Marshall County Doing the CAFO Dance
Marshall County has started the standard process that marks the beginning of a new CAFO: Concerned citizens speak out, agribusiness people claim there is no need to be conerned, and state and local government officials stand by blankly, there being little they can dare do to address the concerns of the citizens:
An informational meeting Thursday night did little to diffuse emotions both for and against a proposed confined swine- feeding operation in Marshall County.The Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Marshall County Commissioners and Marshall County Planning Director Ralph Booker oversaw the meeting, which lasted for two hours and 20 minutes.During a question-and-answer period, some attendees expressed concerns about odors, health, property values, traffic and water tables.
8 confinement operations are already in place in Marshall. The article notes that only one farmer spoke up in support of the operation, noting that hog manure is “an organic product as natural as can be.” It sounds like most public comments went like this:
During the question-and-answer period, former hog farmer Jon Rettinger outlined concerns about odors, health, property values and traffic that he and others have expressed, and questioned IDEM’s quarter-mile requirement, saying it should be closer to two miles, according to his information.
(Thanks to Rep. Dvorak for the pointer to this story)
January 22nd, 2006 06:54
Going in, we did not expect much from this meeting, and we were not disappointed. IDEM and Mr. Laidig’s hired gun pretty much controlled the direction of the meeting. Many factual errors were put out that, due to the format, we were unable to refute. There were a couple of highlights, though. Dennis Lassiter from IDEM was put on the spot when he ws asked how many CAFO applications have been denied. After considerable tap dancing, he had to admit that they have never denied a permit - not one. Near the end of the meeting, I asked Mr. Booker and Mr. Veenhuizen what steps Mr. Laidig was taking to comply with ALL the Marshall Co. Zoning regulations. Mr. Booker was not aware that we had been able to obtain, despite his reticence, a full copy of the regulations. I then read from Section 426 under Performance Standards: “No one shall be permitted which is injurious to health or safety of humnas, animals, or vegetation, or which is noxious by reason of the emission of odor, visual pollution, or other undesirable nuisances which effects extend beyond the lot line of the lot where the use exists.” At this point, Mr. Booker became very defensive and asked if I was willing to pay more taxes to fund the 20+ people he would have to hire in order to enforce this. I then asked him if he was saying, in front of all these people, that he did not intend to enforce this regulation as written. He said they would have to look at it. The funniest part was that he spent the last 10 minutes of the meeting in the corner with his copy of the zoning regulations, feverishly trying to find what I had just read to him. Hilarious. We have a public hearing with the BZA on Thursday, 1/26, to address the issue of having agriculturally zoned operations requiring and NPDES permit apply for a zoning exemption, which would trigger a public meeting.
This situation is really starting to polarize the area. On one side are those of us who know what a blight this will be. On the other side are those who view us as troublemakers because we are unwilling to bow at the feet of mother agriculture. People who were once friends are now not speaking to each other. I guess that’s just another issue associated with these operations.