A 1997 study of 237 rural homes in North Carolina found a decline of up to 9 percent in property values. In a study done by Iowa State University in 2003 of 1,145 rural homes in five north-central Iowa counties from 1992 to 2002, economists reported that property values plunged by up to 11 percent for homes located within a quarter mile of a CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation). Homes within a half mile of a CAFO dropped in value by up to 8 percent. Property values dipped about 3 percent for homes that were located more than a mile from a CAFO.

 

In April 2000, a new report by University of Missouri Extension has found staggering land devaluation near the county’s CAFOs. Bottom line: $2.68 million in loss of land value for the county and 99 property owners located within three miles of CAFOs or an average of $112 per acre.

The issues surrounding CAFOs largely rest on individual property rights and equity when long-term residents experience a decrease in property values. Questions as to what legal recourses are available to communities and to property owners arise.

On April 2, 2006, the Pal-Item ran a big article on the hog operation that is coming to Wayne County near Williamsburg. On the surface it looks as if this is a good deal for Wayne County: new jobs, good outlet for grain production. But wait a minute. Let’s look at the downside, too.

I’m sure that most of us have driven by family farms of 200 or 300 hogs. Notice the aroma? One can only speculate about the stench that will be created by 15,000 brood sows. Animals draw flies. I have read that homes in the area of these CAFO operations are covered with flies. Their yards are unusable in the summertime and the ammonia fumes cause a most unpleasant burning in your eyes. What about the folks whose farms and homes are within a three-mile area ? How about their property values? Good deal ?

The P-I article states that the CAFO will be shipping 4,800 piglets a week to grow-to-finish hog operations. How many trucks will that take? How many trucks will be needed to bring in supplies? What will happen to the roads with that much traffic? Who will pay for the repairs? My bet is that it will be your tax dollars. Good deal?

The amount of manure that will be created by this many animals is almost inconceivable. The article stated that the manure would be held for a year and then drilled into the soil. There is also to be a holding pond for runoff. These ponds are notorious for malfunctions. The runoff goes into streams and kills fish and other wildlife. CAFOs also draw enormous amounts of water. What happens when nearby wells go dry? What happens if our precious non-replicable water supply is and possibly will be polluted? Good deal?

[M]astitis has gotten out of hand because we feed massive doses of sub therapeutic antibiotics to our cows. To solve the problem we’re going to genetically engineer the cow to produce it’s own antibiotics.

To which the bacteria that cause mastitis will never gain resistance, I’m sure.

link.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) board approved new manure management rules this week. The changes would mainly affect Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), operations with 1,000 or more animal units. The new rules would require these operations to have at least six months storage capacity for liquid manure and the ability to inject liquid manure during certain months. There would be a ban on spreading solid manure on snow-covered or frozen ground during February and March unless it is immediately worked into the soil. The proposal also has required set-backs from wells; sinkholes and fractured bedrock, there are phosphorus-based nutrient management plan standards as well as a need for an emergency response plan in case of a spill.

Local residents have expressed concern that Indiana is encouraging corporate hog operations to move from North Carolina, where state policies have curtailed the dramatic expansion of corporate hog production in North Carolina that occurred in the 1990’s.

Randolph County’s planning commission has voted against several CAFO ordinances. But local concerned citizens believe that the tide may be turning in favor of endorsing regulations for hog farms, due to the recent dramatic influx of hog operations.

“Before, the only thing the plan commission could see was the [first] dairy…what came to light…is a much bigger scheme,” said Randolph County resident Robbie Davis.

“The law is a mess,” Williams’ attorney, Michael Ausbrook, told The Herald-Times for a story Tuesday. “Because of the mess, we’re not claiming we know exactly what it is, but we’re pretty sure what it’s not.”

Iowa’s Environmental Protection Commission is considering banning the use of livestock manure as fertilizer on soybean fields. A proposal is currently being considered by state regulators to put the ban in place.

Commissioners and state officials supporting the regulation argue that manure is not needed for soybean growth and that it actually has the potential to cause harm to the environment. State officials says that research shows manure applied annually on soybean and corn crop rotations applies 61 percent more phosphorus than needed for the crops to grow.

Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRS) Nutrient Specialist Steve Brinkman explains that the Department of Natural Resources is concerned about excess manure running into the surface water.

At the regular Grant County Area Plan Commission meeting June 5, the board will be presented with recommendations for changes in the treatment of CAFOs from county officials.

 

They’ll also hear public comment, which has been plentiful in an ongoing debate over the building of a 2,200 cow dairy southwest of Van Buren.

Both of these waterways flow through the town of Elwood, through the parks and through the school grounds. There are signs posted along both of these creeks warning of possible contamination, especially during heavy rain and flooding. We have all seen how Duck Creek can flood specifically behind Edgewood Elementary School. Does this community want to see even more potential pollutants flowing through our community?

Chairman Mike Wickersham, who favors the establishment of restrictions on CAFOs, will appoint members representing both sides of the issue to a joint committee. The so-far unnamed committee will include representatives of the livestock industry, the planning commission and those concerned about the environmental repercussions of these farms.

That group could follow a path proposed by Clyde Shaffer Jr., a pork producer, and Wendy Carpenter, a member of ECCRC. They laid out a proposal that includes the creation of a group that would visit each proposed CAFO site in the county and make a recommendation about each site.

Cathy Flatter, executive director of the planning commission said the fact that Shaffer and Carpenter have come up with a plan is “a major breakthrough.”

Link (Article by Joy Leiker at the Star Press).

