news2000

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HOG NEWS 2000

New Stink Raised Over Pig Farm
Owner counters: Odor is in nose of beholder

The Salt Lake Tribune

BY JUDY FAHYS
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Just up the valley from where Circle Four Farms fattens tens of
thousands of pigs for market, some Milford area residents have become so
disgusted with the associated stench, they have given up barbecuing.

Beaver County Deputy Attorney David Doxey told the state Water Quality Board
Friday this malodorous atmosphere has not only poisoned that summer pastime
but also spoiled the quality of life in general for Circle Four's neighbors.
He asked for the state's help in finding a way to control the smells, despite
the company's insistence the complaints are overblown.

"It's an industry that is completely out of control," Doxey said.

The company was on hand at the meeting to update the board on its efforts to
protect the air, land and water affected by its 15,000-hog facility -- the
17th-largest hog farm in the country. Circle Four's Steve Pullman disputed
Doxey's assessment, calling it "conjectural."

"Mr. Doxey's comments are gross embellishments of the reality, and he should
check the facts," Pullman told the board. He added that most people in the
community support Circle Four.

Company representatives said Circle Four is helping underwrite studies on
better technology for processing the waste and minimizing its effects.
Pullman maintained any odor regulation should be "science-based," rather than
based on subjective opinion.

The question has popped up in every community in the nation that has a hog
farm.

The trouble is, the science of stench is weak, everyone agrees. Some aspects
of what people smell can be measured. But the sum of smells, and how they
make people feel, is best assessed by each -- subjective and unscientific --
nose.

In effect, while one person smells a mild odor, another senses a
gut-wrenching stench.
And some people in Milford, 12 miles from Circle Four, find the pig farm
stink unbearable.

Iron County administrative manager Bryan Harris echoed some of Beaver
County's concerns about Circle Farms' operation. Iron county is trying to
address the problem by attaching requirements to the company's
conditional-use permit, he said.

Beaver County is developing an odor ordinance. The planning commission is on
its third draft and is expected to pass on the new law to the county
commission early next year.

But Doxey said local government feels frustrated by having too little
regulatory and technical expertise to make the limitations on odors stick.
Local government needs the Legislature's help, he said.

Lawmakers have backed away from implementing state controls in the past. They
chose to leave it up to local government to decide whether to have the
industrial livestock operations and how to regulate the ones they have
approved.

Water Quality Board members suggested the best way to handle the odors might
be through an informal coordinating committee that includes the company and
state and local regulators.

Meanwhile, the controversy seems unlikely to blow over anytime soon. The
company is moving forward with an $11 million expansion intended to triple
its size.

http://www.sltrib.com/11182000/utah/44724.htm
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Montgomery Alabama
August 12, 2000

Speakers at hog hearing raise stink
Northern Alabamians travel to Montgomery to protest regulations

By JOHN PECK
Montgomery Correspondent

MONTGOMERY - Come smell for yourself.

Basically, that was the message critics of massive hog farms wanted to leave Friday with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management as it considers changes in regulations to factory-style swine operations.

Some two dozen speakers, mostly from Sand Mountain in northeast Alabama, charged that the proposed revisions aren't tough enough and pale in comparison to other states.

Specifically, critics want greater setback limits between waste lagoons and nearby homes and limitations against pressurized spray liquid waste on fields.

They also want air-quality monitoring to help prevent the stench.
Officials with ADEM said state health officials have reviewed regulations concerning so-called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and haven't found any lapses that would pose a public health threat.

Critics here Friday testified otherwise.

Most were among a group of 40 or so members of Sand Mountain Concerned Citizens who traveled by bus to Montgomery to testify.

''When you walk outside and start gagging and the flies start covering you up, that's not environmental protection,'' complained Sandra Allison of Ider, who said her house is less than a half-mile from two huge hog farms.

''It all sounds good on paper but ADEM needs to come out and spend a day or two to understand what we're going through. We need somebody to come out and see the real world and smell the truth.''

''I love farms. But a hog operation like this is not farming. It's a factory,'' testified Delores Morris, also of Sand Mountain, who said she nearly vomited from the smell just walking to her mailbox.

Rita Floyd of Ider was more specific.

Floyd said the odors are so horrendous she can no longer hang her laundry or go to the family cemetery to pay respects to her deceased son.

''My view from my window is four large hog houses and a holding pond with hog (manure),'' she said.

Their comments were typical of concerns Friday in a two-hour public hearing at ADEM to gather input on the proposed changes.

Richard Hulcher, chief of the division that oversees CAFOs including factory hog farms, said written comments will be accepted through Aug. 18.

The full ADEM commission will review Friday's testimony and any written documents and decide, probably in October whether to adopt, amend or reject the proposed changes, he said.

The CAFOs produce millions of gallons of waste that are stored in lagoons until it is applied to nearby fields.

In some other states, lagoons have broken, spewing gallons of contaminated liquid into nearby streams and rivers.

Such operations raise upward of 4,000 hogs in a single location.

Brian Hardin, director of Alabama Pork Producers, urged ADEM not to be swayed by emotional testimony that strays from the facts.

Hardin said the number of hog farms in Alabama have declined from 5,500 in 1989 to only 500 last year.

The number of swine has likewise declined, from 1.2 million in 1950 to less than 200,000 last year.

He said, while large hog producers don't necessarily like government regulation, the industry accepted the original CAFO rules and support the tighter ones being proposed.

''We can live with these new regulations, but enough is enough,'' he said.

Hardin conceded out-of-state companies own some of the factory hog farms but the day-to-day work is done by farmers who live in the communities and respect the environment.

''They shouldn't be put in the position of fighting their own government to stay in business,'' he said.

Bruce Ellis of the Alabama Rivers Alliance and Kirsten Bryant of the Alabama Environmental Council also testified.

Environmental groups argue the setback limits are still a threat to surface and groundwater.

Bryant told of medical studies showing a direct link between odors emanating from concentrated animal breeding operations and their affect on the health of nearby residents.

Hulcher said he ''categorically rejects'' implications that ADEM failed to consult with the state Health Department and that odors alone pose a health threat.

He said ADEM operates under statutes set by the Legislature and has no authority to establish a bond requirement for hog operators as some environmentalists want or to allow residents within a two-mile radius of a proposed hog farm to decide whether to allow it.

''That's a zoning question,'' he said.

Hulcher said many counties given ''home rule'' to impose such restrictions often find that authority too costly and complex. He released a letter from a regional Environmental Protection Agency official praising Alabama's CAFO rules as a model for other states to follow.

During testimony, environmental officials furnished charts and graphs purporting Alabama's setback limits between waste lagoons and nearby streams and houses are weaker than in surrounding states.

Copies of the proposed rules are available on the Internet at www.adem.state.al.us/proprul.html.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/Aug2000/12-e23726.html

Waste spill taints river in Audrain County
DNR reports 'significant' fish kill in upper Loutre.

By GEORGE MAZURAK of the Tribune's staff

Hog waste from an overflowing lagoon in Audrain County has contaminated more
than three miles of the upper Loutre River, killing small fish and
invertebrates.
A state Department of Natural Resources inspector discovered the spill
Monday afternoon as he was conducting a follow-up inspection at McCaw Farms,
where there was another environmental incident in June.

McCaw Farms has a state permit to operate a feeding operation with as many
as 16,800 hogs in 24 barns, said Connie Patterson, spokeswoman for DNR.
McCaw works under contract with Cargill Pork operations.

The state Department of Conservation has not released a fish-kill number,
but spokeswoman Cindy di Stefano said they included minnows, darters and
aquatic worms. Fish were still dying last night, she said.

"I'd call it a significant spill," said DNR environmental specialist Larry
Lehman.

Earthen berms have been built to prevent additional waste water from
reaching the stream, Lehman said, and dams have been constructed in the
Loutre above and below the spill to contain the hog waste.

It was unclear this morning whether containment efforts would keep the
contaminated water from moving downstream to a large pool near the Route N
bridge.

Lehman, who visited the site yesterday, said the contamination occurred due
to blockage in a pipe that transfers hog waste from one lagoon to a larger
lagoon across the river. The smaller lagoon was overflowing - he estimated
the rate between 75 gallons and 100 gallons per minute - and making its way
across a bean field and into the creek.

At that point, Lehman said, the Loutre measures 15 feet to 20 feet across
and about eight feet deep.

"Once we handle this emergency and contain it, all the information will be
gathered and referred to the water pollution control program, which will
assess the information and determine what course of action needs to be
taken," Lehman said.

A woman who answered the phone this morning at the farm outside Martinsburg
referred questions to a Cargill representative in Columbia. The Columbia
office subsequently referred questions to the same representative, who could
not be reached at the farm.

Patterson said Cargill was pumping contaminated water from the stream into
the farm's lagoon. The company cleaned a half-mile to three-quarters of a
mile of the stream yesterday, she said.

On June 19, a plugged line at McCaw caused a discharge of waste water at a
rate of about 1 gallon per minute into state waters, Patterson said. The
affluent was leaking from an above-ground cleanup riser.

On July 5, the agency issued McCaw a notice of violation. The company filed
a response on Monday, Patterson said, and an agency inspector was conducting
a follow-up examination at the facility when he discovered the new problem.

DNR authorized William McCaw to operate a feeding facility for 5,600 hogs in
December 1992. The agency allowed McCaw to expand to its current capacity in
May 1997.

