control board would make establishing large new facilities in South Carolina all but impossible.

"The possibility of any farmer getting a permit for a large farm in South Carolina looks to be effectively foreclosed by the stringency of these regulations," said William Allcott, spokesman for Smithfield Foods Inc., a Virginia company that has been working with S.C. farmers trying to obtain permits for new hog operations.

The temporary controls were intended to fill the breach left by the expiration of a moratorium on new, large-scale hog operations in the state. The moratorium expired Thursday.

"While the S.C. Board of Health and Environmental Control and the Legislature consider permanent regulations, this emergency regulation strengthens our ability to ensure that the larger swine facilities are operated properly and pose no risk to the public's health or the environment," said Marion Sadler, director of DHEC's farm permitting division.

The emergency regulations will stay in effect for 90 days and could be renewed for 90 more. DHEC commissioner Earl Hunter said they "mirror" the proposed permanent regulations for large hog facilities.

The emergency regulations affect hog farm operations that produce 1 million pounds or more a year, or approximately 7,140 pigs, and have eight or more barns.

They would:

• Exclude the use of open, uncovered lagoons for disposing of hog waste by large hog farms.

• Require that new facilities be located at least 25 miles from any existing large hog operations.

• Require the use of "best available technology" for a farm's waste treatment system, without regard to cost. Sadler said regulators would have to be assured that the systems had the least adverse impact on the environment "that's economically achievable."

• Require farm operations to post a bond of 10 percent of the cost of the entire facility, plus the cost of closing it, before a new farm permit may be issued.

The temporary measures are the latest step state officials have taken in an ongoing debate about the impact of large hog farm operations on health and the environment. The issue erupted in controversy this spring after farmers in Dillon and Marlboro counties, working with Smithfield, sought permits for two enormous new hog farms.

State officials have scrambled to address public concerns about the impact of large hog farms on groundwater supplies, odor and air quality.

Tommy Lavender, a lawyer for one of the applicants, B&B Farms of Marlboro County, said that if the regulations had been in place when the application was submitted, "a different technology (for treating waste) might have to have been employed."

He said there is "an open issue" as to whether the new regulations apply to his client's pending application.

Sadler said DHEC's position is that the new regulations apply to the pending applications.

The new controls won guarded praise from both farm and environmental groups.

"What they've done with the large regulations is what Georgia has in place, and we think they're good," said Nancy Stone-Collum, who runs the Columbia office of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League. "I think there are some places that we would like to see stronger standards."

S.C. Farm Bureau Federation president David Winkles praised the board's plan to create a three-tiered system for permanent regulation of the hog-farming industry, with separate guidelines for small, medium and large hog farms. Medium farms would be those producing between 500,000 and a million pounds a year.

Winkles said lifting the moratorium "opens the door back up to family farmers who may choose to make a living by raising hogs, albeit under what are the toughest environmental protection regulations in the country."

Stone-Collum expressed concern that large meat producers like Smithfield might try to gain a foothold in South Carolina by establishing contracts with medium-sized producers.

Permanent swine facility regulations will be considered and approved by the end of the year. A summary of the emergency regulations is available at the DHEC Web site at www.scdhec.net/news. The proposed permanent regulations also are available at the Web site.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................

North Carolina
Farmer accepts plea bargain
By Brian Feagans
Staff Writer
August 8, 2001
 http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/news/stories/2572newsstorypage.html

A Pender County hog farmer has pleaded guilty to three criminal counts stemming from a 70,000-gallon release of hog waste into a Northeast Cape Fear River tributary last year.

The plea agreement signed last week by Vincent “Buddy” King, 30, settled a rare criminal case involving the discharge of hog waste.

Felony charges against Mr. King were reduced to two misdemeanors – failure to operate a non-discharge system and failure to notify the state of a release – under the deal.

Mr. King also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor littering for the February 2000 incident. He has to pay a $500 fine and perform 24 hours of community service under the deal signed in Pender County Superior Court.

With no prior record, Mr. King could not have served jail time under the original felony charges, said John Sherrill, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case.

Mr. Sherrill said he knew of only a handful of other instances around the state where hog farmers have been criminally prosecuted for waste spills.

The case started when the N.C. Division of Water Quality received a call from a woman living two miles downstream from the Watha K-6 Farm in northern Pender County. She reported a pink, foul-smelling liquid in Washington Creek, said Susan Massengale, a Water Quality spokeswoman.

Inspectors traced the pink plume upstream to the Watha K-6 Farm, where they found hog waste had saturated a field and run into ditches feeding Washington Creek.

Water Quality officials called in the State Bureau of Investigation to probe what they suspected was an intentional release.

“Most of the evidence that we had was circumstantial,” Ms. Massengale said. “But it appeared that he intentionally pumped down the lagoons because he had problems with freeboard,” or the amount of space between the top of the liquid waste and the top of the lagoon.

Mr. King was operating the farm while his father, the owner, was out of town, Ms. Massengale said.

Calls to Mr. King and his attorney were not returned Tuesday.

Many farmers struggled to keep waste levels down in open-air storage lagoons during the winter following record rains from Hurricanes Dennis, Floyd and Irene. The waste, which gets sprayed onto fields as fertilizer, must be applied at lower rates in the winter when crops such as rye can’t soak up as much of the nutrients.

Mr. King told inspectors that the spill was the result of an overflowing tank designed to flush the hog houses out with recycled wastewater, said Mike Williams, the Water Quality environmental specialists who investigated the complaint.

But Mr. Williams said the large volume of spilled waste – far more than is held by the 850-gallon flush tanks – pointed to an intentional release.

“It was all out in one of the fields,” he said. “It was all out behind the hog houses.”

By pleading guilty to misdemeanors, Mr. King acknowledged negligence but not intent to discharge the hog waste.

The farm also paid a $7,966 civil fine levied by Water Quality following the release.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
 

Iowa
Ruling jolts hog-lot law
Judge's decision could trigger more suits disputing statute
By ANNE FITZGERALD and S.P. DINNEN
Register Staff Writer
08/04/2001

An Iowa law barring nuisance lawsuits against livestock-feeding operations
is unconstitutional, a Sioux County district judge ruled in a decision filed
Friday.

The decision, if upheld on appeal, could open the floodgates for litigation
against livestock-feeding farms, in particular hog-confinement operations.

In many instances, neighbors say their property values decline sharply
because of the odor, waste and insects resulting from the operations. But
Iowa laws provide protection to livestock-feeding farms against lawsuits
that claim nuisance.

The Sioux County case was brought by Joseph and Linda Gacke of Rock Valley
against Pork Xtra, claiming trespass and nuisance against the company's
4,000-hog confinement operation. The owners of the operation, who contended
they were immune from such lawsuits, sought to have the case dismissed.

Pork Xtra also sought attorneys' fees and costs, a provision in state law
that the Iowa Civil Liberties Union says has prevented Iowans from fighting
livestock-feeding operations.

Attorneys for Pork Xtra could not be reached Friday to comment on whether
they intend to appeal the court's decision, which applies only to this case.
A decision by an appellate court or Supreme Court would have broader
application.

The district judge's decision allows the Gackes, who declined to comment
Friday, to continue with their lawsuit, filed in April 2000. The trial is
set for Dec. 18.

An opponent of the law said he would welcome an appeal that could result in
the statute being stricken.

"People have been just plain intimidated by the statute," said Randall
Wilson, legal director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, which joined the
lawsuit.

"All persons should have the right to defend their property," he said.

Hog-confinement farm proponents downplayed the decision because it is not
binding in other cases.

But others said the ruling would bolster the argument of those pushing for
neighboring-property owners' rights.

Already, cases involving similar disputes are pending in Iowa district
courts, and the Sioux County decision could spark even more lawsuits, they
said.

The decision "may be an indication of what will happen in other district
courts," said Neil Hamilton, professor of law and director of the
Agricultural Law Center at Drake University in Des Moines.

"This is getting people back to where they were before and maybe where they
should be: Have you caused a nuisance?" he said. "The standard for that on
the edge of West Des Moines could well be different than the standard for
that out in a rural county."