You can also view coverage of the new CAFO committee on Kicks96 Video News.

The watershed has three confined livestock feeding operations, but there have been no reported violations from those farms, Rubin said. Smaller livestock herds not large enough to meet confined feeding operation permit requirements may contribute to the contamination, she said.

Richmond’s wastewater treatment plant discharges into the river, as does Brookville’s plant and the one at Wayne County’s Cloverleaf Mobile Home Park. Liberty’s wastewater treatment plant discharges into Silver Creek, which is also one of the impaired streams.

Richmond has four combined sanitary and storm water sewer outfalls that overflow during heavy rains, resulting in warnings of contamination of the river. There are three sanitary sewer overflows.

The paper also posts a map of the watershed. Of course, the local watershed shown is only part of the story. The trouble with water is it all runs downhill, so no matter how hard you try to clean up your own pollution sources, you still can get dirty water from those above you.

Residents of Wayne, Union, Franklin and Fayette counties can help the Indiana Department of Environmental Management begin to develop a plan tonight to improve water quality in the watershed of the Whitewater River’s East Fork.

The informational meeting is at 6 p.m. today at the Richmond city council chambers, 50 N. Fifth St.

Water samples taken from multiple locations in the east fork’s watershed show levels of E.coli bacteria are above those allowed under state and federal water quality standards. When water quality is poor, the federal Clean Water Act requires IDEM to set quality goals through a Total Maximum Daily Load plan.

Affected water bodies are Wayne County’s Lick and Elkhorn creeks, Union County’s Silver, Hanna and Dubois creeks, the middle, west and upper east forks and the east fork Whitewater River.

IDEM routinely tests creeks and rivers for impairment. Activities that affect water quality are discharges from municipal or industrial wastewater treatment plants, run-off from paved surfaces, construction sites and farmland. Failing septic systems also affect water quality.

Citizens with questions may contact Alice Rubin, (800) 451-6027 or by e-mail at arubin@idem.In.gov.

Link.

Some state and local governments, including, most recently, North Carolina, have enacted moratoriums on CAFOs. North Carolina’s moratorium is on swine operations and, according to news reports, is because of CAFOs’ adverse environmental effects in the state.

That’s not likely to happen in Indiana, but we still do not have to rush into things, and local governments deserve support from state agencies, such as the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, in working through these decisions.

Because of the magnitude of the operations, county governments are more than likely unprepared for the planning, zoning, siting and enforcement issues, so they must rely on IDEM’s resources and expertise to protect citizens’ interests.

Grant County officials are doing the right thing by moving with deliberate speed, and IDEM should offer its advice and support during the process. The state obviously has an interest in promoting the growth of agriculture, but it also has an interest in protecting the state’s environment.

 

Link.

Members of the Jay County Council have decided it’s time for Jay County Commissioners to more closely regulate confined feeding operations in the county.

And recommendations from a comprehensive study of CFOs completed last year seem to be the place to start, council members said Wednesday.

“Commissioners gotta pick this up and run with it,” council member Gerald Kirby said during the council’s monthly meeting.

Several residents of Noble Township who have spoken to commissioners the past two weeks expressing concern about a proposed confined feeding operation in the works to be located on county road 50 North, addressed county council members Wednesday night.

 

Recommendations of the committee included more local requirements at the start-up of confined feeding operations, local citations for environmental violations, a manure land-use database and a manure management ordinance, and requiring those who purchase or build residential properties in rural areas to read and sign a copy of the Indiana Right to Farm law.

The meeting’s sometimes heated discussion began when Bob Quadrozzi, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, presented a recommendation from the Jay County Tax Abatement Advisory Committee to grant a three-year abatement to Rick Dues, 3742 South 300 East. Dues is planning to construct a 92-foot by 154-foot 4,000-head nursery hog operation and is asking the abatement, or phase-in of new taxes, for the buildings, valued at $400,000

A man who police said waited in a car while an accomplice allegedly robbed a pharmacy faces a murder charge in his partner’s death under a seldom-used Indiana law.

Indiana law says that if a defendant engages in a felony crime and a person gets killed in the commission of that crime, then the defendant can be charged for murder.

“You’ve seen our strategic plan and know where we see opportunities for the state,” Miller told about 100 people who gathered on the courthouse lawn for the announcement.

 Now the state wants to help Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Wayne, Fayette, Union and Rush counties create local and regional strategies.

 

Now the state wants to help Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Jay, Randolph, Wayne, Fayette, Union and Rush counties create local and regional strategies.

“There is a tremendous amount of new opportunity knocking at your door,” Miller told the audience. “Whether that’s new bio-energy plants, whether that’s new food-processing facilities, whether that’s new hardwood opportunities, whether that’s new livestock opportunities, there is a tremendous amount of interest in East Central Indiana … for growth.”

Gary Moore, co-owner of the Chocolate Moose restaurant in Farmland, attended the announcement out of curiosity.

“Everybody who has a business depends on people living here instead of moving away,” Moore said in an interview. “We need to keep them here and have them move back.”

Would you relocate to Randolph County because of the rapid growth in confined hog farming? Does that sound like an appealing environment to raise your family?

“We’ve lived out here for 15 years, and we’ve invested a lot of time and money in our home to make it nice and to be able to spend time outside. We’ve got woods, and we go mushroom hunting - it’s just country living, you know?” said Kim Marshall, who lives close to the proposed site near Grant County roads 300 North and 800 East. “There’s a possibility that this could cause us not to be able to enjoy our home outside.”