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Reach George Mazurak at (573) 815-1722 or gmazurak@tribmail.com.
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Cedar Falls, Iowa
Hog manure "mis-management" study
Friday, August 04, 2000

> To alert you to a recent study published in the Journal of
> Soil and Water Conservation, Vol. 55, Number 2, Second Quarter 2000. The
> article is titled, Swine Manure Management Plans in North-Central Iowa:
> Nutrient Loading and Policy Implications and is authored by Laura Jackson,
> a biology Professor at the University of Northern Iowa; Dennis Keeney,
> former Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (and
> President of the Iowa Environmental Council); and Elizabeth Gilbert a
> sociologist and neighbor of large confinement operations in Hardin and
> Hamilton Counties in north-central Iowa. An article about the study
> published in the Des Moines Register today (Friday, Aug 4) is available
> online
> http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4780932/12002689.html
>
> A photograph of the area included in the study showing a cluster of five
> confinements with lagoons can be found on the Council's website at
> http://www.earthweshare.org/livestock.html Click on the photo for Site 3.
>
>
> A copy of the press release for this study follows:
>
> Contact:
> Laura L. Jackson
>
> 319-273-2705
> laura.l.jackson@uni.edu
>
> Too many hogs, too little land, study finds
>
> CEDAR FALLS-As the trend in hog production in Iowa continues to shift from
> smaller dispersed farms to fewer, more concentrated operations, a
> University of Northern Iowa biology professor and two colleagues
> investigated whether or not Iowa's manure management regulations for
> livestock are sufficient to protect water quality. The short answer is no.
>
> "People worry about lagoon spills and accidents," said Laura Jackson, UNI
> associate professor of biology, "but we were more interested in normal,
> everyday practices."
>
> Jackson, Dennis Keeney, former director of the Leopold Center for
> Sustainable Agriculture, and Elizabeth Gilbert, a longtime resident of the
> Iowa Falls area, looked at public records on the manure management
> practices of 10 confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in a
> 6-square-mile area in north central Iowa.
>
> The results of the study, funded by the State Legislature and the U.S.
> Department of Agriculture's Fund for Rural America, have been published in
> the latest issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.
>
> All of the 10 CAFOs were located in Hamilton County, which has a high
> density of swine facilities. Half of the operations used lagoons for
> manure storage and half used earthen basins.
>
> According to state regulations, CAFOs with space for more than 1,333
> market-weight hogs (up to 250 lbs.) must submit a manure management plan to
> secure a construction permit. The researchers used these plans, which are
> public records, to study the balance between hogs and land. They compared
> the plans to the most recent recommendations of Iowa State University
> agricultural engineers.
>
> They found that too much manure from the CAFOs was being applied to too
> little land. Three times as much land would be needed for the nitrogen in
> the manure, and 10 times as much land would be needed for the phosphorus
> content, according to Jackson.
>
> "Our study offers conservative estimates of what hog producers are
>actually doing," said Jackson. "When readers look at our numbers, they have to
> remember that hog producers have a strong economic incentive to dispose of
> manure inexpensively."
>
> The CAFOs legally minimized the land area needed to apply manure in three
> ways. First, they underestimated the amount of nitrogen in the available
> manure. Over 70% of the nitrogen is estimated to escape into the
> atmosphere as ammonia, but then the ammonia returns as rainfall.
>
> Second, they projected above-average crop yields, and finally they applied
> manure to the same field year after year, whether the crop was corn or
> soybeans. (Soybeans, which fix nitrogen naturally, are not usually given
> additional nitrogen fertilizer.)
>
> In one case, a field was counted twice, the researchers noted, and the size
> of some fields was overestimated.
>
> Jackson estimates that one square mile of corn/bean cropland in Hamilton
> County could absorb the phosphorus generated by about 1,660 hogs.
> According to their manure management plans, the 10 CAFOs in the study area
> averaged about 10,000 hogs per square mile.
>
> The researchers conclude that even if loopholes were closed, Iowa's laws
> would still fail to protect its waters from pollution derived from hog
> manure. They recommend:
>
> * Statewide zoning regulations, on a township basis, for density of animals
> * Crop rotation that balances nutrient input and crop uptake
> * Greater use of alternative swine housing systems, especially hooped
> structures, which use a solid waste system
> * Research on ways to reduce ammonia loss to the atmosphere
> * Increased regulatory scrutiny
>
> Susan Heathcote
> Research Director
> Iowa Environmental Council
> 711 East Locust St.
> Des Moines, Iowa 50309
> Phone: 515/244-1194 ext. 12
> FAX: 515/244-7856
> E-mail: heathcote@earthweshare.org

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

Iowa, August 4, 2000
Manure reports are falsified

The Des Moines Register
By PERRY BEEMAN
Register Staff Writer
08/04/2000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hog farmers spread too much manure on crop fields, threatening rivers with
pollution, and then skew their reports to the state to get away with it, a
new study contends.

The report led by University of Northern Iowa biology professor Laura
Jackson says Iowa's state laws that meant to control pollution from large
hog operations have failed. Farmers raising thousands of hogs have applied
manure to soybeans that don't need the fertilizer, the study suggests. They
also bloated crop-yield figures, and underestimated the nitrogen and
phosphorus content of the manure, so they could apply more to fields, the
study reports.

"They are tweaking every last loophole to reduce the amount of land they
need," Jackson said in an interview. Her study checked 10 confinements in a
6-square-mile area. Based on state guidelines, a 1-square-mile area of corn
and soybean ground could handle the phosphorus produced by 1,660 hogs,
Jackson said. On average, the Hamilton County confinements studied had
10,000 hogs per square mile of cropland available for manure spreading.

Farmers should be encouraged to use crop rotations and alternative
confinement structures that use deep bedding to help keep the natural
fertilizers out of waterways, Jackson said.

Norman Schmitt of Rudd, past president of the Iowa Pork Producers
Association, said the state's rules are fine as they are, and most
producers follow them. When they do, pollution shouldn't be an issue, and
the farmer saves money by replacing commercial fertilizer with carefully
applied manure, he added.

The study's criticisms are misguided, Schmitt said.

"The conclusion was drawn before the study began," Schmitt said.

Said Jackson: "It's not an anti-livestock paper. I would like to see a lot
of farmers on the land making a lot of money, not a few corporations
stinking up our waterways."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Iowa State University paid for the
study. Jackson reviewed state-required manure-management records, which are
public, with the help of Dennis Keeney of the Iowa Environmental Council,
former chief of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and
Elizabeth Gilbert, an Iowa Falls homemaker and sociologist who has
frequently criticized large-scale confinements.

The peer-reviewed report appeared in the Ankeny-based Journal of Soil and
Water Conservation.

The researchers mapped planned manure applications in Hamilton County and
compared them with the number of hogs the facilities raise and the amount
of manure they produce. They did not sample rivers and streams to check for
actual pollution, and they were prevented by state law from getting
confidential application records to check how much manure farmers actually
sent to the fields.

Farmers are not required to test the nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the
manure before it is applied. Both are natural fertilizers that can cause
problems in waterways, and in the case of nitrogen, in drinking water.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is considering changes in the
manure-management law. The state's Animal Agriculture Consulting
Organization has set a public meeting on the rules for 9 a.m. Aug. 16 at
the Wallace State Office Building.

Michael Murphy, chief lawyer for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources,
said the rules leave a lot of wiggle room for producers. For example, only
an initial manure-management plan is required, and they don't have to be
filed until a couple of months before the first time manure from the
facility is spread on the land. The manure plans can be changed without
notice the day after they are filed, Murphy added.

Navigation: Headlines : Local Government : Report
Copyright © 2000, The Des Moines Register.

............................................................................................................................................................................................
North Carolina
Friday July 21, 2000
Yahoo - Company Press Release

North Carolina Hog Farm Agrees to Comply With Emergency Administrative Order Issued by the EPA

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 21, 2000--The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that Barefoot Farms, Inc., a large hog farm located in Four Oaks, Johnson County, North Carolina, is cooperating with an Emergency Administrative Order issued to it last week.

The order was issued by EPA, in accordance with Section 1431 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), to address nitrate contamination of the private wells of two adjacent residences. The contamination may present an imminent and substantial threat to human health and the environment. Nitrate contamination in the ground water at the facility and vicinity will continue to threaten human health until the source of contamination is removed and the site is remediated or until a permanent alternative source of water is provided.

The order requires Barefoot Farms, Inc. to: provide alternate water to residences with contaminated wells immediately; conduct additional sampling of nearby wells to determine potential impacts from the facility (extent of plume, other contaminated wells) and provide a long term permanent remedy, as appropriate.

Barefoot Farms, Inc. is located on Highway 701 South in Four Oaks on approximately 10 acres. The swine facility has been operating since at least 1993 and was incorporated under the current owner in 1996. During this time, the facility has operated a waste lagoon and spray irrigation disposal system for the purpose of disposal of wastes generated by swine.

Drinking water with high concentrations of nitrates can cause serious illness and death in infants under six months of age from a condition known as ``blue baby syndrome.'' For adults and children, too much nitrate reduces the capacity of blood to carry oxygen, turning skin blue, causing shortness of breath, and depriving the brain of oxygen, which impairs metabolism, thinking and other bodily functions. These symptoms can develop rapidly in infants.

-------------------------------------
Contact:

EPA Media Relations
Dawn Harris, 404/562-8421

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000721/ga_epa.html

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North Carolina
TOTAL $117,000; Water quality fines paid by 2 hog farms
Friday, July 14, 2000

BY WILLIAM DAVIS, Staff Writer
Wilmington Morning Star
Copyright 2000 Wilmington Star-News

State regulators have levied the second-highest fine ever for water quality violations against an industrial hog-farm operation in Bladen and Jones counties and cited another in Duplin County.
   Brown's of Carolina Inc. paid more than $98,000 and Murphy Family Farms Inc. paid a $19,000 fine. Both companies are subsidiaries of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods.
   The fine against Brown's is the second largest water quality fine ever issued by the state, said Ernie Seneca of the N.C. Division of Water Quality.
   The state fined Brown's for problems at four farms in Bladen and Jones counties found between Jan. 6 and Feb. 18. At the farms, inspectors discovered waste lagoons had filled above safe levels, putting them in danger of overflowing during storms. On one of the Jones County farms, the state found waste had been improperly discharged onto a spray field.
   State laws require farms to report if their lagoon levels rise above maximum levels, something Brown's did not do, said Mr. Seneca. The fines were levied "not only for having high levels, but for not notifying us," Mr. Seneca said.
   The Bladen County farms, located between Clarkton and Elizabethtown, can have 3.4 million pounds of hogs at a time, Mr. Seneca said. Hog production is measured by the pound, not by the number of animals.
   The Murphy Farms fine came for a Duplin County farm. Last August, a broken pipe discharged waste into wetlands that empty into Doctors Creek, part of the Cape Fear River Basin, Mr. Seneca said. The farm has 2.3 million pounds of hogs.
   Murphy Farms vice president Lois Britt said the pipe was broken by a lawn mower. Since the incident, she said the company has alerted workers to be careful around pipes.
   The state issued the fines in May and June. Both companies have already paid the fines.
   The largest fine ever levied by the N.C. Division of Water Quality was $110,000 against Oceanview Farms of Onslow County in 1995. State officials charged that Oceanview had spilled 25 million gallons of waste into the New River. After the company appealed, a judge and the state reduced the fine to $61,820, payable over six years.
   In the Brown's case, a history of problems led to the large fine, Mr. Seneca said. Since 1996, the state has fined the company more than $34,000 for six separate violations, in addition to the recent fines, according to N.C. Division of Water Quality records.
   In June, The Water Keeper Alliance, a private coalition of river, sound and bay "keepers" from across the country, filed a lawsuit against Brown's, Murphy, Smithfield and Carroll's Foods Inc., another Smithfield subsidiary. The suit charges that the swine producers knowingly polluted North Carolina's coastal plain during the growth of the hog industry from 1990 to the present.
   Representatives from Smithfield Foods and Brown's of Carolina did not return calls Thursday.