An Iowa Supreme Court decision in 1998 struck down a law that granted
protection from nuisance suits to feedlot operations inside
county-designated agricultural zones. Wilson said the 1998 opinion applied
to less than 2 percent of Iowa's farmland.

The Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement viewed Friday's decision as a
victory for family farms.

"It's one more blow against factory farms," said Hugh Espey, a project
director for the pro-family farm organization.

Denise O'Brien
Coordinator
Women, Food and Agriculture Network
...........................................................................................................................................................................................

Saturday 4 August 2001

 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/010804/5039062.html

Canada: The world's 'barnyard'
Canada taking massive pig farms that are too dirty for Europe
Tom Spears
The Ottawa Citizen

Ontario is drawing hundreds of farmers from the Netherlands and other countries who are choosing a place where environmental rules -- especially on spreading manure from industrial-scale farms -- are weaker than in their own countries.

As European and even Asian countries run out of places to put manure, Canada is becoming the world's "barnyard," says a pig researcher at the University of Guelph, Canada's biggest agriculture school.

Bringing cash from the Dutch government, which is paying its livestock farmers to stop farming because of their manure problem, they are buying farms here. Many are expanding them on the industrial scale known as "intensive livestock operations."

A Guelph study last year found 88 per cent of Dutch dairy farmers who recently moved to western Ontario cited Dutch environmental rules as being a major reason for their decision to move here. Ontario farms are also popular acquisitions for agri-businesses based in Germany.

But with the continuing growth of intensive livestock farming -- especially factory hog farms with up to 6,000 animals in one barn -- some farming experts say the lack of regulation can't continue.

They say these intensive farms, especially hog farms, will some day have to install purification equipment to treat their manure the way cities treat sewage.

Such equipment would reduce the volume and kill the germs with chemical treatment.

For now, though, no manure treatment is required. Large-scale farms are expected to have management plans laying out where and how often they will spray liquid manure, and how they will store it. But these individual plans don't carry the same legal weight as government regulation and don't demand sewage-style purification.

The lack of formal regulations on manure is helping to push a boom in big hog farms in Ontario.

"You see a lot of countries internationally are looking on Canada to be the barnyard for their animal production," says John Phillips, a University of Guelph geneticist specializing in transgenic pigs designed to produce cleaner manure.

"In the Netherlands they had absolute limitations put on hog production in that country. The underlying factor there was manure.

"They're coming to Canada. Taiwan ... is now setting up a huge facility in southern Alberta, and that's because they can't produce pigs over there.

"It's a free enterprise system, and there's no one out there who can say: 'There will be no more pigs produced above what we have now,' " he says.

"There's a lot of people coming over from Holland," says Rikus Huisman, a real estate agent in Straffordville, near Lake Erie, whose company advertises in the Dutch farm magazine Oogst (Harvest).

"There is, so far, less regulation" in Canada, he says.

Dutch farmers are drawn here by overpopulation in their own small country and in Holland "the regulations are getting so strict and costly that people are looking at another opportunity," he says.

There are manure and environmental regulations in Holland that "go a little too far. People don't see the need for that any more."

Many of the immigrants are dairy farmers. Others are pig farmers who have taken advantage of government buyouts to relocate in Canada.

"They want to cut down on the amount of livestock in Holland," with payments to farmers who stop farming. "Especially in pigs: There's too many of them."

Last year Oogst carried a special section advertising opportunities for emigrating farmers in several countries. Nineteen of the 26 ads feature Canada, telling farmers about farm sizes and milk quotas on farms for sale in Perth, Lambton, Huron and Elgin counties, all in Southwestern Ontario. Move to Elgin County near Windsor, one ad says, and farmers can get 260 hectares with 3,250 heat units (a measure of climate) and a "Ranch stijl huis" -- a ranch-style house.

"The Land of Unlimited Opportunities," one ad calls Ontario.

Another ad features the smiling face of Ontario Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman, and quotes: "for good farmers there is lots of room;" "the government supports farmers;" and "in Canada the farmer is valued."

The ad is from a private emigration service, not the Ontario government.

Elbert Van Donkersgoed, a Dutch-Canadian farmer and leader of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, has met some of the Dutch newcomers and given them advice. He has also been interviewed by Dutch media about what farming is like here.

"When asked if Ontario is a good place for farming, I generally make very positive comments," he says. "I also add some cautions about what to look out for in this province and not to expect Ontario to remain free from environmentally related rules," he adds.

His cautions in recent years have proved right. Manure is finally becoming an issue in North America.

First there was the Walkerton E. coli outbreak, which killed seven people and sickened more than 2,000. Flooding during heavy rains carried bacteria from cattle manure into the town's water supply.

This week the American Journal of Public Health warned that heavy rainfall is a key factor in more than two-thirds of waterborne-disease outbreaks (mainly infections like Walkerton's) in the U.S. And there's more than germs at stake. This spring a report from five federal departments warned that "nutrients" (the chemicals in manure that act as fertilizer) are building up to hazardous levels in a number of Canadian waterways.

Ontario has made "a big song and dance" about better laws to protect clean water since the Walkerton disaster, says lawyer Valerie M'Garry of London. "They're mouthing all the right words.

"Yet there's no environmental risk assessment being contemplated" for intensive livestock operations, she says.

"If a municipality wants to take even treated sewage sludge and spread it, there are all kinds of regulatory hoops to jump through," she said.

She argues it's not right that manure is still spread with no treatment in quantities that can equal the sewage from a city of 20,000 people.

This fall, Ontario is expected to launch a new Nutrient Management Act, which would set binding rules for manure spreading in place of the non-binding "management plans" that exist today. Municipalities still complain it will be tough to enforce: How do you prove a farmer spread more than a certain number of litres of manure per hectare of land?

Many municipalities are instead watching the case of little West Perth Township, west of Stratford, which has a new zoning bylaw limiting the number of all types of livestock on farms. (It would allow a maximum of 2,400 hogs). The township says that's an easier way to limit pollution by stopping the growth of what it calls "mega-barns," but a beef farmer has challenged it, and they're waiting for a date in Divisional Court.

If West Perth wins, township officials expect a cascade of similar bylaws springing up in townships across southern Ontario which have expressed support, and in some cases, sent money to help with legal costs.

At the University of Guelph, researchers think stricter rules for manure use are only a matter of time.

"I think the hog industry realizes it's got to clean up its act, and it's got to do it fast," says Mr. Phillips.

"There is a real problem. In a way it's kind of silly that we've come this far.

"Why don't they have essentially sewage treatment plants, just like cities and people do? I think that's coming."

The university's Arkell Swine Research Unit is already doing research on manure treatment.

"I don't think there's an oversupply of manure; I think there's an inability to distribute it," says Dave Barney, who runs the research station just south of Guelph.

Manure on hog farms is liquefied for storage in tanks and that makes it very heavy. A 1,500-hog barn, for instance, needs to be able to store 4.5 million litres of liquid manure. The Arkell station is trying to remove the water and leave a lighter, solid material that's easier to truck around for use as fertilizer.

"What interests me is looking at technology that's already available, either for human waste or for chemical plant waste," Mr. Barney says.

The goal is to separate solid from liquid material and then make the waste water clean.

One possibility is a press system, "similar to what you might have for making apple cider, that basically squeezes the liquid out of the solids." There's also a system with a series of filters and regular backflushing to prevent the filters from clogging.

The fluid then needs some form of chemical treatment to kill the bacteria. In city sewage plants, that usually involves chlorine.

For now he's focusing on the first step -- separating liquid from solid. Rather than purifying the water left over from that, he re-uses it in the manure pit, which needs to have water added to liquefy the manure inside. "It's like a toilet: You need water in it to make it operate, and you're always adding water. So why not use waste water?

As for sewage treatment, he says, "we are headed that direction. In some ways I find it tragic. In some ways it's excellent.

"It's only corporate agriculture that's going to be able to afford that. The small guy with 100 sows will never afford that.

