Link:

On Tuesday, the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals approved a special-use exemption that clears the way for a 4,000-hog confined animal feeding operation in Duck Creek Township.

• $40,000 in maintenance
• $90,000 in attorney fees
• 27 days in jail

That is what an Allen County land owner has put into the pond that is located primarily on his homestead in Allen County. Greg Tucker is a business owner, and thought he was buying an upscale property with a nice accessory, a large pond for his kids to play and fish in.

What he bought was a headache. See, the developer promised the next-door neighbor the right of access to the pond. However, no easement was ever created for the neighbor. Now the neighbor is an attorney, and you would think that an attorney would be held to be a sophisticated enough buyer to realize that permanent rights in the property of another cannot be created without a written easement, but the trial court said the now absent developer committed fraud and gave the attorney right of access to Tucker’s pond.

Then things got messy, as the attorney complained when Tucker made modifications to the pond site and messed with the water level. The trial court told Tucker to knock it off and when he was slow to act, sent Tucker to jail for contempt on 2 occassions:

The Hogans, who say developer Steve Jahn sold them legal access to the pond with their property, complained about the lower water level. And the fight was on.

Since then, the two couples have fought about a mound Tucker built across the pond so he wouldn’t have to hear the traffic on nearby I-69 or look at the Hogans’ house. When Heath ordered the mound removed last November, Tucker spent 18 days in jail in February for not removing the dirt fast enough. This month, Tucker was in jail for nine days after Heath ruled he hadn’t drained the pond enough to allow the Hogans to deepen the end near their home.

Outside of divorce, there is no better fight than a neighbor dispute. From a dollars and cents point of view, this type of dispute makes no sense, but I’d wager the parties will be at if for years to come.

Story from Fort Wayne News Sentinel, Kevin Leininger reporting.

Justin Schneider with the Herald Bulletin has a nice piece up on the Elwood Concerned Citizens anti-CAFO group, working in Madison County

“My home is in Elwood. There are 75 houses in the city within a mile and a half of the proposed site and some have been there for 30 years,” said group member Raeanna Merritt. “This is the social and educational center of the community. We have four of five schools here, the outdoor glass festival is here and we want the air to be pleasant.”

–>That mile and a half area also includes 12 farms and 25 rural homes. Extend that area to two miles and it includes a nursing home, assisted living facility, Birch Bayh Senior Citizens Center, the city pool, three businesses and more.

Link.

Well, catch up is about all I can do, at this point. My priority list has not gotten down to blog now so far this week, But I would like to note some key storylines:

CAFO Issues:

Residents Oppose Location of Large Dairy was the title of the Journal & Courtier article from Wednesday, covering the 3,500 head dairy in Carroll County. Another CAFO going into a county with no local regulation of CAFO’s, so local residents are feeling left out of the decision making process as no local approval for the dairy is required, and IDEM already issued the permit.

Moving along, Kpaul over at Muncie Free Press put up links to pending and granted CAFO permits around the state over here. The only way to have a voice in the permitting process for operations in your region is to know about them, so be sure to check the links out. Kpaul, in addition to keeping people informed on the permitting process, is also attending CAFO related hearings and meetings, collecting audio and video, so stay tuned to the Free Press for future CAFO coverage. Kpaul also turns us on to a new website focused on CAFO’s coming to Madison County: NoMadCoCAFO.com, a site somehow connected to the Concerned Citizens of Elwood.

I had never heard of Heartwood before, but it is a  Midwestern organization focused on advocating for the preservation of forests in the Midwest. I learned of it through the CAFO issue as the group’s annual gathering spot in Orange County, Indiana is now facing the installation of a hog CAFO nearby: Heartwood.Alerts .

Local Podcasting:

Last week, I noted that local tech baron Chris Hardie has started podcasting his reaction to local (i.e. Richmond/Wayne County) news items over at the Richmond News Review. Chris pointed out to me this morning that the Earlham professor now trapped in Lebanon that he covered on his show July 16, 2006, ended up on the front page of today’s Pal-Item. Coincidence? Or is the local press listening? It would be interesting if Chris provided the lead for that story to the paper.

Chris called me this morning for an interview on the subject of my blogging the CAFO issue. So if you want to hear some of my reflections on my experiences in discussing this issue in this format, tune in to Chris’s show. It should be up later today. Chris is really putting a lot into his shows, and continues to crank out a high quality product. Sitting around listening to my computer is not something I do habitually, so I have pretty much missed the whole podcasting revolution. Chris’s show has given me the push to at least fire up the audio once a week.

Joel David Palmer is a former administrator of the CAFO program at the Oregon Department of Agriculture and he now has a blog, Livestock & Ag Waste Intelligence that is off to a good start this month:

Your first stop for information on livestock and agricultural waste management issues, with perspectives from the local to the international. We will always invite your comments and encourage discourse between all stakeholders, to contribute to elegant solutions for minimizing wastes and converting wastes into resources.