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Alberta, Canada
July 4, 2000
Rural town raises stink over hog farm
Alberta residents fear environmental crisis if Taiwanese firm's $40-million bid approved

Douglas Quan
The Ottawa Citizen

A Taiwanese company has raised a big stink in a southern Alberta community with a proposal to build a $40-million hog farm operation there.

The Taiwan Sugar Corp. wants to build a 320-hectare, 80,000 hog farm near Foremost, Alta., just east of Lethbridge. If given the go-ahead, the hog farm would be one of the largest in Alberta, according to Fred Olthuis, chair of Alberta Pork Producers.

While township officials have given their blessing to the project, a majority of residents are fiercely opposed to it on environmental and social grounds.

More than 700 of 1,100 residents signed a petition to reject the proposal, and the county's municipal planning commission also voted against it.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/000723/4496884.html

Return-Path: <scott.dye@prodigy.net>

Feedstuffs Magazine
Hog Industry Insider -- June 19, 2000
By STEVE MARBERY
Feedstuffs Correspondent

A coalition of rural citizens and environmentalists have petitioned the
Wyoming Environmental Quality Council, demanding amendments to the state's
air quality regulations on confined animal feeding operations. Signed by
members of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, Platte County Concerned
Citizens and the Laramie County Resource Council, the petition requests
ambient air standards for confined animal feeding operations of 1,000 animal
units or more be strengthened to a 2:1 odor dilution threshold as determined
by Scentometer or other instruments, devices or techniques designated by the
state. Two measurements would be separated by at least 15 minutes. The
current state regulatory odor standard is 7:1 dilution. More than 150
residents of the Wheatland, Wyo., area also have petitioned the governor
requesting a change in state odor standards.

At the center of the debate is Wyoming Premium Farms, a subsidiary of Itoham
of Japan. The company operates a 5,000-sow farrow-finish unit near
Wheatland, Wyo., and has plans for more sows. Residents have been fighting
the farm since its inception, but the Wyoming Department of Environmental
Quality insists the operation has complied with all regulations, and then
some.

Feedstuffs Magazine
Hog Industry Insider -- June 19, 2000
By STEVE MARBERY
Feedstuffs Correspondent

Initiative 300 upheld

The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the state's corporate farming law,
Initiative 300, last month in a seven-year-old lawsuit involving a 500-sow
Syracuse, Neb.-based feeder pig operation owned by David Zahn. In Norman
Hall versus Progress Pig Inc., the court concluded the hog operation was a
nonfamily farming corporation in violation of I-300, a constitutional
amendment. Zahn resides three miles from the hog farm. Though he closely
supervises farming activities, the court concluded his duties were not
consistent with the definition of day-to-day labor and management. He has
owned Progress Pig since 1984. The operation was incorporated in 1990.

According to the opinion, Zahn is responsible for the operation's business
strategy and administrative activities, budgeting, payroll, feed
formulation, breeding strategies and so on, however, he was involved in
"minimal labor." The high court also concluded I-300 is not void for
vagueness and does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.
Constitution.

Slurry irrigation ban?

Western Nebraska's Panhandle is experiencing a latter-day land rush, with
investors looking to convert irrigated corn sections into hog dollars.
Developers have been drawn to southwestern Nebraska by a lack of rural
zoning in counties that sometimes number fewer than 1,000 people.

Lately, counties that are nearly 100% dependent on agriculture have been
opposing large hog units. Rural zoning is emerging, as in eastern Nebraska.
One of the more creative zoning tactics involves an unprecedented Lincoln
County (North Platte) proposal to ban the use of center pivots or spray guns
to distribute liquid manure. Last week, the local planning commission
tightened its 1983 zoning rules by proposing a 15-page set of restrictions
in response to citizens opposing a 25,000-head hog complex planned by
developers connected to Sand Livestock Co. Nebraska's Department of
Environmental Quality approved a construction permit for the operation in
December, but building has been delayed by county zoning. If approved, new
zoning rules will require confined animal feeding operations (all species)
to obtain conditional-use permits. They would be banned from distributing
slurry through a "center pivot, towline or volume gun or any other
irrigation distribution system."

The county also proposed one-half-mile buffers between homes, churches and
schools and farms with 1,250-2,500 head (plus 55 lb.). Setbacks range to one
mile for operations with 50,000 or more hogs. Commissioners also have
proposed buffers between concentrated animal feeding operations. Farms with
50,000 head must be at least one mile apart. Smaller facilities (2,500-head)
must be separated by one-half mile. If owned by the same person and approved
by commissioners, they can be closer. Large operations (50,000 head) must be
at least two miles from populated areas (10 homes within a quarter section),
and animal feeding operations with more than 2,500-head may be no closer
than four miles to incorporated towns. Proposed rules require disposal of
dead animals and after birth within 24 hours, among other stipulations,
including strict regulations on lagoons. Fees would range from $500 to
$2,000.

Standoff at stinking water

Lincoln County (previous entry) was one of western Nebraska's first to adopt
rural zoning, but it won't be likely be the last. Several other area
counties are developing ordinances aimed primarily at hog units. Among them
is Hayes County, which borders Lincoln County on the south. Commissioners
have formed a zoning committee and retained land-use planning consultants to
counter a 36,000-head finishing venture proposed by an affiliate of Sand
Livestock Co. that is expanding in western Nebraska. The proposed Hayes
County project would emerge on adjoining sites (18,000-head each) on high
ground not far from Stinking Water Creek, a meandering canyon-clad stream
that feeds the Republican River watershed.

Opponents have formed a nonprofit organization, Any Citizen for Resources &
Environmental Support (ACRES). At a June 13 meeting, they questioned a pork
project representative. A few "radical" citizens hurled invectives from the
back of the room. Any efforts to compromise were nixed. Undeterred, the
company official beat a hasty retreat, but not before informing residents
the project would proceed, regardless of sentiment. Developers have
land-purchase options and are seeking manure application easements with
neighboring landowners. However, construction permits have not been formally
requested. Other Hayes County sites are being considered, according to
sources.

Among new area landowners with possible links to proposed Hayes County pork
production is George Seward, a Yuma, Colo., rancher. He has acquired several
sections. Intermediator is the 1031 Corporation of Longmont, Colo., which
has formed the 1031 PP Land Co. to hold property until completion of a
tax-deferred exchange. Seward also owns land in adjoining Dundy County,
where pork projects have failed to materialize due to the emergence of rural
zoning and tight restrictions on groundwater.

Dundy County is in the Upper Republican River Natural Resource District
(NRD), which has a moratorium on new irrigation wells due to declining water
tables. Hayes County is in the Middle Republican River NRD, which began
tightening water controls two years ago. New wells, even those under similar
ownership, must be at least one-quarter mile apart. According to Dan Smith,
NRD district director of Curtis, Neb., spacing rules were added in 1998 when
the district crossed a threshold of 3,000 irrigation wells. The district
also is requiring metering of wells with at least 50-gal.-per-minute
capacity. That process began with alluvial wells and will be extended to
upland wells in January. Groundwater in the district, supplied by the
Ogallala Aquifer, has declined only 2 ft. since 1974, he said. Limits are
designed to minimize affects on the Republican River, which flows into
Kansas. Nebraska has been sued by Kansas for restricting water drainage.

On a related note, Hayes County citizens asked commissioners last week to
accelerate a rural zoning plan. The county cannot use Nebraska's interim
zoning rule, which would expedite land-use planning if zoning rules are
patterned after those in an adjoining county. That option dissolved Jan. 1,
because residents opposed rural zoning. Since then, a groundswell of
opposition has emerged in response to the hog project.

Opponents argue the soil is too light to support heavy hog concentrations,
though some parts of the county contain a clay base. Odor is a bigger issue,
said Lynn Harberg, farmer and zoning committee member. Residents, mostly
farmers and ranchers, are worried mainly about diffusion of odor via
irrigation systems. Even six months ago, most residents opposed zoning, he
said. "We have seen and heard what's going on in other counties and states,
and we don't want that to happen here." Planning consultants have told
commissioners ordinances can be implemented within six months.

Copyright 2000, The Miller Publishing Company, a company of Rural Press Ltd.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................

Iowa, June 16, 2000
Iowa Pseudorabies Rules on Hot Seat

The Iowa PRV eradication program was progressing well until a series of outbreaks struck the northern two-thirds of the state earlier this year.

Iowa’s tough new pseudorabies (PRV) rules will do more to remove small-to-medium-sized pork producers than it will to eradicate PRV, contends Paul Armbrecht, DVM, chairman of the Iowa PRV Advisory Committee.

The movement restrictions on PRV-negative, weaned pigs from vaccinated and stable but positive sow farms are a great burden to infected, larger farms using multi-site production systems, says producer John Korslund, DVM, also a member of the committee.

At press time, a number of informational meetings were happening around Iowa to inform producers of emergency rules that were to take effect June 1 through Aug. 15....

The state’s previous PRV clean-up program had the attention and cooperation of producers, he emphasizes. It may not have been progressing at a pace satisfactory to state and federal officials, but it was getting the job done.

Completion of eradication in 2000 was still within sight, says Armbrecht. Iowa was down to about 200 quarantined, infected herds.

Then a series of disease blowups struck last winter and continued into the spring, upping infection to about 540 herds in the northern two-thirds of the state....

...This uncertainty has discouraged producers such as Korslund, Eagle Grove, IA. He is calling for a re-evaluation of the state’s PRV regulations.... In his case, Korslund’s sow herd was well vaccinated and still became infected – for the third time – in early May....