"So that drives him out."
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
 

Utah
http://www.sltrib.com/2001/Aug/08032001/utah/118958.htm

Farm Works Nonstop on Hog Burial
Friday, August 3, 2001
BY JUDY FAHYS
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

It probably will be Sunday before Circle Four Farms in Iron County finishes burying 12,000 hogs killed in last weekend's fire.
    "Essentially, they are creating an on-site landfill for these materials," said Randy Lundberg, a manager in the state Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste. "We see this as the best and most viable option."
    "We don't want to haul these things around as they are decomposing," said Gary Edwards, director of the Southwest Area Public Health Department, which serves five southeastern Utah counties. "We want to get them in the ground as close to the site and as soon as possible."
    Circle Four began burial on Blue Mountain on Tuesday, after crews started removing the metal roofing and metal stalls from the four hog buildings. Carcasses are being scooped up in front-end loaders and deposited into pits.
    The buildings held about 5,000 full-grown sows, 1,500 young sows and 6,500 piglets. Combined, the hog remains weigh nearly 2 million pounds.
    Health and environmental officials have asked Circle Four to prepare a mass grave that is roughly equivalent to a Class IV landfill. The carcasses will be sprinkled with lime to control odors and facilitate decomposition. Then they will be layered with dirt, capped with clay and covered once again with dirt.

Groundwater above and below the grave will be monitored for contamination. However, officials said it is unlikely that leaching will be a problem because the water is about 100 feet below the surface.
    The sooner the dead hogs are buried, the less likely others will be exposed to the bacteria and disease the decaying bodies harbor and the less likely it will be that the stench of rotting flesh drifts to population centers, officials said.
    State law requires dead animals to be buried within 48 hours, but no one seems inclined to criticize Circle Four, given the scope of the cleanup it faces. Lundberg said his office has never before seen emergency animal disposal of this scale.
    Steve Pollmann, operations director from Circle Four, said crews have been working 24 hours a day. "The environment is of primary importance to us," he said. "So, we will work very closely with the state and the federal agencies involved."
   fahys@sltrib.com
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Texas, Amarillo Globe-News Local News
 http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/080301/new_tnrcc.shtml
Web posted Friday, August 3, 2001

TNRCC gets papers for pig facility
By Rick Storm
rstorm@amarillonet.com
 

PAMPA - The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission on Thursday received a formal permit application for a genetics research swine facility about 11 miles east of Pampa in Gray and Wheeler counties.

At a July public meeting, officials from North Carolina-based National Pig Development said the proposed facility would house about 3,700 sows and would require a permit application for 50,000 head.

"We're excited about the area; it gives us the isolation for biosecurity that is so important to us," said NPD spokesman William Allcott. "The location also gives us access to an educated workforce and technical needs."

TNRCC spokesman Dick Morris said the NPD application must go through several steps before a permit is issued.

First, TNRCC will conduct administrative and technical reviews, a process that will consume about 30 days, Morris said.

The TNRCC then will develop a draft registration, after which a public notice will be issued.

Morris said the public has 30 days from the publication of the notice to send written comments and requests for a public hearing to the TNRCC. A public hearing will be conducted if the TNRCC executive director determines there is a significant degree of public interest in the application.

Morris said the TNRCC then would respond to comments, a process that would last about 60 more days.

The TNRCC executive director would then be in a position to issue a permit, subject to possible additional restrictions.

Morris said that a motion could then be introduced to overturn the approval, and the application would be sent back to the executive director for further review.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Iowa
July 26, 2001
USA Today, Page 7A
 http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010726/3511414s.htm

Iowa: Lawler -- Officials blame a clogged pipe at a hog farm for a 5,000-gallon manure spill that killed 33,000 fish in a creek. The spill occurred when a pipe used to empty a manure storage pit clogged during the weekend. State regulators say the manure ran 50 feet into the creek, killing fish, mostly minnows and shiners, for about 4 miles.

........................................................................................................................................................................................

Iowa
 http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c5903220/15398288.html

Hog-manure spill kills 33,000 fish in north Iowa
A clogged pipe in a confinement building causes the 5,000-gallon spill that fouls Simpson Creek near Lawler.
By PERRY BEEMAN
Register Staff Writer
07/25/2001

A hog-manure spill in Chickasaw County has killed nearly 33,000 fish along four miles of Simpson Creek south of Lawler.

The 5,000-gallon spill, reported Monday, occurred at Donald Kurtenbach's 4,200-head wean-to-finish operation near Lawler when a pipe used to empty a manure-storage pit in a confinement building clogged over the weekend.

The manure ran 50 feet into the creek, killing mostly minnows and shiners. The manure diluted to safe levels about two miles above Crane Creek, a popular fishing stream, state regulators said.

Kurtenbach could not be reached for comment.

The spill killed all, or nearly all, of the fish along the affected stretch, investigators said. Ross Harrison, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said investigators found darters - typically found in clean water - among the dead fish.

The 32,781 fish were valued at $4,800.

Typically, the state requires the farmer involved to pay for the fish, and sometimes adds fines.

Stephen Veysey of the Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association, who has fought to prevent manure pollution in Iowa fishing streams, said the accident shows the need for tougher rules for confinements near high-quality waterways.

"It shows that we have a continuing problem with these confinements and the way they are managed," Veysey said. "Accidents will happen. We need to have special regulations to protect special places."

Mark Lambert of the nonprofit Iowa Environmental Council said open-air waste hog-manure lagoons should be banned and manure storage structures should be kept away from waterways.
 

Fish kill in perspective
RECENT: A farm fertilizer spill that went unreported for at least a day in April killed nearly every fish in a seven-mile stretch of a northeast Iowa stream, state regulators said. Thousands of gallons of liquid nitrogen from the Allison Ag Center spilled into a tributary of the West Fork Cedar River in Butler County, wiping out untold numbers of minnows and other small, nongame fish.

FREQUENCY: The number of manure-related fish kills in Iowa has varied from four to 11 a year from 1995 to 1999. More recent figures weren't available. The high came in 1997, when there were eight spills and three runoff events.

SIMILAR: A 1997 hog-manure spill in Minnesota eventually killed 109,000 fish along eight miles of Crane Creek in Howard County, a popular fishing stream in the same part of the state as this week's spill. Officials with Trace Inc. said a pipe between lagoons clogged, sending manure over the top. The company paid $40,000 in damages.

WORST: The largest fish kill in recent Iowa history happened in September 1996 when manure spilled into the North Buffalo Creek in Winnebago County, killing 586,753 fish. Hog facility operator Jeff Pitkin was fined $63,000.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................

Environmental coalition urges ban on waste lagoons on factory farms

By MICHAEL MANSUR - The Kansas City Star
Date: 07/24/01 22:15

 http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/printer.pat,local/3accd866.724,.html

A coalition of environmental groups, citing a new study of pollution hazards, on Tuesday called for federal regulators to eliminate waste lagoons at large factory farms.

Hundreds of such lagoons in Missouri and Kansas hold millions of gallons of animal wastes. At hog operations, the lagoons feed giant sprinklers that spray the wastewater as fertilizer MDRVMDNMonto nearby farm fields. At some farms, the liquid wastes are injected into the soil.

"This witches' brew of toxins from lagoons and sprayfields is polluting our air, lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries and drinking water," said Robbin Marks of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group.

This month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is assessing whether stricter pollution rules should be imposed on these hog, poultry and dairy farms. The federal agency has been unwilling to propose a ban on lagoons.

The coalition called for banning new lagoons and phasing out existing lagoons in the next five years.

The waste pollutes water and air and can even harm the health of farm workers and neighbors, according to a report released Tuesday by the Clean Water Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In the report, Marks said ammonia from the lagoons is released into the atmosphere and can travel 300 miles before falling back to earth.

Technology exists to handle the wastes in other ways without threatening water, air or neighbors, the report said.

But pork producers responded with caution Tuesday. A ban on lagoons would drive many producers out of business, said Steven Cohen, communications director for the National Pork Producers Council.

"We're talking pretty significant costs," Cohen said.

Many new technologies are being explored in North Carolina and Missouri that hold great promise, Cohen said. Some, including the use of wetlands to filter the wastes, were among those suggested by the environmental groups.

The report contained comments from Rolf Christen, a Green City, Mo., farmer who lives near a factory farm and has been active in opposing the giant farms.

