Benton County Considers CAFO
Up in Benton County, CAFO must go through an approval process before the BZA. Last Night, they heard from witnesses speaking on behalf of Dutch dairyman Johan Zuurhout - who is seeking to install a 3,500 cow CAFO in the county:
About 80 people watched the proceedings in the Fowler Theater Monday night. Jim Hasser of Earl Park said he attended because the site planned for the farm is a quiet, crop-based section of the county.
“We’d just like to keep it like that,” Hasser said.
During the hearing, Don Shelmon, a Rensselaer attorney representing the petitioner, stressed Zuurhout’s experience with dairy farms.
“He and his family have been engaged in dairy farming his entire life,” he said.
Zuurhout, his wife and three children moved from the Netherlands to Benton County about a year ago.
Shelmon said Zuurhout owned, operated and later sold two dairies in the Netherlands. Zuurhout decided to relocate to the United States because in Europe farmers are issued permits that limit the amount they are allowed to produce.
Link (Lafayette Journal-Courier). As the article points out, this is but one of several large scale farming operations moving into the county.
April 11th, 2008 16:58
There will be a ditch on either side of this proposed CAFO. IDEM is suppose to protect our water and yet they okayed this before. I am stupid and I can see the problem. We have had 6 inches of rain water in less than one hour and guess where the manure will go? We live 30 feet from the ditch. They can promise that nothing will happen all they want. Vreba Hoff has a bad track record and yet they just keep getting permits. It should be against the law to use a permit that another person has received. I have read that 80 of 92 counties in Indiana now have CAFOs. We will be known as the Cesspool State in future years. That is something to be proud of.