... "I want to emphasize that our goal in Iowa is to eradicate PRV without also eradicating pork producers," says Vilsack. Smaller producers will have few options but to exit the business without federal help and guidance.

http://www.homefarm.com/nhf/articles/0006/000602.htm

.......................................................................................................................................................................................
Oklahoma: State investigates pig burial claims
05/30/2000
Oklahoman Online
By Michael McNutt
Staff Writer
http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/shart?ID=496749&TP=getarticle

MARSHALL -- The state Agriculture Department is investigating claims that
hundreds of pigs were buried without state permission at least two years
before disease wiped out the herd of an abandoned hog farm in northern Logan
County last fall.

Terri Eicher, a former employee of Cimarron Pork Inc., said part of her job
was collecting bodies of dead pigs and burying them in unlined earthen pits
on the 320-acre farm.

Eicher recently met with a state agriculture department inspector and pointed
out two burial sites on an aerial map.

"We were aware of the two that this ex-employee had told us about," said Jack
Carson, a department spokesman. "It doesn't hurt to have this testimony."

The department's investigation is continuing, he said.

Ada Pfeiffer, a department inspector who met with Eicher, said in her report
that Eicher "just wanted us to know of the possible environmental problems
that she knew may exist so we could handle it properly."

It is unknown how many hogs are buried at the sites near a small creek on the
property, Carson said. There are no records indicating that Cimarron Pork
received permission to bury the pigs.

"We're not going to know actually until we get the cleanup process finished,"
Carson said.

Cimarron Pork shut its Logan County hog operation in November after disease
wiped out most of its swine population.

A little more than a year before that, Eicher said, she and two other workers
dumped several 20- to 30-gallon barrels containing dead pigs into a bucket of
a front-end loader at the end of each work day.

The pigs would be hauled to an open pit for burial. She said she worked at
the farm for three months in 1998.

Another six adult sows or boars usually would die each day, Eicher said. They
were dragged by pickup to the pit, she said.

The pit was about 100 feet in diameter and about 25 feet deep, Eicher said.
It was not covered at the end of the day, and it was common for coyotes and
other predators to drag some of the carcasses out of the pit.

"You could tell the pigs were gnawed on," Eicher said

Eicher said during the time she worked there, one pit was filled with dead
pigs. It was covered with about 2 feet of soil. She said she helped dig a
similar-size pit nearby where she dumped more dead pigs.

It is against state law to bury dead pigs unless emergency approval is given.
Corporate farms usually contract with rendering firms to haul away dead pigs.

The owners of Cimarron Pork declined to comment.

Calvin Burgess, listed as a principal owner of Cimarron Pork and owner of
Canam Construction, did not return telephone calls and did not respond to a
fax requesting an interview.

John Thompson, general manager of Cimarron Pork, also failed to return
telephone calls.

Thompson also works for Dominion Farms, which is in the same office building
as Canam Construction in Edmond.

State inspectors found pig bones during a return visit after investigators
with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers and
the state attorney general's office entered the abandoned farm May 10.

Federal and state officials are investigating whether Cimarron Pork violated
regulations by leaving behind dead hogs and a solid waste lagoon. The hog
farm, which opened in 1992, housed about 8,300 breeding animals and about
21,000 baby and feeder pigs.

State agriculture department officials also are looking into why the company
failed to start cleanup activity on the site six months after shutting down
operations last November. A hearing is set for June 6.

Cimarron Pork was given emergency approval in November to bury hogs on its
site after its general manager, Jeff Towler, reported that disease was
killing about 300 pigs a day.

Towler told the department Nov. 6 that the farm had been hit several weeks
earlier with an outbreak of a gastrointestinal disease.

Cimarron Pork was given permission to bury pigs in a lined pit through Dec.
31. However, Pfeiffer reported the pit was not lined when she went to check a
week later. She found the hog farm abandoned.

In its carcass removal plan filed Aug. 24, 1998, with the agriculture
department, Cimarron Pork listed a rendering company as being retained to
handle emergency situations. The company's officials later said they were
never hired by Cimarron Pork.

Cimarron Pork used an incinerator to dispose of dead hogs, according to
paperwork filed with the agriculture department. However, it was a small
incinerator, incapable of handling more than two or three hogs at a time,
former employees said.

Eicher said she worked in the Cimarron Pork's maintenance department. It was
common for flush pipes in barns to get clogged with baby pigs that fell
through grated floors, she said.

She usually was called upon to get into the backed up water and clear up the
pipes, she said.

Eicher said she was told a declining hog market led to her dismissal in
October 1998. However, her dismissal occurred a day after she reported seeing
another employee smack a sow in the head with a piece of wood, Eicher said.
........................................................................................................................................................................................

May 18, 2000
Impact Calculations for A Hog Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation
Dr. William J.Weida

http://www.factoryfarm.org/docs/impactcalculations500.doc

www.factoryfarm.org

.......................................................................................................................................................................................
Tulsa, Oklahoma

http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/shart?ID=488134&TP=getarticle

Dead pigs raise stink at farm
05/12/2000
By Michael McNutt
Staff Writer

MARSHALL -- A rendering company was never hired to haul away dead pigs at an
abandoned hog farm even though it was included as part of the farm's carcass
removal plan filed with the state, a representative of the company said
Thursday.

Cimarron Pork Inc. listed El Reno Bi-Products of Calumet as handling
emergency situations in its carcass removal plan filed Aug. 24, 1998, with
the state Department of Agriculture.

The company shut down its hog operation in northern Logan County in November
after disease wiped out most of its swine population.

Federal and state officials are investigating whether Cimarron Pork violated
regulations by leaving behind dead hogs and a solid waste lagoon on its
320-acre site.

Cimarron Pork used an incinerator to dispose of dead hogs, according to
paperwork filed with the agriculture department.

However, when an outbreak of disease hit the hog farm last fall, Cimarron
Pork asked the department for permission to begin burying the dead pigs.

Dan Parrish, director of the department's water quality services, wrote back
to Cimarron Pork's general manager, Jeff Towler, that the carcass plan said
dead hogs would be removed in emergency situations by El Reno Bi-Products.

Mike Hansard, with El Reno Bi-Products, said that was a misrepresentation.

He said his company has never had such a contract with the hog farm.

Towler told the department Nov. 6 that the farm had been hit several weeks
earlier with an outbreak of a gastrointestinal disease. He said hogs were
dying at a rate of 300 per day.

Cimarron Pork received permission to bury the hogs through Dec. 31 in lined
pits.

A follow-up inspection showed that Cimarron Pork did not put a liner in a
burial pit it dug, said Jack Carson, a department spokesman.

Cimarron Pork opened its $12.5 million swine farm in July 1992, shortly after
state law began allowing corporate hog farming in the state.

State laws that went into effect two years ago would prohibit a hog farm from
being developed at the Cimarron Pork site, Carson said.

Cimarron Pork had six months from the time it went out of business to begin
cleanup operations at its site, Carson said. The deadline was Tuesday.

A hearing will be held next month into why cleanup activities have not
started, Carson said. Ownership of the land, which has two mortgages, also
will be discussed at the hearing.

All content copyrighted 2000 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................
Tulsa, Oklahoma
http://www.tulsaworld.com/Default.asp?WCI=Displaystory&ID=000510_Ne_a15epara

EPA raids abandoned hog farm

By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
5/11/00
Pork probe A sign is posted Wednesday at the gate of the abandoned Cimarron
Pork Co. near Crescent where federal and state officials probed allegations
of swine pollution problems at the former hog farm.
J. PAT CARTER / Associated Press

A warrant was issued based on allegations of environmental concerns.
CRESCENT -- Federal investigators swooped into a giant, abandoned hog farm
Wednesday -- acting on allegations of a possibly leaking waste lagoon,
exposed pig carcasses and other environmental violations at what had been one
of the first corporate pork operations built in Oklahoma.
Agents with the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers served a search warrant on the Cimarron Pork Inc. site in Logan
County. The hog farm has been abandoned as long as six months, authorities
said.

EPA spokesman David Bary confirmed that investigators were following up on
complaints about possible mass pig burial sites near a waterway and the
leaking lagoon.

"To my knowledge, that's about it," Bary said. Federal agencies were
approaching Wednesday's search as a civil action, but Bary noted that could
change if evidence warrants.

"There's nothing we have before us to suggest there is criminal activity
there," Bary said. "We'll look at everything we found in our investigation .
. . If we found any other violation of federal environmental rules . . . then
we would proceed with an enforcement action."

Some environmentalists believe Cimarron Pork regularly flouted the law.
Margaret Ruff, director of the watchdog group Oklahoma Wildlife Federation,
said her group has photos showing hog carcasses left to rot.

"We tipped them off," Ruff said of the federal probe.

Environmentalists are alarmed because Cimarron Pork is situated by a creek
that eventually runs into Otter Creek. That waterway is a tributary for the
Cimarron River, Ruff said.

No phone numbers could be found for Cimarron Pork President John Thompson or
Vice President Calvin Burgess. A call to General Manager Jeff Towler's
residence in Mulhall was not returned.

The company may have gone out of business because disease claimed too many of
its pigs, according to reports. Cimarron Pork was contracted to raise pigs
for food-giant Farmland Industries, according to reports.

In fact, the hog farm was one of the first commercial operations in Oklahoma,
said Jack Carson, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.

The company received its license in 1993, and Gov. David Walters attended the
grand opening, several sources said.

The irony, Carson said, is that Cimarron Pork began when the state did not
have strong laws governing hog farm operations. Subsequent legislation would
have stopped the farm before it began, he said.

"If there wasn't a hog facility out there today, and they came to us wanting
to build where Cimarron Pork is sitting, they would not be able to get a
license," Carson said. "The terrain is wrong, and they are too close to the
creek. They have several problems."

Cimarron Pork has another problem with the state Department of Agriculture.
The operation has missed a Tuesday state deadline for coming up with a
closure plan.

Under a closure plan, hog farm representatives would inform state officials
how they would perform cleanup duties, such as draining and filling in the
waste lagoon.

A formal hearing on the closure plan delays is scheduled for June 6 in
Oklahoma City.

Cimarron Pork has not housed pigs since November, Carson said, but
allegations about mass graves in the creek may be unfounded. Representatives
of the state Attorney General's Office and Agriculture Department have
visited the site and found no evidence of carcasses.

"An inspector for the attorney general visited two weeks ago and didn't find
anything," Carson said. "Our water-quality director walked the entire creek
last Thursday and did not find any carcasses in the creek."

Cimarron Pork went out of business late last year, although a caretaker
remains at the site.