"I can't describe how terrible the odor from the lagoon, sprayfields and barns often is," Christen said. "We can't keep our windows open, and sometimes you can even smell the odor through the shut windows....

"A year or so ago, I went on vacation to a beautiful national park; when I entered my house upon my return and smelled the terrible odor, I broke down and cried."

In 1999, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon reached a settlement with Premium Standard Farms, based in Kansas City, that called for the company to spend $25 million on new technology over five years.

But so far, said Ken Midkiff of the Missouri Sierra Club, the efforts have not brought much environmental improvement to northern Missouri, where the company has the bulk of its operations.

"I was in northern Missouri just yesterday," Midkiff said, "and it still stinks. And the streams are still filled with algae."

Charlie Arnot, a spokesman for Premium Standard Farms, said Tuesday that it was unfair to judge the company's environmental improvements because they are only in their second year.

To reach Michael Mansur, The Star's environment writer, call (816) 234-4433 or send e-mail to mmansur@kcstar.com.

........................................................................................................................................................................................

Minnesota
 http://www.pioneerplanet.com/news/mtc_docs/93221.htm
Published: Wednesday, July 25, 2001

POLLUTION CONTROL Study rates manure pit leakage
BY DENNIS LIEN

As national environmental groups called Tuesday for a ban on large animal-manure lagoons, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency released an upgraded report on the effects of such pits on water quality.
Not surprisingly, the agency said concrete pits do the best job containing seepage and unlined ones do the worst job.

The report was spelled out to the MPCA Citizens' Board hours before the Natural Resources Defense Council and Clean Water Action asked the Bush administration to phase out waste lagoons at large hog, dairy and egg farms and ban construction of new ones.

They said the pits, a phenomenon of the factory-farming movement, are responsible for a litany of health and air- and water-quality problems. Such operators, the groups said, can and should adopt an array of safer, sustainable disposal methods, using old practices such as composting and newer waste-treatment technologies.

In response, the Minnesota Pork Producers Association said producers here typically dispose of stored hog manure by injecting it into the soil once or twice a year at rates that can be used by crops.

So far, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been unwilling to consider bans on such large-scale feedlots.

A relative few states, including Minnesota, have adopted or are considering tighter restrictions. Minnesota, for example, banned new open manure pits for hog feedlots in 1998, but still allows newer ones for dairy facilities.

The MPCA report consolidated several studies by its own staff and industry consultants and compared how well 37 various lagoons work.

The results showed that unlined manure pits had a greater impact on groundwater than did open feedlots or earthen- and concrete-lined ones. Of the four, concrete basins had the least effect.

At 20 earthen pits containing liners, slightly more than half the newer ones in clay-based soil leaked and all older ones in sandy soils leaked. At eight concrete pits, none of the five newer ones leaked and all of the three older ones did.

At all lagoons older than five years, underground pollution plumes could be detected. At unlined ones, they could be detected several hundred feet from the lagoon. At concrete-lined systems, the plumes were limited to 100 feet. Typically, plumes were restricted to the top 10 feet of the water table.

The report said the plumes were characterized by high concentrations of ammonia, organic nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbon, potassium, and chloride.

As the soil becomes more porous, evidence of pollution is more likely, according to Dave Wall, an MPCA hydrologist. "In sensitive geologic areas, you're going to be able to detect problems,'' Wall said.

Wall said the MPCA, through its permitting process, has upgraded manure pit standards in recent years.

Dennis Lien can be reached at dlien@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5588.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................

July 24, 2001
REPORT: "Cesspools of Shame"

As most of you know, NRDC and the Clean Water Network released our new
report, "Cesspools of Shame" today.  Activists in 23 states released the
report locally and several groups even took the opportunity to highlight
local issues by holding press events.  You can download a copy of the
report from NRDC's website at  www.nrdc.org and read our press releases
and factsheets.

The report has tons of great information supporting our call to ban new
lagoons and phase out existing lagoons and is timely with the comment
deadline on the EPA proposed regulations drawing near.  Don't forget to
send in your comments to EPA by July 30 AND to sign-on to the CWN's
comments.

Melanie Shepherdson Flynn
Project Attorney, Clean Water Project
NRDC
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
phone:  (202) 289-2393
fax:      (202) 289-1060

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Mississippi

 http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0107/23/m03.html

July 23, 2001

Incinerators fuel hog farm issue
DEQ under attack for issuing permits to burn dead animals
By James V. Walker
Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer

A revelation by state regulators that five hog farmers have received permits to burn dead animals in controversial incinerators has some activists fuming.

Margaret Copeland, a spokeswoman for Starkville-based Communities for Responsible Pork Production, said regulators approved the incinerator permits without regard to public opinion or potential health threats.

Copeland said officials at the state Department of Environmental Quality have repeatedly given her evasive answers when asked about whether such permits had been issued and who had them.

"When I asked in May of this year, where is the closest (incinerator) I can go visit, they said, 'Missouri,'" she said. "They said they didn't know if any were operating in the state or not."

But Jerry Cain, chief of DEQ's environmental permits division, said the agency published notice of four of the permit applications in local newspapers and got no response from the public.

The agency offered no public notice for the fifth application, in Lowndes County, because a disease outbreak at the farm left a large number of dead hogs that had to be disposed of quickly, Cain said.

"Public notice is not required for this type of permit," he said. "Since we were not receiving any comments on the others, we decided to go ahead (with the Lowndes County permit)."

As far as complaints that DEQ gave misleading answers to questions about the incinerators, "the interpretation of our responses wasn't consistent with what we believe we said," he said. "Obviously there wasn't good communication."

Controversy around the incinerators is linked to complaints about the air quality near many hog farms, particularly the smell and noxious gases associated with hog waste. Also, some people are concerned the incinerators, which are not the type used to destroy infectious waste, might not be hot enough to kill germs from diseased animals.

"This is simply adding to the air problems," Copeland said.

But Cain said he has talked to officials in other states as well as Mississippi health officials and animal health officials, and all said the temperature of the incinerators, more than 700 degrees Fahrenheit, was hot enough to kill any pathogens.

"It's common practice to use these types of incinerators for this use," he said.

Hog farmers in Mississippi have traditionally paid to dump animals who die of disease in a landfill. The first incinerators to show up on Mississippi hog farms were discovered by DEQ inspectors in August 2000. Since the farmers did not have permits, they were told to stop using the incinerators.

This year's annual inspections have found those farms still are not using incinerators, Cain said.

Five other farms have gotten permits and are using the incinerators, and "quite a few more" have applied for permits, he said.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
North Carolina
From: ARS News Service [mailto:isnv@ars-grin.gov]
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 9:57 AM
To: ARS News List
Subject: State-of-the-Art Technology Chosen to Clean Up Wastewater from Swine
Production

________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
July 19, 2001
Jennifer Arnold, (301) 504-1624, jaarnold@ars.usda.gov
________________

The attorney general of North Carolina and Smithfield Foods, Inc. have
selected technology adapted by Agricultural Research Service scientists in
Florence, S.C., to clean up and dispose of manure from swine-production
wastewater at a 4,360-pig farm in North Carolina's Duplin County.

The environmentally superior new technology will be used by Smithfield
Foods
to replace current lagoons for cleaning up wastewater in the state's hog
operations, according to ARS soil scientists Matias B. Vanotti and Patrick
G. Hunt at the ARS Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Research Center in
Florence.

Swine production in the United States is increasing rapidly. In North
Carolina alone, it grew from 2.6 million hogs in 1990 to more than 9
million
in 1997. The expansion has caused monumental waste-treatment problems that
are one of the region's greatest environmental issues.

These problems are related to flushing waste from high-density confinement
facilities into anaerobic lagoons and then applying the wastewater to
cropland. Besides nitrogen, swine manure contains phosphorus and other
chemicals that can fertilize plants. But land application can become
problematic when more manure nitrogen is applied than crops or forage can
use.

Vanotti, Hunt and a team of ARS colleagues devised an innovative way to
remove the ammonia form of nitrogen from swine manure quickly, effectively
and relatively inexpensively. They adapted a Japanese state-of-the-art
technology for treating municipal wastewater with large populations of
nitrifying bacteria entrapped in polymer gel pellets.