Link.

So far, Mr. Palmer has talked about technologies to deal with animal waste, practices inside CAFO’s that some say amount to animal abuse, and other issue, including the newly proposed revise EPA CAFO rules: "Environmental advocacy groups read the "intend to discharge" provision to mean that CAFOs will be able to decide for themselves if they need a permit."

He also pointed out that in response to the EPA’s proposed rule, some in Congress have proposed giving CAFO’s a tax credit:

Republican Congressman Tom Osborne of Nebraska announced today that he has introduced legislation to provide a tax credit to CAFOs to offset the cost of compliance with federal water quality regulations. Osborne describes the EPA’s CAFO rules as "an unfunded federal mandate" that comes at a time when producers are already struggling economically. Osborne’s colleague in the Senate, Chuck Hagel (R-NE), introduced companion legislation in that body on June 29. The Senator states that although he agrees that polluting discharges from livestock operations should be controlled, "EPA has once again regulated industry without considering the costs."

Link.

Looks like it will be an interesting site to watch.

The Pal-Item reports today that Senior Judge Robert Reinke issued his decision in the election challenge filed by Try Werner in the Franklin County Circuit Court race for the Republican ticket. and the winner is, Judge Steven Cox. Reinke determined that the bulk of the election committee’s findings were factual, and not subject to review. The only legal issue involved some absentee ballots, and he upheld the commission’s determination of that issue.

Werner was unimpressed by the recount process:

"I wish I had confidence in the results, however, all of the anomalies… left me with more questions than answers," Werner wrote. "It is my sincere hope that no other candidate, Republican or Democrat, ever has to endure an election or recount like the one we have just had. Voters should have confidence in their election, that the democratic process has been unspoiled."

Werner also said he accepts the results are final, so I guess no appeal is being considered.

Vreba-Hoff now has 41 operational dairies in the Midwest, and 16 more under development, including the one up in Randolph County, so says a piece in Brownfields, which covers the announcement this past Saturday that the mega dairy intends to open up a new operation in Cass County:

Plans were unveiled Saturday for an $18 million dairy operation to be constructed in Royal Center, about 35 miles northeast of Lafayette.

Ohio-based Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development and the Logansport-Cass County Economic Development Foundation are working together to build a 3,200-cow dairy farm on 90 acres in northwestern Cass County.

The Far Hills Dairy is expected to employ 32 people and will produce more than 25,000 gallons of raw milk daily.

First off, I have to express admiration for fellow local blogger Chris Hardie, of the internet consulting firm Summersault, for his recent adventure in podcasting: The Richmond News Review. Chris promises regular audio coverage of local news related issues, and so far, he has delivered interesting and insightful stuff, so head over there and tune in.

I was impressed by the high quality production that Chris has achieved. In Sunday’s edition, Chris touched on a letter to the editor of the Pal-Item by Tim Bain (What do trails have to do with transportation?) the letter criticizes use of transportation funds to extend biking trails in the state, claiming those funds should be used solely to improve the roadways. Chris expresses my exact reaction to this letter: automobiles cannot be the only form of valid transportation supported by our society anymore.

As we seem to be reaching peak oil production (i.e. the ultimate limit on supply) and increasing demand for oil from developing nations (i.e. China), energy costs will continue to eat up more and more of our wealth, unless we decrease our usage. Even former oilman George W. Bush started out this year noting that we have to break our "addiction" to oil. One way to do this is to live closer to work, and rely on a car only for those occasions when you have to travel great distances, walking or biking at other times.

Drop in on another local web poster (I can’t call him a "blogger" as he forsakes the standard format) Mark Stosberg, who has recently posted the results of his research on calculating your true miles per hour in a car versus a bike. Mark uses a formula to add in the actual time we spend driving around (including waiting for oil changes) and factors in the amount of time we have to work just to pay all the expenses associated with running a vehicle. His conclusion is that, for people who live and work in the same community, biking is just as time efficient as driving, plus, if you do not maintain a car, you will either have a bunch of extra money, or about 3 extra hours each week (the amount of time it takes to earn the money to pay for the car) to do whatever with.

The problem with bike transportation currently is that there is no safe way to do it (read Chris’s When people driving cars kill people riding bikes). The transportation priorities have resulted in making biking around a real threat to health of bikers. Roads are made for cars. Face it, even motorcycles are not safe on our roadways. People just keep driving over pedestrians and bikers of all sorts. When I used to ride a motorcycle, I quickly learned that there is a whole population of drivers who do not see ANYTHING on the road under 1,500 pounds. Most people do not want to run over bikers, small children, or even dogs and cats, but the possibility does not seem to make people more careful.