In a Nov. 6, 1999, letter to the state agriculture department, Cimarron
Pork's Towler wrote that the farm was hit by several diseases that killed
hundreds of young pigs each day.

"It is becoming impossible to keep up with the death losses that are
occurring with this infection, as they are dying at a rate of about 300 per
day," Towler wrote, the company wanted permission to bury these pigs because
the numbers dying were too much for Cimarron's incinerator to handle.

"Under this situation, the pigs would be buried well away from any body of
water and away from any area over which rain water runoff would flow," Towler
continued.

A Nov. 8 reply by Daniel Parrish, the Agriculture Department's water-quality
director, granted Cimarron Park the right to bury its pigs until Dec. 31,
1999.

Rod Walton, World staff writer, can be reached at 581-8457 or via e-mail at
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com.
Copyright © 2000, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

Planned Hog Research Center Won’t Stink-Much

WARNER, Okla. (AP) -

Oklahoma State University officials say a planned high-tech, $3 million hog research facility won't smell at least not much.

"We have a very high confidence level that the center can do what we say it will do, which is remove 90 percent of the odors that commonly come with high concentrations of hogs," said Monty Karns, OSU facilities engineer.

Karns said the 800-hog OSU Swine Teaching and Research Center will use microbe remediation and "biofilters" made of hay to eliminate most offensive odors coming from the center.

"When it's complete, there won't be anything else like it in the world," Karns said. "It will contain the latest features in odor elimination and groundwater protection.

"The center borrows stench-control technology from the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University, Karns said.

Bill Barfield, head of OSU's biosystems and agricultural engineering department, said the building will be so odor-free that most people won't even know it's there.

In a few weeks, the university is expected to seek bids for the experimental facility, said Harry Birdwell, vice president of business and external relations.

From there, Birdwell said he plans to get permission from OSU regents in June to pick a contractor for the project. He said he thinks construction could begin in August and finished a year later.

OSU officials agreed to move their 90-year-old swine operation in February 1999 after complaints about its smell from real estate agents and city officials in Stillwater. The school's current swine barn is west of town, next to a motel.

School officials had considered simply doing odor-control projects on the current facility but dropped that idea.

The proposed facility would be about a mile north and a mile west of the existing one well away from retail and residential areas, said OSU spokeswoman Natalea Watkins.

The facility would provide instruction, research and ongoing odor-control development.

Dennis Howard, an OSU regent and commissioner of the state Agriculture Department, said the center will be the next generation of swine facilities.

"In the future, I predict this is the kind of facility that the Environmental Protection Agency is going to require corporate hog operations to build," Howard said.

All content copyrighted 2000 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

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

Olivia, Minn.

Saturday, March 25, 2000

Renville County's odor ordinance causes stink
Susan Hogan/Albach / Star Tribune

OLIVIA, MINN. -- The first thing travelers on Hwy. 212 in Renville County smell is yeast. Then comes a whiff of hog manure, followed by scents similar to rotting garbage and ammonia.

Some people say the county stinks.

So much so, that county commissioners are pushing to enact the first odor nuisance ordinance in the state. If the ordinance passes, nuisance stinkers could face criminal charges.

"I've raised livestock and been in odorous situations, but this is extremely bad," said Commissioner Bob Ryan of Bird Island, where a city sign reads: "a breath of fresh air."

The ordinance isn't an easy sell. In this west-central Minnesota county, agriculture is about as important as breathing. And the foulest odors are emanating from big farming cooperatives formed to ensure the survival of small farmers.

"Agriculture is a $300 million industry in Renville County," said Dick Hagen, 65, an agricultural communications and marketing consultant, who has lived in rural Olivia for 30 years.

"This ordinance is not necessary," Hagen said. "It's another stranglehold on agriculture."

What's happening in the county is a microcosm of how agriculture is changing nationally. Big farming is being embraced as the wave of the future. With that has come big, new odor problems that threaten to make fresh country air a thing of the past.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) only began monitoring for air quality on large farms three years ago. The agency says it can't keep up with public complaints about the odors. In 1999, the MPCA responded to 69 of the 301 statewide odor complaints about livestock feedlots.

Some of the complaints targeted ValAdCo, a large hog confinement cooperative in the county, recently declared a "potential threat to human health" by the Minnesota Department of Health. Last year, the co-op equaled or exceeded a state hydrogen sulfide standard of 30 parts per billion on 167 occasions -- worst than any feedlot in the state -- according to the MPCA. ValAdCo is contesting the findings.

"When the first feedlots came in, no one expected them to have this level of odor," said Rick Strassman, supervisor of the MPCA's Air Monitoring Unit. "The issues were always the air quality of paper mills or oil refineries or traditional smokestack industries. But now farms have gotten big enough that they're a problem."

Battle lines

Only 17,500 people live in Renville County, which stretches 983 square miles across a flat patchwork of farms. The county leads the state in corn and soybean production, and ranks third in hog production. Grain elevators are centerpieces in the major cities.

The odor ordinance has pitted farmer against farmer and even splintered some families. "Some people won't sit together in church," Ryan said. "And their kids aren't allowed to play together."

The county's trouble began in the late 1990s with the development of several "value-added" farm cooperatives. The cooperatives' goal was to add monetary value to farmers' crops by using them in operations such as hog production.

Three of the cooperatives house more than 2 million hens, hogs and fish within a small radius. Along with large, private livestock operations that developed, the county suddenly was faced with animal waste and other smells many times more potent than those on small farms.

"The problem is that too many of these co-ops have gotten too big," said Rodney Skalbeck, 66, a farmer from Sacred Heart. "We had few problems with livestock in the county until the large factory farms started coming in. We need a plan that will stop the big polluters but not hog-tie the small farmers."

But many farmers consider the co-ops their economic salvation. Some shareholders say there isn't an odor problem at all. Others, such as Hagen, say the smells are normal for "progressive agriculture." Many are skeptical about odors affecting people's quality of life or their health.

David Rieke, a hog farmer from Fairfax, concedes that the odors are bad at times. But he says the ordinance doesn't hurt just problem stinkers, but ordinary farmers as well.

"The ordinance opens it up so anybody can complain at any time about anybody," said Rieke, 51, who operates four large hog barns. "I sympathize with the people complaining, but we should be concerned about the problem places and leave everybody else alone."

Public response

At a public hearing held by commissioners last month, 150 people turned out, most to speak against the ordinance. Nearly 300 people signed petitions opposing the ordinance. And dozens of people submitted letters, both pro and con.

Many people said the ordinance wasn't needed, was too strict, too costly, unreasonable and would be the downfall of agriculture. They also said the methods for measuring odor were too subjective.

"The smell is more noticeable to some people than others," said Frank Johnson, 78, a retired farmer from Hector. "So how do you legislate that? What may be very inoffensive to me may be very offensive to you."

The ordinance proposes measuring odor two ways. A Jerome meter would be used to measure levels of hydrogen sulfide gas, one cause of feedlot odor. In addition, a panel of people would serve as a nose patrol, determining the intensity of odors by comparing them to the chemical N-butanol, a standard chemical used for ranking odor.

Commissioners are considering other methods, too, such as bag samples instead of a nose patrol. At least two methods are needed because odors can be intense even when hydrogen sulfide levels are low.

"Some would call the N-butanol approach pseudo-scientific, but it's come a long way," said Dean Fundine, an MPCA air-monitoring specialist. "The problem is with the panel selection. You can't have eaten Mexican food. You can't have a cold. They have to be available on short notice."

And they need to be people county residents will trust, which could be in short supply.

Odor prevention

The ordinance may not be finalized for months. As it stands now, violators could face misdemeanor charges with a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $700 fine or, as a last resort, they could be shut down.

Commissioner Ryan said the ordinance targets large operations and won't hurt small farmers. Minnesota statutes exempt some small farms from being considered public nuisances.

"Some of these big facilities have been putting out odors that were bad enough that you couldn't stay there and talk," Ryan said. "This ordinance gives us a way to say, 'You have to do something.' "

The county's primary stinkers already have taken steps to reduce odors. Two weeks ago, the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, which processes more than 2 million tons of beets annually, opened a $12 million wastewater treatment facility, which the MPCA predicts will cut odor significantly.

ValAdCo says it, too, is curbing odor by covering its 14 hog manure lagoons with felt-like fabric covered with straw. It also has placed straw around fans that blow out of the hog barns. Neighbors say the straw has cut the odor, but not enough.

"You can't escape the smell," said Geraldine Zimmerman, 69, who lives in Bird Island, near a problem ValAdCo site south of Olivia. "The smell is outside your house, it's inside your house, it makes you sick."

ValAdCo has seven facilities in the county. The co-op markets between 4,000 and 5,000 hogs weekly, but incurred a net loss of $4.6 million for the year ended Aug. 31, 1999, according to the company's newsletter.

The site near the Zimmermans has been especially troublesome to neighbors, who've complained about dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, respiratory problems, migraine headaches and other problems.

One woman closed a day-care operation because the children got sick. Some neighbors have quit gardening, outdoor walking and even sitting outdoors because the odor is overbearing.

"People know we're hurting," said Zimmerman, who quit raising chickens because of the hog odor. "But because we've complained, people who used to be our friends don't want anything to do with us."

Her husband Don, a retired farmer, worries that farmers are sacrificing their health for money. "They just smell that green stuff," he said.

Eddie Crum, ValAdCo's CEO, said the company had significant odor problems at the site three years ago, but has made "excellent progress" in abating the smells. He says many neighbors have told him the change is noticeable.

"I don't get sick. Employees aren't getting sick," said Crum, 35, who lives in town. "I have a very visceral reaction to the thought that we shouldn't be doing what we do. If the ValAdCos of the world weren't out here growing protein in a highly efficient fashion, there would be people starving to death in the world today."

http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=ODOR25

............................................................................................................................................................................................
The Gazette-Virginian, So. Boston, Va, Wednesday, March 22, 2000, page 6.

Beaufort Hog Farm Ordered To Prepare Odor Management

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina took its first regulatory action Tuesday under new rules for controlling animal odors, ordering a Beaufort County hog farm to prepare a detailed odor management plan.

The state Division of Air Quality directed Vanguard Farms to prepare a plan for controlling objectionable odors at its hog operation near Chocowinity, about 10 miles south of Washington.

"We are optimistic that the farm can carry out low-cost measures to address these odor problems," said Keith Overcash, the agency's deputy director.