The full-scale treatment system to be built in Duplin County will separate
solids and liquids, make a soil-less growth medium from the solids, remove
the nitrogen and phosphorus from the wastewater, and recycle clean water
for the cleaning of the swine houses.

For more details, see the July issue of Agricultural Research online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul01/swine0701.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................
The Western Producer  July 19, 2001

 http://www.producer.com/articles/20010719/production/20010719prod03.html

Know what's in manure: farmers told
By Ed White
Winnipeg bureau

Nitrogen isn't the only element in manure, but hog producers and grain growers often act like it is, says University of Manitoba soil scientist Geza Racz.

That has to stop, he added.

"We have to analyze our manures more," Racz said during the Livestock Options for the Future conference, a two-day manure-handling extravaganza.

"Today, the guidelines for adding manures to our soils is based solely on nitrogen content. As we go forward, we're going to have to look at phosphorus and other elements ... to have a really sustainable system."

Nitrogen is a key nutrient farmers want to add to their soil. But phosphorus, which is also a significant part of manure, can pose leaching problems in some soil.

As well, more heavy metals are ending up in pig manure as producers supplement their animals' diets. When metals such as copper and zinc are fed into one end of the pig, much comes out the other end. That can be bad news for soil that already has high levels of these metals.

Forage crops can become polluted if grown on soil with excessive levels of copper that are treated with high-copper manure.

Soil enzyme activity can also be harmed if the soil is fed too much metal.

"If we continue to add these to the soil we're going to reach a limit ... and we start having detrimental effects on soil function," Racz said.

Only some soil is vulnerable to certain types of nutrient and element buildup. Producers need to discover the nature of their soil if they plan to continually apply manure.

Producers also need to analyze the manure used on their land, and not only once. Racz said the nutrient and heavy metal content of manure ranges widely at different levels of manure lagoons, even if they are aerated and agitated.

Heavy metals are more concentrated in the lower regions, among the solids.

Producers need to keep an eye on the true levels of nutrients and metals being applied to their land, and not just rely on a single sample.

Racz said pig producers who spread their manure on grain growers' land should make sure they know what they're applying.

"I think it's a very important consideration, when we start putting manure on land that we don't own, and we're providing nutrients to our neighbours so they can grow grains and oilseeds, that we get our system right so that we are applying the right amount of nitrogen and phosphorus for crop production and not adding things that are going to have detrimental effects on the food that's produced on that land, or the forage that's grown there."

Racz said producers have to realize that the combination of the nature of their soil and the nature of the manure they are applying creates an equation unique to each farm and each field.

"It's a very site-specific thing we have to do for all these operations."
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
July 18, 2001 MSNBC NEWS

 http://www.msnbc.com/news/600950.asp

EPA, hog farmer in duel over waste
Consequences of nitrate discovery could be wide reaching

By Kelly Kurt
ASSOCIATED PRESS

HENNESSEY, Okla., July 18 — In the red dirt of central Oklahoma, where tractors lumber until dark and the stench of 8,800 sows clings to the breeze, manure has a new name: solid waste. In an unprecedented move, the Environmental Protection Agency last month ordered a major hog producer to obey the same law that governs industrial and municipal pollution.

___________________________

The EPA took action after discovering excessive nitrates in the private water well of Ana Rangel, who was 8½ months pregnant at the time
___________________________

THE CONSEQUENCES may be more than just a label change. The hog industry fears the order could touch every hog pen, chicken coop and cow pasture in rural America.
       “It’s a suggestion that manure is a toxic waste,” said Al Tank, head of the National Pork Producers Council, which opposes using laws regulating hazardous and solid waste against hog farmers.

EPA TAKES ACTION
       The EPA took action after discovering excessive nitrates in the private water well of Ana Rangel, who was 8½ months pregnant at the time. High levels of nitrates can cause illness or death, particularly in infants.
       Monitoring wells at hog waste lagoons in the area were found to have nitrate levels that were 10 times the acceptable level. The EPA feared waste had leaked from lagoons into the groundwater flow.
       Using the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the EPA declared that the leaking effluent was, in essence, solid waste. The act typically applies to hazardous and solid wastes from industry or municipal water treatment plants.
       The agency ordered Seaboard Farms Inc. and former owner PIC International to investigate and clean up any contamination — acknowledging it doesn’t know for sure if the lagoons are to blame.
       “The whole idea is to protect public health,” said Tim Jones, an EPA lawyer. “Whether we know conclusively if it’s coming from a lagoon is not as important as protecting health.”

DIFFERING OPINIONS
Seaboard’s supporters say that’s unfair.
       Wells in this farming region have tested high for nitrates before, and the pork industry points to fertilizer used by wheat farmers as a source. The town of Hennessey’s water supply has been cited for nitrate violations in excess of 15 parts per million three times since 1995; 10 parts or higher is considered a health threat.
       “There’s a nitrate problem in this area. Is it related to hogs? We don’t see the proof,” said Shawn Lepard, executive director of ProAg, an Oklahoma lobby group that supports corporate farming.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2001
PAGE A20

Upwardly Mobile Pigs May Get a Sty in the Sky

By NINA RAPPAPORT

EXCERPT -
How to produce disease-free pigs in adequate numbers in a country the size of the Netherlands, which produces 16.5 million tons of pork a year? MVRDV, an eight year-old, Rotterdam-based architectural firm, thinks it has the answer: Pig City, 40 pig farms stacked one on top of the other in high-rise structures....

Pig City is nothing if not a comprehensive solution to this problem. It envisions no fewer than 40 farms stacked in 87-by-87-meter towers rising more than 500 meters high. Instead of jostling about in a truck over long distances to market and slaughter, the pigs are transported via elevators to a slaughterhouse on the ground floor, preventing disease from spreading. Pigs would be organically fed with grain grown on the property around the towers, on organic garbage and high-protein Tilapia fish-which in turn feed on the pigs' manure, achieving a closed feeding system between pigs and fish. In Pig City, rainwater would be collected in basins through a reed field around the tower, and hay would be grown in a 7.5 meter diameter around the tower and then hung in rolls, like toilet paper, from the 10 -meter high ceilings to supply the pigs' bedding....

Air would be filtered through water stored in rooftop tanks. The pigs' manure would produce methane gas, which, after being stored for the required year in a rooftop storage dome, would supply electricity to both the tower and to 2,250 housing units nearby. And then, you might ask, would the pigs have enough room to waddle around? MVRDV has thought of that, too. The towers would provide 640-square-meter balconies cantilevered from the building exterior, planted with oak trees complete with the prerequisite truffles at their base....

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Future Vertical Factory Hog Farm

..........................................................................................................................................................................................

May 28, 2001

Warning:  This report is 139 pages and can take five minutes or longer to access, so be patient when connecting.
www.environment.sa.gov.au/epa/pdfs/piggery01.pdf

Alternative Systems for Piggery Effluent Treatment
A report prepared for the Environmental Protection Agency (South Australia) and the Rural City of Murray Bridge by FSA Environmental, Queensland, Australia.

ISBN 1 876562 23 4
November 2000

Here is an up to date publication, November 2000, on hog lagoons and alternative lagoon technologies.
This report contains a lot of data and references from the U.S.A.
This report is free and is required reading.

The report is in PDF format and can be easily viewed and printed with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Alternative Systems for Piggery Effluent Treatment (pdf)

By FSA Environmental, Queensland, Australia - This 139 page .pdf report looks at alternative effluent systems that are available that would reduce the odour impact from piggeries.

The report reviews fourteen different effluent treatment systems and concludes piggery waste treatment systems need to sustainably treat or dispose of large quantities of organic matter, nutrients and salts.

There are many options for the design of a treatment system ranging from simple systems where virtually no treatment occurs to complex and costly systems that completely treat all of the waste and optimise the returns that can be achieved from that waste.

..........................................................................................................................................................................................

May 28, 2001
The book, "The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs", is FREE and online at

http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/

Among other issues, the book deals with the possible human health and ecological impacts related to raising hogs in a confined feedlot environment.

