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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Environment - Residents oppose hog farm: It's near an area used by sandhill cranes
"Residents oppose hog farm: It's near an area used by sandhill cranes" is the headline to this story today in the South Bend Tribune. Earlier ILB entries were headlined "Concern about proposed Jasper County CAFO bordering the Jasper/Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area;" the most recent was 12/7/05.
From today's Tribune:
WHEATFIELD, Ind. (AP) -- Residents near a wildlife area where thousands of sandhill cranes gather each fall want the state to halt the nearby construction of a 2,500-sow farm.A coalition of residents fear Belstra Milling Co.'s hog farm just north of the refuge will lead to air, water and land contamination and threaten the sandhill cranes that pass through northwestern Indiana while migrating south.
"Why did they pick here?" said Roy Reese, a rural Wheatfield resident opposed to the farm.
Coalition members who earlier collected the signatures of about 1,000 residents opposed to the project have appealed the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's approval of the DeMotte company's permit for the site.
Each fall, tens of thousands of the once-endangered cranes migrate through the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in an annual spectacle that attracts about 30,000 birdwatchers.
Belstra, whose project was approved last month by Jasper County's Board of Zoning Appeals, already has begun work on the farm.
The 8,000-acre wildlife area is an internationally recognized "Important Bird Area" because it supports a significant proportion of the sandhill's total population. The species, once near extinction, is well on its way to a full recovery. * * *
Although residents have appealed the farm's solid waste permit, their petition is incomplete, said Deborah Miles, an administrative assistant in IDEM's Office of Environmental Adjudication.
The residents have until Thursday to provide additional material requested by the office.
Malcolm DeKryger, Belstra's vice president, said the residents' fears about the farm's effect on the cranes were unfounded. Once the farm is in operation, he said, its manure will be injected several inches under the ground where the cranes congregate. * * *
DNR spokesman Michael Ellis said a letter that Glen Salmon, the DNR's director of Fish and Wildlife, sent to IDEM declares that the wildlife area's wetlands "are major use areas for the sandhill crane and other water birds in both the spring and fall migrations."
Although the DNR believes the hog farm will not have a detrimental effect on the wildlife area, Ellis said, "in case anything would happen, our concerns are on the record."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 13, 2005 03:39 PM
Posted to Environment