DAQ inspectors went to the site in response to complaints from nearby residents, DAQ officials said.

Now, Vanguard must submit an odor management plan to the state within 90 days, and the DAQ has 90 more days to approve it. If the plan is approved, the farm would have 30 days to comply with it. The DAQ can fine facilities up to $10,000 per violation for rule noncompliance.

Requiring an odor management plan is the first regulatory action the DAQ can take to curb objectionable odors. If the problems persist, the state eventually could require the farm to install special equipment, such as lagoon covers or "wash walls" that filter odors from barn ventilation systems.

The state Environmental Management Commission adopted temporary odor control rules last year under a directive from the Legislature. Permanent rules are scheduled to take effect July 1.

The rules apply to animal operations using liquid waste-treatment systems, such as lagoons and sprayfields. Regulated facilities must contain at least 250 hogs, 100 cattle, 75 horses, 1,000 sheep or 30,000 chickens or turkeys.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, TUESDAY MARCH 21, 2000, page A28.

"Agricultural Rally Demands Congress Overhaul the Nation's Farm Program"

by Bruce Ingersol, STAFF REPORTER OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Excerpt:

...The demonstrators are seeking stronger enforcement of the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act to ensure fair and open livestock markets. They also are trying to rally support for stronger antitrust oversight in the agribusiness, where a series of mergers have enabled a dwindling number of huge corporations to dominate their industries. Currently, the four biggest companies control 75% of the nation's grain storage capacity, mill 56% of its flour and crush 71% of its soybeans. The top four beef packers slaughter 80% of the nation's steers and heifers, and the top four pork packers, 55% of its hogs.

............................................................................................................................................................................................
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL,
Monday, March 13, 2000, page A18, Drought Threatens Farm Belt

Roughly 14,000 hog farmers quit last year, so pork supplies are dropping.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................
Idaho, March 2000
Corporate Farming Notes
A million hogs come to Idaho

Big Sky Farms, Inc., previously called Sawtooth Farms, is seeking to build a 50,000 sow farrow to finish operation in the Raft River Valley, 25 miles east of Burley, Idaho. The operation would produce about 1 million market hogs per year.

According to the application for a conditional use permit, the operation would be located on 5,000 acres of land. No land application of manure would occur. Instead, shallow evaporation ponds totaling some 800 acres will be used to rid the operation of lagoon effluent. The permit application makes no mention of how Big Sky Farms will deal with the manure solids that will inevitably build up in the lagoons.

Local residents have organized the Cassia County Coalition to oppose the operation. In response to this opposition, the county planning and zoning commission has enacted an emergency moratorium until March 21, 2000. The coalition and other local residents are organizing to defeat the vote on the conditional use permit. Voting could take place as early as April 4, 2000.

http://www.cfra.org/sample_newsletter.htm

Melva Fager Okun, DrPH
Environmental Resource Program
CB 1105 Miller Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC 27599-1105
919 966-3332 tel
919 966-9920 fax
okun@unc.edu

> Pigs May Be Susceptible to Mad Cow Disease, Norwegian Feeding Regulations
> Not Strict Enough?
> ---------------------------------------------------
> M2 Communications - Norwegian pigs are fed bone-meal despite results
> indicating pigs can be infected with mad cow disease (a transmissible
> spongiform encephalopathy, TSE, known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy,
> BSE).
>
> In 1996, bone-meal was banned in animal fodder as it has been suspected the
> bone-meal was the source of infection for the disease. The ban includes
> fish and horses, but in Norway, bone-meal from horses, cows, sheep and
> goats has been used in pig fodder, despite pigs in laboratories having been
> infected with BSE.
>
> According to Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, even bone-meal from pigs
> is used in pig fodder. Norway however has stricter regulations for the
> production of bone-meal than the EU (European Union).
>
> Although it has not been proven that pigs can obtain BSE from the fodder,
> pigs injected with prions, which cause the disease, did develop the
> disease. According to neuropathology professor Jan Maehlen at Ulleval
> hospital, the results from the laboratory show pigs can be infected and
> there is cause for caution. Maehlen thinks Norway should be much more
> careful with the animal fodder.
>
> --
> Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
> <flounder@wt.net>

.........................................................................................................................................................................................
Feedstuffs MagazinePork
Producers continue to abandon cash hog markets
March 13, 2000
By ROD SMITH
Feedstuffs Staff Editor

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Pork producers moved with absolute clarity toward marketing
agreements last year, and if the trend continues, the industry will have
abandoned cash markets in five years, according to Glenn Grimes, an agriculture
economist at the University of Missouri.

In an interview with Feedstuffs and in presentations to the National Pork Forum
here March 2-4, Grimes said his and colleague Ron Plain's research also
indicates that almost one quarter of all production is now owned by packers or
pork production companies with packing plants (Figure 1, p. x).

Grimes, in a follow-up to his and Plain's 1999 research, said the 13 largest
pork packing companies were surveyed in January to determine the extent to which
they offered some sort of market contract. He said just three -- Bryan Foods
Inc., Lundy's Inc. and Hormel Foods Corp. -- refused to cooperate in the survey.

However, he said those three plants still were entered into the data using other
sources to determine their contract programs and slaughter. Therefore, he said
the survey covered 91% of total federally inspected slaughter in February.

Grimes reported that the amount of contracting increased in almost every kind of
category over last year, especially in the cash and formula contract categories
(Table, p. x). Because of this, he reported the percentage of pigs sold in the
cash, or spot, market decreased in February from 35.8% last year to 25.7% last
January (Figure 2, p. x).

He told Feedstuffs producers are increasingly shifting to contracts to decrease
risks in the cash market, and packers are increasingly willing to offer those
contracts to get the number and quality of hogs they want for their marketing
programs. Paradoxically, he said this trend will eventually eliminate the cash
market, which in turn will eliminate the basis on which most of the contracts
are based.

At the time, however, he said packers and producers can grid off other bases,
including pork products such as bellies and loins.

Grimes said the trend toward packer ownership clearly gives producers two
options -- either to become contract producers for packers or network production
in aligned, coordinated production systems.

He suggested that the issue may be played out in the stock market, explaining if
Smithfield Foods Inc.'s stock increases over time, the integration route will
become more preferred, but if IBP inc.'s stock rises, the vertical coordination
route will become stronger.

It's almost as if one is saying that the pork sector will become one or the
other, he said, and it's now wait and see.

The Forum is the annual business meetings of the National Pork Producers Council
and the National Pork Promotion & Research Board.

Source: Glenn Grimes and Ron Plain, University of Missouri, Columbia.

Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, Attorney General Mike Easley's opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, calls the effort by Easley's office 'too little, too late.'

By BOB WILLIAMS, Staff Writer

     State lawyers sought court orders Monday to get animals removed from four factory-style hog farms for repeated violations of state pollution laws.
     The four lawsuits, plus a fifth against a large poultry grower, are the first actions by a special team of lawyers assigned to work with environmental regulators to go after livestock farms with a history of pollution violations.
     "This recent enforcement effort and the prosecutions being pursued by my office are not intended to be a solution to the larger problems posed by hog waste lagoons and spray fields," said State Attorney General Mike Easley, a Democratic candidate for governor. "Our enforcement actions are simply an emergency response to an emergency situation."
     The state is seeking court orders against the farms that, if granted, would give operators 24 hours to present a plan for lowering their waste lagoons 12 inches below capacity, five days to achieve the lower level, and then 30 days to get the lagoons 19 inches below capacity.
     The farms named in the lawsuits were:
Brown's of Carolina Farms 7 & 8 in Jones County. State environmental inspectors have documented unlawful lagoon levels, illegal wastewater spraying practices and direct discharges into surface waters. The farms are owned by a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the country's largest pork production company, which has had repeated environmental problems at its pork processing plants in North Carolina and Virginia.

GIS Farm in Pitt County. Inspectors found evidence of high waste lagoon levels and unreported runoff from spray fields into surface waters.

Mike Lancaster Hog Farm in Greene County. Inspectors have documented numerous permit violations, including unlawful waste discharges, spraying wet fields and failure to maintain proper waste lagoon levels.
Gates Brothers Poultry Farm in Orange County. Inspectors have documented high lagoon levels, unlawful structural changes to the lagoon design and direct discharges of poultry waste into a creek. The state obtained a temporary restraining order requiring the removal of 60,000 chickens from the farm and shutting it down until it is in compliance with its state environmental permit.
     Environmentalists praised the state's actions.
     "One of the problems all along has been a lack of enforcement," said Michelle Nowlin, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill. "The farmers have never taken these laws seriously enough because they didn't have to."
     Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, Easley's major opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, described the lawsuits by Easley's office as "too little, too late"
     "At the rate Mr. Easley is going after polluters, it would take him more than 200 years to close every swine operation already cited for pollution," the Wicker campaign said in a prepared statement. "This is clearly too little, too late."
     Pork industry representatives questioned the timing of the lawsuits.
     "We can't help wondering why they are doing it right now, with the primary elections just around the corner," said Beth Anne Mumford, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Pork Producers Council. "It is a bit odd."
     Mumford declined to comment on the individual cases filed Monday, but said many hog farmers have had problems getting down the levels of their waste lagoons since Hurricane Floyd.
     Easley wasn't buying the weather excuse, however.
     "There has been an awful lot of talk about the flood and the snow," Easley said. "All of these [farms] had problems because of poor management practices before the flood and the snow."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Staff writer Bob Williams can be reached at 829-4656 or bobw@nando.com
http://www.news-observer.com/daily/2000/02/29/nc03.html

.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Oklahoma City, February 24, 2000
Return-path: OKSmith@aol.com
From: OKSmith@aol.com
Full-name: OKSmith
Message-ID: <50.1f21b40.25e5ded5@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 20:09:41 EST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
February 24, 2000 Keith Smith, 405-840-2219 (cell)

SIERRA CLUB FILES "INTENT TO SUE" AGAINST SEABOARD FACILITY

Oklahoma City -- The Sierra Club today announced that it had sent a letter to
the Seaboard Corporation announcing an intent to file suit against the
facility for causing a major water pollution problem. The letter states that Seaboard's
Dorman Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) has repeatedly polluted
Oklahoma's waterways and violated the Clean Water Act.

"Oklahoma's waterways are not a dumping ground for Seaboard's hog waste," said
Chris Corbett, Chair of the Sierra Club's Oklahoma Chapter. "It is time for
them
to stop polluting our lakes and rivers and to keep our drinking water out of
danger. Unfortunately, the only way to get them to keep Oklahoma's waters
drinkable, fishable, and swimmable is through the courts."