David Wallinga, M.D.
Director, Antibiotic Resistance Project
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
2105 First Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Ph: 612-870-3418; Fax 612-870-4846
dwallinga@iatp.org
www.iatp.org

.......................................................................................................................................................

May 17, 2001, Alberta -
Manure opens doors,  A dry manure treatment system

http://www.producer.com/articles/20010517/news/20010517news14.html

By Ed White
Winnipeg bureau

An Alberta hog barn company says it is finding fertile financial soils in Saskatchewan, where industry expansion is struggling in a parched environment.

By offering investors hog barn projects that don't have problems with odor and environmental liability, Pure Lean president Bob Notenbomer said he has been able to break the drought that has beset the hog industry since opposition to new hog barns became a powerful force.

"I don't think they're against hog barns," Notenbomer said about prairie investors.

"I think they're just against the environmental concerns that come with hog barns."

Notenbomer operates a 5,000 feeder pig operation in Bow Island, Alta., and just opened a 10,000 head feeder barn in Oyen, Alta. His next plan is to expand into Saskatchewan.

His barns are different than most large-scale hog barns because they do not use water to wash manure out of the feeder barns. Instead, the manure lands in sawdust, which is gathered up and composted.

Notenbomer said his system eliminates most of the smell of pig manure and gets rid of lagoons and mucky manure spreading, which greatly increases odor problems.

Notenbomer said this has freed him from obstacles that face other barn proponents.

"We can guarantee zero contamination with this building," he said.

"No manure will ever touch the ground ... around our buildings."

Dozens of prairie barn proposals have been killed by local opposition from people who fear large-scale hog barns could pollute groundwater and local soils, and who don't like the smell of pig manure.

Last week, a feeder barn proposed for eastern Manitoba was denied approval because of vociferous local opposition based on water pollution fears.

Notenbomer insists a dry manure treatment system isn't a flaky idea. He said it can be just as profitable as a water-based system, without the drawbacks.

"It doesn't make sense to flush manure with water," he added.

"You just add to the volume. Then you have to transport that liquid and then you have to spread it."

Notenbomer said his designs don't use slatted floors, which can cost $3.50 to $4 per square foot. They also don't use holding tanks and manure lagoons, which are also expensive, nor do they require manure injection trucks.

However, the buildings cost the same because they are larger, at about 12 sq. feet per pig, versus seven to eight sq. feet in a traditional barn.

Clearing the barn of sawdust and manure takes more labor.

University of Saskatchewan bioengineering professor Claude Lague said dry feeder barns are common in Europe, though they are used mainly by small farmers. For centuries all hog farms were based on dry manure storage and treatment, including composting the waste, though no one at the time knew the word "composting."

Large farms moved to water-based manure handling systems after the Second World War, Lague said, because they require less labor. They also don't require large supplies of organic material to mix with the manure.

Lague has not studied Notenbomer's design, but he said the idea of dry manure handling and composting is feasible.

"When you do the math, the numbers come out about the same," Lague said of the cost of production.

"If you can have access to material for compost and labor and a market for the composted manure, (it can work)."

Notenbomer's company is now selling the composted manure as Hog Heaven manure. He hopes to build a centralized packaging facility soon.

His company is also trying to convince Medicine Hat, Alta., to process human waste with his system.

Pure Lean raised $3 million from Medicine Hat investors for its $7 million feeder barn near Oyen. Almost none of the money came from farmers.

Notenbomer said the hog industry could find lots of investment capital if it looked beyond rural people and tapped into city investors who see an opportunity without the risks and obstacles they usually associate with the hog industry.

"This is something the consumer has asked for," Notenbomer said.

"That's why we're seeing such interest. It's no longer driven by the farmers themselves."

The barns that Pure Lean wants to build in Saskatchewan are all feeder barns. Notenbomer said he would like each to eventually have farrowing barns as well, but they are more expensive. He wants to demonstrate how his system works in a cheaper barn before trying to raise extra money.

"It's a proof thing," he said.

"A lot of people don't believe what they're hearing and what they're seeing."

Each of Pure Lean's barns is created as a separate company with its own board of directors, though the goal is to one day unite them under Pure Lean's holding company.

Pure Lean needs $1.5 million to $1.7 million in investor capital for each barn. The rest of the money is borrowed from Farm Credit Corp., which supplies the construction capital, and a bank, which provides the operating line of credit.

Pure Lean intends to raise as much of the $1.7 million as possible from investors, but will make up shortfalls with its own capital, Notenbomer said.

Pure Lean Inc. is listed on the CDNX stock exchange under PYG.
...........................................................................................................................................
 

May 23, 2001
Idaho

Officials endorse denial of hog farm use permit

Click here Big Sky Appeal Denied

BURLEY - Big River Country isn't going to be the home of Big Sky Farms.

Cassia County Commissioners upheld the decision of the county's planning and zoning commission Monday, denying Big Sky Farms' conditional use permit application appeal.

With only two commissioners deliberating, the commission cited a number of the standards in upholding the P&Z board's decision, and said Big Sky Farms promoter Ron Achs has taken a reactive, rather than proactive approach in his plan to build a 50,000 sow farrow-to-finish hog operation in Raft River.

............................................................................................................................................

Seaboard Farms expanding into Texas Panhandle
May 14, 2001

Feedstuffs Magazine
Hog Industry Insider
By STEVE MARBERY
Feedstuffs Correspondent

Texas two-step

Longstanding rumors about a major expansion by Seaboard Farms Inc. are
materializing in northern Texas. Last month, a local newspaper published a
legal notice of an application for an 88,000-head (one-time capacity)
farrow-to-wean operation, plus a few nurseries, 25 miles east of Dumas,
Texas.

Based in Kansas City, Mo., Seaboard is pushing forward in Texas largely due
to restrictions in Oklahoma, where a 25,000-sow facility (the Wakefield
site) has been on indefinite hold for nearly three years pending a water
permit dispute. The complex is roughly 50% completed. Seaboard spent
approximately $12.5 million on the facility before ceasing construction.

Most of the company's Oklahoma and Texas expansion the past few years has
involved finishing barns. Its first Texas sow project, the proposed
operation will be part of an expanded Oklahoma production hub that links to
a packing plant in Guymon, Okla., and a feed mill in Optima, Okla. Seaboard
is the nation's third-largest producer, with approximately 175,000 sows.

Plans call for nearly 30,000 sows on approximately 2,500 acres 12 miles
northwest of Stinette, Texas, on the Moore-Hutchinson County border in the
Canadian River watershed, according to the Texas Natural Resource &
Conservation Commission (TNRCC). A 30-day public comment period commenced
April 27 when the notice was published. Commissioners will review comments
for 60 days. Hearings hinge on public input and commissioner approval.

TNRCC received the application in January. Last month, the agency completed
an administrative and technical review, including ground and surface water
impacts. Co-applicants include Elizabeth Buzzini, Dallas, Texas; Catherine
Sutherland of Sherman, Texas, and Henry Hill of Dallas. The project's
environmental management consultant is Agri Waste Technology of North
Carolina.

Integrator haven?

North Texas may be the last untapped U.S. growth region for upscale swine
production (previous item) -- but it's not exactly virgin wilderness.
Seaboard Farms already has a Texas presence.

Other regional companies include Texas Farm Inc., a subsidiary of Japan's
Nippon Meat Packers, which operates a 29,000-sow, farrow-finish enterprise
in Ochiltree County near Perryton, Texas, approximately 20 miles south of
the Oklahoma border; Premium Standard Farms, Inc., the nation'
second-largest producer, which owns a 20,000-sow complex near Dalhart,
Texas; Vall Inc., subsidiary of a Spanish company, with approximately 20,000
sows near the Oklahoma border, and Smithfield Foods Inc., the nation's
largest producer.

Smithfield absorbed Texas production capacity in its acquisition of Murphy
Farms. Oklahoma's swine herd growth may have peaked due to citizen
opposition and a complex regulatory process. Similarly, regulations and
public opposition have retarded expansion in Kansas and Colorado.

With a robust beef feedlot sector and an ailing farm economy, the Texas
Panhandle is the last path of least resistance for pork integrators. Texas
regulations have been amended, with air and water quality permits merged
into a streamlined application process. People density is low, and land
prices are declining.