Nothing will change our engrained attitudes when we get behind the wheel. Cars will always rule the road. The only viable solution to making a community more biker friendly is bike trails. More people relying primarily on bikes for routine transportation means less energy consumption, and potentially, healthier people. Bike trails could save us both from the energy costs and the ever widening obesity crisis.

According to the Muncie Free Press, IDEM will have staff on hand on July 11, 2006 in Huntington County at 6:00pm at the library, and at Grant County at 7:00pm at the county building.

A couple of North Carolina environmental professors (William H. Schlesinger of Duke University and Viney P. Aneja of N.C. State), report today on the outcome of a conference of 300 agricultural scientists, in part focusing on air quality issues. A big deal in North Carolina, as the state was the first to open its arms to hog CAFO’s, and it is important to Indiana as it was North Carolina’s CAFO moratorium that has pushed large CAFO groups into Indiana:

We may smell the presence of a nearby hog lagoon, but few of us realize how gaseous nitrogen compounds from farms might also affect air quality over broad areas. Each day about 300 tons of ammonia are emitted from hog production facilities in North Carolina. This gas forms small particles in the atmosphere, exacerbating respiratory diseases such as asthma and emphysema.

New studies show that much of the ammonia travels long distances before it is deposited. Atmospheric ammonia can contribute to excessive nutrient enrichment of rivers, estuaries and coastal waters, resulting in toxic conditions for fish. Airborne nitrogen has direct effects on the growth of pine trees, so the emissions from farm fields can also lower the productivity of nearby forests.

Agricultural soils emit large amounts of nitric oxide (NOx), ranking third behind cars and coal-fired power plants as a source of this air pollutant in the Southeast. North Carolina’s Clean Smokestacks legislation went a long way toward cleaning up our power plant emissions, but persistent emissions of NOx from farms contribute to high concentrations of ozone in rural North Carolina air. Ozone, of course, is well known for its human health effects, which now include an increased risk of heart disease.

Methane and nitrous oxide emitted from anoxic waste lagoons become "greenhouse" gases in Earth’s atmosphere, where they contribute to global warming. Lowering the emissions of these gases from agriculture may be the easiest way for North Carolina to reduce its impact on the Earth’s climate.

All told, atmospheric scientists know that more than 400 gases are emitted from agricultural operations in the United States. As with all pollutants, it is easier to control emissions of nitrogen gases and other compounds from agriculture at their source, rather than after they have dispersed to downstream or downwind areas.

Link. (NC News & Observer)

The scientist also note that technologies are developing to reduce gases released by factory farms, but notes that, while regulations have been put in place to deal with traditional industrial pollution, lawmakers have been slow to recognize the sophisticated agricultural operations as industrial polluters, and hence, slow to force them to adopt technologies to reduce the release of air pollutants.

So much of our lives are negotiated with strangers on the telephone these days. Customer and technical support calls are a near daily reality, and many of us have lost the ability to maintain that good old telephone courtesy in the face of an endless line of strangers and computers. I know I have talked to hundreds of such folk, with Dell, Verizon and Insight being at the top of the list.

I generally try to keep things on a polite level, but sometimes that is hard to do. A 35 year old Indianapolis resident is learning now that in some arenas, loosing your cool on the phone can cost you big time.

Emmanuel Steele picked up a driving while license suspended charge over here in Wayne County. He was ordered to appear for an initial hearing on June 15th. The Indianapolis father of 3 kids faxed in a request for a continuance on the 14th as he claimed his wife was recovering from surgery. The judge in Wayne Superior Court 3 denied the continuance the same day, and when a member of the court staff called to inform Mr. Steele that he still needed to appear the next morning, something happened during that call that ended up with Mr. Steele in the Wayne County jail.

Steele claims (in a letter in today’s Pal-Item) that the court staffer was rude. The court staffer told her boss (the judge) that Mr. Steele called her a name. The next morning, when Steele showed up (late) for the hearing, the judge handed him 30 days for contempt, and asked for an apology. When Steele instead tried to dispute the nature of the phone call, the sentence was upped to 120 days. Now Mr. Steele writes to the paper, lamenting the fate of his family and employment as he sits in jail until October.

Last week I heard some chatter about this down at the courthouse. It reminded some of the incident a few years back when the former judge of that court handed a college student a contempt sentence for falling asleep in his courtroom. That case got lots of media coverage, and the judge ultimately relented and let her out early. I don’t think Mr. Steele’s case is quit as surprising. The thing is, this court is made up of very nice people. They treat everyone with respect and courtesy. Most people leave the court amazed at how nice everyone was. But there is a limit, and apparently, Mr. Steele managed to find it, right off the bat.