As Corbett announced the Club's intent to sue Seaboard, he was joined by
members
of the Oklahoma Family Farm Alliance, an expert engineer, neighbors of the
polluting factory, and other activists who are concerned about the health
effects of Seaboard's pollution. The Club's letter listed twelve separate
violations of the Clean Water Act including directly pouring waste into
steams,
over-applying waste to land, and an inability to properly store the massive
amounts of hog waste that the facility's hogs produce.

"Seaboard has been no friend to Oklahoma's families. Their facilities drown
neighbors in the stench of hog excrement, threaten to destroy our recreation
areas, poison fish and wildlife, and pose an immense risk to our children's
health," Corbett said. The Dorman facility itself is perched on rolling land
adjacent to the Beaver River Wildlife Management Area, which separates the
facility from the Beaver River, just a mile and a half away.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) create one of Oklahoma's most
dangerous water pollution problems. The industry's waste disposal practices --
spraying it onto croplands or storing it in open air waste pits called lagoons
-- often result in leaks, spills and runoff that pollute ground and surface
water and create a health risk to people and wildlife.

"This is why the Oklahoma Sierra Club is filing suit against Seaboard - the
company has simply not cleaned up after itself," concluded Corbett. "It's time
to protect Oklahoma's water. Stop factory farm pollution."

The Sierra Club's campaign to protect America's water from Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operations (CAFOs) -- one of the organization's four national priority
campaigns -- is committed to keeping factory farm pollution out of America's
drinking water, lakes and rivers, and eliminating the threats that CAFOs pose
to our public health and rural heritage.

...........................................................................................................................................................................................
UTAH, Circle Four Farms
Possible Leak Probed at Pig Farm's Waste Lagoon

Saturday, February 19, 2000

BY JIM WOOLF
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

    A possible leak has been detected in one of the ponds holding pig manure at Circle Four Farms in southwestern Utah.
    A monitoring well near the sewage lagoon, located about 12 miles south of Milford, has detected elevated levels of nitrogen compounds in the shallow groundwater, said Dennis Frederick, manager of the groundwater-protection section for the Utah Division of Water Quality. The nitrogen could be coming from the breakdown of ammonia in the pig manure.
    If confirmed, this would be the first leaky lagoon at the massive hog operation.
    Nitrogen levels in the water still are well below the drinking water standard, said Frederick, but they are a concern because they may indicate a problem with the lagoon's liner. Circle Four Farms has been asked to conduct additional testing to find the source of the problem.
    "It's more likely to be coming from that facility [the lagoon] than another source," Frederick said. "But we'll leave open the option for them to show us otherwise through good, scientific investigation."
    If a leak is found, the company would be required to drain the lagoon and repair the liner. Further studies will be needed before regulators know whether the groundwater needs to be cleaned up.
    Brian Mauldwin, spokesman for Circle Four Farms, said Friday it is premature to blame the lagoon. "We simply don't know" where the contamination is coming from, he said. "That's why we hired an outside engineering firm to figure it out."
    Mauldwin said the levels of contamination in the groundwater have been going up and down in this monitoring well since July 1999. "If there were a leak, the data would most likely show a rise that would either level out or still be increasing," he said.
    Frederick said Circle Four Farms failed to institute the proper follow-up studies after the elevated nitrogen levels were identified last July. The company normally checks its monitoring wells once every three months. But when a possible problem is found, Circle Four is supposed to begin monthly monitoring. The company did not begin that more frequent monitoring as soon as required, he said.
    Both the leak and monitoring delay could result in the state issuing a "notice of violation" of the state's groundwater-protection rules.
    Circle Four Farms is the nation's 17th largest hog farm. It has about 50 scattered "farms," or barn complexes, in Beaver County where pigs are raised.
    Each farm has two sewage lagoons where hog waste is allowed to decompose and the liquids to evaporate. The solids in these ponds eventually will be hauled to a landfill for disposal or spread on the land as fertilizer.
    Leaky lagoons have been a problem in other states with hog farms, so Utah required that the ponds be built with clay and plastic liners.
    Monitoring wells were built near each lagoon to detect a leak. State rules require the company to take corrective action when even small levels of contamination are encountered to control problems before they grow too large.
    Recent studies in Utah and North Carolina suggest people living near large hog farms may suffer from increased rates of respiratory illness and diarrhea.
    Researchers are trying to figure out whether the strong odors and gases released from the sewage lagoons are triggering the health problems.

http://www.sltrib.com/2000/feb/02192000/utah/27298.htm
............................................................................................................................................................................................

M I N N E S 0 T A DEPARTMENT of HEALTH

Date: February 15, 2000

Subject: Review-of Hydrogen Sulfide Data ValAdCo
(Finishing Site, Section 27, Norfork Township, Renville County, MN)

At the request of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Health Risk Assessment Unit, has completed review of monitoring data collected from the ValAdCo finishing site in Renville County, Minnesota. The data reviewed includes 1) 1998 data for hydrogen sulfide collected from April 6, 1998 through September 24, 1998, and 2) 1999 report for days where hydrogen sulfide concentrations were greater than or equal to 30 ppb (at least one 30 minute average per day). The 1999 data were collected between June 12th and September 15th.

In summary, MDH believes that monitored levels are high enough to pose a potential threat to human health. After consideration of the data collected and the circumstances involving the emission source, MDH believes that, for the protection and well being of human health, without delay, action should be taken to reduce the emissions of hydrogen sulfide and bring hydrogen sulfide emissions back in compliance with Minnesota Rules 7009.0080.

Full report: Minnesota Department of Health

Is hog farm to blame for Milford ills?
By Lois M. Collins
Deseret News staff writer

      Residents in Milford have an unusually high incidence of diarrheal and respiratory illnesses compared to the rest of the state, according to hospital records. But officials say it's too soon to know if the increase is related to the nearby Circle Four Hog Farm, as some residents allege.
      "At this point, we have no idea at all where the illness is coming from," said Karen Keller, an epidemiologist with the state's Health Department. "We are continuing trying to find more information."
      "Before we can identify a source, we have to be able to identify what the organism is," said Gary Edwards, director of the Southwest Public Health Department. "We are looking at areas that could be potential sources to see if organisms we identify in (ill) humans match organisms in the environment. . . . This study doesn't prove anything, but it shows there's reason for us to move forward" with the investigation.
      The data that have raised concern are part of the early information gathered for a two-year study to see if people in the Milford area have a higher incidence of respiratory illness and diarrhea. Because it is based on hospital discharge data from 1992-1998, it doesn't include incidents of the two illnesses that didn't involve hospitalization, Keller said.
      What it showed, according to a Utah Department of Health study released in early January, is that Milford residents had about 20 times more diarrheal illness in 1997 than the rest of the state as a whole, and elevated rates every year but 1994. Comparisons were also made with Parowan and Panguitch, because of their similar populations, rural location and other factors. In most years, Milford's rates were much higher.
      As for respiratory illness, Milford residents seemed to have an incidence rate that is statistically higher than the rest of the state every year of the study. And in 1997, it was seven times higher.
      The study — and others now under way — was prompted by concerns from residents near the Circle Four Farms, a large hog operation about 11 miles from Milford, that the facility was making citizens sick.
      The farm's supporters are adamant that it isn't making anyone sick. Circle Four spokesman Brian Mauldwin told the Associated Press the study found evidence of increased rates of illness in Milford since 1992 — two years before the first hogs arrived.
      "There isn't any data pointing the finger at Circle Four, or anyone else for that matter," said Mauldwin.
      "The presumption seems to be that Circle Four is somehow connected with these illnesses, where the real focus should be, where did these illnesses come from long before we got there."
      Many area residents are nonetheless convinced that the hog farm is to blame.
      No one disputes the hospitalization rates for the two illnesses, or the need to get to the bottom of it. But there's sharp disagreement on what's causing it.
      Dennis Frederick, manager of groundwater protection for the Utah Division of Water Quality, said they haven't found "any information that suggests the groundwater people are consuming or utilizing is in any way impacted by (the hog farm's) activities. Groundwater generally doesn't move fast enough, even if (farm waste containers) were leaking."
      The state has enforced standards since the beginning of construction and monitoring continues. They've found nothing that indicates that leakage from the hog-waste ponds is causing problems.
      For leakage to create illness, "you have to have substantial leakage, and it has to travel." From the hog farm, leakage would have to travel about three miles to get into water systems, Frederick said. "That's a long ways. Under normal circumstances, it can take years, even decades, though there are localized areas where it moves faster. But for that operation to have affected an entire 40 square miles to be part of the aquifer and make everybody sick, it's not possible."
      "I honestly believe that if there's an impact (from the farm), it's occurring through the air or contact with people who work there. It's not going through the groundwater. I think a good body of information shows that."
      The state hopes to monitor the air and see if it can discount that pathway or pinpoint it as a likely agent for transmitting illness.
      Frederick also said that national studies suggest people who live near "these types of operations complain of a number of symptoms." Other studies have shown that "the stress of living somewhere that smells can create depression and that lowers immunity, so it's not an exact, straight-on call."
      Still, officials are as anxious as residents to find out why more people in the area seem to get sick, said Edwards. "What this tells us is that there is potentially a problem, so it gives us confidence that what we are doing, moving forward with the current health problems study, hopefully identifying organisms and monitoring air, are things we need to continue pursuing."
      Edwards said area residents who see a physician for diarrhea or respiratory illness should ask for appropriate lab tests to provide the state with information needed to identify the source of the illness.
      For its next step, the Southwest Public Health Department plans to meet with Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency to see what support and technical assistance might be available in the hunt for the source of the illnesses.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,150009847,00.html

.............................................................................................................................................................................................
New Steve Wing Study
Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 108, Number 3, March 2000

Environmental Injustice in North Carolina's Hog Industry
Steve Wing,1 Dana Cole,1 and Gary Grant2
1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
2Concerned Citizens of Tillery, Tillery, North Carolina, USA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract
Rapid growth and the concentration of hog production in North Carolina have raised concerns of a disproportionate impact of pollution and offensive odors on poor and nonwhite communities. We analyzed the location and characteristics of 2,514 intensive hog operations in relation to racial, economic, and water source characteristics of census block groups, neighborhoods with an average of approximately 500 households each. We used Poisson regression to evaluate the extent to which relationships between environmental justice variables and the number of hog operations persisted after consideration of population density. There are 18.9 times as many hog operations in the highest quintile of poverty as compared to the lowest; however, adjustment for population density reduces the excess to 7.2. Hog operations are approximately 5 times as common in the highest three quintiles of the percentage nonwhite population as compared to the lowest, adjusted for population density. The excess of hog operations is greatest in areas with both high poverty and high percentage nonwhites. Operations run by corporate integrators are more concentrated in poor and nonwhite areas than are operations run by independent growers. Most hog operations, which use waste pits that can contaminate groundwater, are located in areas with high dependence on well water for drinking. Disproportionate impacts of intensive hog production on people of color and on the poor may impede improvements in economic and environmental conditions that are needed to address public health in areas which have high disease rates and low access to medical care as compared to other areas of the state. Key words: African Americans, environmental health, environmental justice, epidemiology, geographic information systems, rural health. Environ Health Perspect 108:225-231 (2000). [Online 8 February 2000]
http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p225-231wing/abstract.html

Address correspondence to S. Wing, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, CB#7400, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC USA 27599-7400. Telephone: (919) 966-7416. Fax: (919) 966-2089. E-mail: steve_wing@unc.edu
We thank E. Gregory for analytical programming and data management, C. Hanchette for geographic information systems programming, E. Brun for cartography, and D.M. St. George for analytical consultation.