Dumas County has approximately 14,000 people and 900 square miles.
Hutchinson County has even fewer people. Dumas contains a petroleum refinery
and beef packing plant (largest employer) that supplements its agricultural
economy, which has been hammered by surging energy prices. Some irrigators
have reverted to dryland cultivation to curb expenses. Many farms may be on
the "block" this fall, realtors speculated, but nobody is immune to surging
gas prices, even integrators who rely on irrigation to spread slurry. Even
so, the Ogallala Aquifer provides promise for those who can afford to add
value to water.

Integrators like the Texas Panhandle because of its pro-agribusiness climate
and the state's coherent set of environmental regulations. Seaboard probably
won't be the last big company looking to expand there.
..........................................................................................................................................

Fly with me

 http://www.wholehog.org/

According to entomologist Craig Sheppard (14 March 2000), the black soldier flies can consume tons of manure and then be turned into food for pigs, chickens or cows.

``It's like getting something for nothing,'' Sheppard said. ``We're going to make the manure go away, and we're going to make money doing it.''

Scientists have known for years that maggots reduce animal waste. Sheppard focused on the black soldier fly because it is harmless to humans, reduces housefly populations and contains proteins and other nutrients that could be valuable in making animal feed. Sheppard has demonstrated that farmers could get the prepupae to ``harvest'' themselves, showing that the insects will crawl up a ramp and fall into a container. There they could be fed live to hogs or turned into oil and protein meal similar to fish meal, which is used to make feed for catfish, livestock and poultry. A large collection system in five months can produce 58 tons of prepupae, which can be converted into a valuable feed additive that is 42 percent protein and 35 percent fat, the scientist said.

...........................................................................................................................................
Wednesday May 9, 2001,  6:29 PM ET
Swine Farms Linked to Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs

  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010509/hl/swines_1.html

  Reutters
 By Emma Patten-Hitt, PhD

  ATLANTA (Reuters Health) - Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be detected
in waste ``lagoons'' and groundwater near swine production facilities,
  researchers report.

  Such facilities often contain thousands of antibiotic-treated pigs that
generate massive amounts of waste, which is sometimes stored in unlined
  pits, or lagoons.

  In a new study, Dr. Rustam I. Aminov of the University of Illinois at
  Urbana-Champaign and colleagues used a method to detect antibiotic
  resistance genes in bacterial DNA extracted from waste lagoons near two
  swine farms. One farm contained 4,000 pigs and the other had 1,200. The
  researchers specifically looked for genes for resistance to tetracycline.

  The investigators found that the bacteria carrying the resistance genes
had seeped into the underlying groundwater and could be detected as far as 250
  meters (about 820 feet) downstream of the lagoons.

  ``This was just the farthest groundwater well (250 meters) that we had in
  our experiments-the actual distances may exceed this,'' Aminov told
Reuters Health. ``The resistance genes may pose a threat to humans because
  antibiotic resistance may be transferred through groundwater,'' he said.

  The researchers found antibiotic-resistant genes not only in bacteria that
  normally live in the animals' intestines, but also in soil bacteria. This
  suggests that the genes might have been transferred from one type of
  bacterium to another, or that the soil bacteria had developed resistance
  after being exposed to tetracycline itself. About 25% to 75% of the
  antibiotics given to animals are shed unaltered into
  the animals feces, according to the report.

  Tetracycline and other antibiotics can boost growth in farm animals and
have been used in agriculture for decades. However, the bacteria that animals
  harbor in their intestines can become resistant to antibiotics.

  ``These observations may have important implications for understanding the
  circulation and acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes,'' the study
  authors report in the April issue of Applied and Environmental
Microbiology.

  They suggest that antibiotic-resistant bacteria could enter the animal and
  human food chain via drinking water. According to the researchers,
  groundwater constitutes about 40% of the water used for public supply and
  provides drinking water for more than 97% of the rural population in the
United States.

  ``In this investigation, we just touched the tip of the iceberg,'' Aminov
  said. ``If you consider how many other antibiotics are used in animal
  industry--21 antibiotics are approved for the use in swine
  industry--we would have a tremendous diversity of antibiotic resistance
  genes flowing into the human food chain,'' he told Reuters Health.

  ``Recent estimates show that up to 70% of all antibiotics produced are
used in animals--mostly for the growth-promoting purposes,'' Aminov added. ``I
  think it is obvious that if we stop this really unnecessary use of
  antibiotics, gene transmission from animals will also stop.''

  SOURCE: Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2001;67:1494-1502.
..........................................................................................................................................

Sunday,  6 May 2001
Stink wars - Melbourne

 http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/05/06/FFX0OZ59CMC.html

By PHILLIPA BUTLER

Across the state, where town meets the country, noses are being put out of joint.

And nowhere is the problem more evident than in communities around the fringes of Melbourne, where one result of intensive agriculture - the stink - makes the lives of some people a misery.

The government is now having to grapple with the fallout. Its State Environment Protection Policy, which covers odor pollution, is under review, with the last submissions expected this week.

The Victorian Farmers Federation has taken a tough line in its submission and is unapologetic about its view, which is, roughly speaking, that city slickers need to get real about country life if they are going to move to rural areas. Farmers say it goes to the whole issue of the right to farm.

"With urban sprawl, holiday homes, farmlets," said VFF president Peter Walsh, "you get urban-based people trying to impose urban values on rural areas, and we believe this is wrong.

"Right across the state, people's right to run their agricultural businesses is being impeded ... People should know what it is like and not try to change a rural area and turn it into another leafy suburb like Hawthorn or Brighton or somewhere."

Mr Walsh blamed bad planning for today's problems. "We are reaping a bitter harvest of some poor planning decisions by local councils over the years," he said.

The VFF also takes issue with the way in which the Environment Protection Authority measures smell - with a three-member sniffing panel - and the stringency of its odor standards.

"It's all based on the human nose," said a VFF representative, "and it is difficult to get a sound, objective result. Those noses are less accountable, shall we say."

The EPA believes the review will deliver certainty to farmers and communities surrounding them over what is expected and acceptable. It's looking at codes of practice to be developed with each industry, and the practicality of better management regimes to reduce effluent/emission impact.

Odor is measured in units, one odor unit being the point at which an average nose will detect a smell. The authority requires that emissions be no more than one odor unit at the boundary, 99.5 per cent of the time.

Bruce Dawson, the authority's manager of waste management, said the authority's draft position is that this standard will remain.

One of the biggest odor producers is broiler farms. With sheds full of thousands of chickens excreting by the tonne, it can be unimaginably putrid. The poultry industry recognises that it can be smelly, although it said that only 20 farms of 208 in the state have created a nuisance.

The president of the Chicken Meat Council, Mrs Gis Marven, said: "We do believe the public has a right (to clean air), but agriculture, whether you like it or not, creates an odor."

However, she said "we believe many problems can be resolved with a lot of consultation".

Cardinia Shire to Melbourne's south-east presents a classic example of the urban-meets-rural conundrum. There, residents in some areas say they live with putrid smells more than 50 per cent of the time.

"The smell completely engulfs us at times," said Nar Nar Goon resident Paul Ahern, who lives opposite a broiler farm.

"The smell on Christmas Day was atrocious," Mr Ahern said. "You can't ask someone to come over for a barbecue because you don't know how bad it's going to be."

He and his wife, Lorraine, said their daughter, 22, and son, 17, who now lived away from home, did not come home often because of the smell and did not like to bring friends home.

Michael and Mary O'Brien also live next door to the broiler farm. Mr O'Brien is dejected about the whole experience, having moved there 16 months ago to provide his family with clean air and space for the children.

"It gets you down, makes you depressed," he said last week.

The O'Briens asked about odor before buying the property but received advice that there was no problem. "We would move if we could get someone to buy; we'd sell tomorrow, but who's going to buy it?"

The Aherns and O'Briens, with other neighbors, have lodged objections to the farm's application to expand.

The owner of the farm, who did not wish to be named, said neighbors' complaints had been rare before he applied to expand. "Since then, they've been coming in every five or six days," he said.