This research was supported by grant R25-ES08206-04 under the Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Received 14 July 1999; accepted 29 September 1999.

[ Articles Online First] [Full Article]
Last Updated: February 7, 2000

This research was supported by grant R25-ES08206-04 under the Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Received 14 July 1999; accepted 29 September 1999.

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p225-231wing/abstract.html

...........................................................................................................................................................................................
FEBRUARY 9, 2000
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, SOUTHEAST JOURNAL, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2000, PAGE S1

Nearby States Are No Haven For N.C. Hogs

By BUSTER KANTROW
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Georgia and Alabama once seemed poised to receive an influx of hog farms because of swine-industry turmoil elsewhere in the Southeast. But the pigs haven't come, and now homegrown farmers face a set of problems familiar to their neighbors: low prices, new regulatory scrutiny and an increasingly suspicious public.

"There's no question this is a hostile environment right now," says Waymon Buttram, a hog farmer in DeKalb County, Ala., and board member of the Alabama Pork Producers.

A Georgia counterpart's similar prognosis on the local climate for hogs: "Not good."

Hog Hell

The pork industries in the two states began struggling years ago as pork consumption fell nationwide, prices declined and local farmers shifted into poultry and other livestock. The number of hogs on Georgia's farms has fallen by more than half since 1990, and the annual production in Alabama is down to a similar degree.

But a window of opportunity appeared to open several years ago as producers in North Carolina faced political heat over hog-waste disposal and other practices. The state eventually imposed a moratorium on new farms.

In 1997, Melvin Purvis, a North Carolina swine producer under pressure back home, scouted several Southeast states before targeting west Georgia's Taylor County for a 20,800-sow farm that promised to be the state's largest. Meanwhile, a Georgia producer planned a 10,000-sow farm in the eastern part of the state, and a group considered building a pig-slaughtering plant near Albany.

But both farm projects foundered in the face of vigorous protests from local residents and were ultimately abandoned. The slaughtering plant also was dropped.

No further large-farm inquiries have come, and regulatory and economic factors make future queries extremely unlikely, says Alan Hallum of the state Environmental Protection Division.

Georgia's last slaughtering facility, in Moultrie, closed four years ago, and with prices near historic lows for extended periods major producers haven't been eager to raise hogs hundreds of miles from' a slaughterhouse, says Roger Bernard, executive vice president of the Georgia Pork Producers Association. The group, which had around 4,000 members two decades ago, now has about 200.

Meanwhile, Georgia tightened rules on where hogs can be kept and how waste must be disposed, particularly on the largest farms. The rules imposed last year are in some cases tougher than North Carolina's, and are "just more hurdles to go through" for farmers unaccustomed to dealing with regulatory agencies, says Steve Woodruff, the director of environmental engineering for Gold Kist Inc., an Atlanta-based farm cooperative.

"It was like throwing out the unwelcome mat," longtime Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin says of the new regulations.

Rival States for N.C. Prove to Be No Haven For Hog Farms, Either

The reception has been just as chilly in Alabama. In December, a state judge blocked a proposed 60-acre farm in DeKalb County in the state's northeast corner. Two weeks earlier, reacting to complaints about another facility, John Robinson, a state representative from Scottsboro, successfully pushed through a bill in the Alabama Legislature that allows Jackson County commissioners to declare a hog farm a nuisance.

The Alabama developments came on the heels of another black eye for the industry: flooding from Hurricane Floyd, which caused many hog lagoons in North Carolina to overflow.

Mindful of the building furor, Alabama agricultural groups agreed in December to discuss strengthening the state's eight month-old regulations, which took effect last April after several years of negotiations among the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, farmers and environmental groups. The regulations had been challenged already in April by one environmental group as insufficient. As the appeal proceeded, complaints surrounding several farms and planned hog facilities in northeast Alabama accelerated.

Now, the farmers have agreed to discuss "set-backs" from structures and waterways and any other "appropriate" environmental suggestions, says Marshall Timberlake, a Birmingham lawyer for the agricultural interests. "We certainly didn't want any piecemeal regulation, county-by county," he says. "The industry just decided it was time to sit down and recognize the facts for what they were and work through this.

"Adds Mr. Buttram, the DeKalb County hog farmer, "With the situation the way it is now, you couldn't have a new hog operation in the state of Alabama."

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

Idaho to regulate livestock farms January 1, 2000
Associated Press

      BURLEY, Idaho — Cassia County lawmakers have unveiled a bill they say will empower residents to help decide where industrial livestock operations are located.
      Republican Sen. Denton Darrington of Declo, Rep. Jim Kempton of Albion and House Speaker Bruce Newcomb of Burley Thursday announced their "Swine Facility Act."
      It was prompted by the proposed 50,000-sow Big Sky Farms in the Raft River area. Darrington and Kempton said they traveled to Milford, Utah, to view its facility. The lawmakers based some of the legislation on their findings at Circle Four Farms.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,145015868,00.html
............................................................................................................................................................................................

Monday January 31, 2000 1:10 AM ET
Pig-Farming Village Dogged by Virus
By SEAN YOONG Associated Press Writer

SUNGAI NIPAH, Malaysia (AP) - A year after burying two sons and bidding mournful farewell to the remaining two, Tong Ke Chu looks a decade older than her 65 years.

Last February and March, a mysterious virus swept through Tong's dusty village, then spread across this Southeast Asian nation, killing more than 100 people. Only now are villagers in the heart of Malaysia's pig-farming region beginning to pull their lives back together.

Sungai Nipah is a listless shell of what it was. Children no longer play in the streets, and most remaining residents do little more than tend their vegetable gardens. Except for the occasional roar of a passing motorcycle, the bustling village - once home to 1,500 ethnic Chinese - is almost silent.

Tong lives in a ramshackle wooden house she says she is too old to leave.

``All my hopes died with my first two sons. And my joy went away with the other two,'' Tong says in a whisper.

Like most other young people who lived in Sungai Nipah, Tong's surviving sons found jobs in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, 50 miles north, and other prosperous cities.

Tong says she doesn't fault the sons who left. ``There's nothing for them here, only bad memories.''

Until last year, almost everyone here seemed to live for the pigs. Pens dotted the village and new pork recipes were created constantly.

But at the start of 1999, some villagers fell ill with raging fever, convulsions and vomiting. Several lapsed into comas and died. The pigs were immediately suspect because a disease common in Malaysia, Japanese encephalitis, has similar symptoms and passes from pigs to humans through mosquitoes.

By May, the illness had been identified in seven of Malaysia's 13 states. Fears of an epidemic whipped the population into a near-frenzy. Although no one was sure what was making people sick, eating pork became taboo.

The fever was eventually identified as a new virus and named Nipah because it was first isolated here. Hundreds fled the village.

``Imagine what we went through,'' says former pig farmer Teong Hoe Kong. ``We didn't know whether we would survive the end of each week.''

The government ordered soldiers and police to evacuate Sungai Nipah and destroy its herds. Across Malaysia, almost 1 million pigs were shot, clubbed to death or buried alive.

By then, some people had waited too long to leave.

``My husband made our five children and me leave the village quickly,'' says Yee Ming Hong. ``But he insisted on staying behind to do what he could for our pigs.''

His sacrifice proved futile. Their 400 pigs were destroyed, and Yee's 39-year-old husband, Lay Wah Long, contracted the virus and suffered brain damage.

``I stay home all day to take care of him,'' Yee says. ``I have to bathe him. I have to make sure he doesn't fall down when he tries to walk.''

Her voice is strong and steady. Her eyes well with tears only when she mentions that Lay is starting to forget people and events once dear to him. Half a dozen high school basketball trophies line a living room cabinet, but Lay cannot remember winning them.

Newspapers and political groups raised millions of ringgit in public donations for affected families. The government compensated farmers 50 ringgit, about $13, for each destroyed pig.

To help farmers survive, the government organized courses on handcrafts and cooking, encouraging families to open more of the little restaurants that serve fried rice, soups and pastries around Malaysia. Several men in Sungai Nipah now make furniture, but they say they earn only one-tenth of what they used to.

Many villagers are still angry that the government didn't react to the outbreak sooner. They note other Asian leaders took speedy precautions to prevent the virus from entering their countries.

Singapore banned all pig imports from Malaysia, although one butcher died of the virus there. Hong Kong suspended the import of mammals and birds from Malaysia.

The last known case of Nipah virus was reported in July. Government health officials declared the epidemic over in October, a verdict echoed by veterinarians meeting in Taiwan the next month.

Research indicated the virus was transmitted from a fruit-eating bat that bit some pigs and was then picked up by humans who lived or worked close to pigs.

The veterinarians also announced they had found no evidence the virus could be transmitted by eating pork. Sales of pork are back to normal, and shopkeepers expect a surge in demand for the Chinese New Year on Feb. 5.

That pork will come from pig farms that escaped the virus. In Sungai Nipah, the farms are in ruins.

``People have started to forget what happened to us,'' says Yee, stroking her youngest child's hair. ``But we'll have our whole lifetime to remember.''
.
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