He said he wants to improve the technology to manage and eliminate odor, but needs to increase the size of his business to make it worthwhile. "We are convinced the new technology will be able to reduce odors to an acceptable level," he said.

Another party with a special interest in foul odors is local government.

In the case of Cardinia Shire, the council has slapped this particular farm with a $1000 fine for odor pollution on Anzac Day this year - an offence disputed by the owner, who said the EPA had found on the same day that there was no odor breach.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................

"Farms with more than 250 pigs, for example, would have to be at least two miles from a church, schools or other public gathering places. "

Utah -
Nose Patrol Will Monitor Iron County Pig Farms
Sunday, April 15, 2001
 

 http://www.sltrib.com/04152001/business/88800.htm
 

BY THOMAS BURR
SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE

    CEDAR CITY -- After eight months and five drafts, Iron County Commissioners have passed an agriculture ordinance that includes the formation of an odor committee to sniff out any smelly farm operations.
    The controversial ordinance was proposed last fall after industrial hog producer Circle Four Farms approached the county about contracting with county farmers to raise pigs for the company. Circle Four already raises about 850,000 porkers at their operation near Milford in neighboring Beaver County.
    Fearing pig farms would dot the landscape, the Iron County Commission placed a moratorium on pig operations while they put together an ordinance.
    More than a dozen public meetings were held on the proposed ordinance, drawing farmers concerned about added regulations and other residents afraid contract hog operations would create an intolerable stink.
    The 40-page ordinance passed unanimously Monday includes creation of a six-member odor committee to form an "objective opinion" on what constitutes an unacceptable odor, said Reed Erickson, a planner for the Five County Association of Governments, who helped Iron County draft the ordinance.
    The ad hoc committee of farmers and nonfarmers can be called by commissioners to review an application for a large operation or determine if a complaint about farm odor is valid. The committee can then make recommendations to the commission on whether to revoke a conditional use permit for a farm.
    The science of measuring odors is not exact, said Erickson, thus the need for an impartial panel of noses.
    The ordinance also mandates that an industrial-size animal farm must have an odor-control plan and obtain a special permit from the county to operate. Separation distances also will apply to operations. Farms with more than 250 pigs, for example, would have to be at least two miles from a church, schools or other public gathering places.
    Commissioner Lois Bulloch said the county has created a well-balanced ordinance that protects all interests.
    "We're getting complaints from both sides so I guess that means we found middle ground," Bulloch said.
    Randy Peck, who had expressed interest in placing a hog farm in Iron County before the controversy began, said last week the odor portion of the ordinance will make it challenging.
    "[The commissioners] have made it pretty damn difficult," he said, "But I'm still going to try."
    Brian Mauldwin, a spokesman for Circle Four, said Wednesday it was too early to decide if the company still wants to place contract farms in the county. He said the company never intended to place hog farms near populated areas and that there was no need for a comprehensive ordinance just to address their proposal.
    "From day one, we've asked to do a pig-only ordinance to address any concerns the county might have about the location of any contract farms," Mauldwin said, "and for eight months the county has said 'no.' "
    To receive a contract to raise a minimum of 2,100 pigs, a farmer would need to be in the right location and able to provide required amounts of water and labor, and be able to finance infrastructure.
    Circle Four would supply the piglets to raise, along with feed, transportation, medications and technical support.
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Pit Additives Score Low on Odor Tests
National Hog Farmer, Mar 15, 2001

 http://industryclick.com//magazinearticle.asp?releaseid=5714&magazinearticleid=68727&siteid=5&magazineid=17

by Joe Vansickle

Thirty-five manure additive products were measured for their ability to reduce odor levels in simulated manure pits in a laboratory at Purdue University.

Two years in the making, an exhaustive industry test of 35 hog manure pit additives has found that 20 of the products were effective some of the time. They reduced at least one of the three air emissions studied.

The National Pork Producers Council's (NPPC) Odor Solutions Initiative recently concluded testing the 35 commercial products for overall odor levels, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia levels.

More than 50 vendors were invited to have their products tested. Of these, 35 manufacturers were willing to have open evaluations of their products, points out Rodney Goodwin, NPPC director of research.

The products were tested in treated reactors against untreated manure. The reactors are 15-in.-diameter PVC columns, 4-ft. deep to simulate a manure pit, he explains.

The tests followed company instructions as to exactly how their products should be used, says NPPC Research Manager Carrie Tengman.

Table - (not included)
Odor levels were measured using olfactometry. A machine called an olfactometer continuously dilutes and delivers a mixture of odorous and odor-free air until an odor detection threshold is reached by an experienced odor-sniffing panel. That threshold is the number of dilutions required for the odor to be detected by 50% of the panel members.

Testing Results
The products were screened in three, 42-day test replications at the Purdue University Agricultural Air Quality Laboratory. The project was designed by an Odor Solutions Initiative committee of producers, scientists and vendors who reviewed and accepted all the testing protocols. Al Heber, Purdue University, served as project director for the pork checkoff-funded work.

“Some of the products did produce significant ammonia or hydrogen sulfide reductions. But only a few of the products would reduce odors from stored slurry,” says Goodwin.

None of the products significantly reduced odor emissions at a 95% confidence level by olfactometry, says Tengman. Seven of the 35 products reduced ammonia levels by 3-15%. Seven others reduced hydrogen sulfide levels by 23-47%. Several of the products listed in Table 1 didn't produce any results different than untreated manure. Some, in fact, increased odor levels to some extent, notes Goodwin.

The manure source was a northern Indiana commercial hog farm that was managed under the same conditions for each of the three test periods, stresses Goodwin. Manure was collected from 90- to 200-lb. pigs. Even though farm conditions were standardized, the composition of the manure varied.

Manure was added to the test reactors once a week. The temperature in the test reactor was held constant throughout the slurry, Heber explains.

Controlling the variables is an advantage of the lab testing protocol over field conditions. That means conditions were more conducive for the pit additives to work in the lab than in the field, and why the lab test can be viewed as a valid screening test.

The other advantage the products had in this study was that they were given three replications to succeed whereas all other industry trials of manure pit additives have only used a single test replication, says Goodwin.

Conclusions
Goodwin concludes: “A manure pit is a dynamic environment. Pigs, temperatures, bacterial populations and pumping out and refilling change the composition of manure pits. Accordingly, there may be times when these pit additive products work well, and other times when they don't work as well. And the research here supports that conclusion.”

Moreover, the manure pit additive products tested aren't guaranteed to work. “That depends as much on the interactions of factors in the manure pit as it does with the product itself,” he says.

NPPC will publish a full rundown of product results soon and will post them on their Web site (www.nppc.org) in the area called “Especially for Producers” under the “Odor Solutions Initiative.”

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HOG NEWS 2000

HOG NEWS 1999

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North Carolina Hog Facts:

 http://members.aol.com/tillery/hogfacts.html

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  North Carolina Hog Watch

 http://www.hogwatch.org/resourcecenter/nc_hoglaws.html

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Missouri, Hog Wars.  Missouri was corporate agriculture's dream state.

 http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/hogwars1.html
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Missouri, Corporate Hog Factories: The Real Results
by Rhonda Perry

Family Farmers are being forced off their land ....

 http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/hog1.html

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Families Against Rural Messes

Mega hog laws.

 http://www.netins.net/showcase/megahoglaws/

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Colorado, Industrial Hog Facilities

 http://www.eieio.org/hogs/news%20articles/colorado.html
 

North Carolina, Duke University, The Smell of Hog Farms

 http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/Dialogue/hog.html

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Sierra Club Hog CAFO Case Studies

Circle Four Farms, Utah
http://www.sierraclub.org/cafos/report99/circlefour.asp

Murphy Family Farms, Illinois
http://www.sierraclub.org/cafos/report99/murphy.asp

Premium Standard Farms, Missouri
http://www.sierraclub.org/cafos/report99/premium.asp

 Prestage Farms, Mississippi
http://www.sierraclub.org/cafos/report99/prestage.asp

Seaboard Corporation, Oklahoma
http://www.sierraclub.org/cafos/report99/seaboard.asp

Smithfield Foods, North Carolina
http://www.sierraclub.org/cafos/report99/smithfield.asp

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