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Monday, January 29, 2007

Ind. Gov't. - Three CAFO bills to be heard by Senate committee today

Rick Callahan of the Gary Post-Tribune reports:

Three wide-ranging bills targeting the state's largest livestock farms are expected to draw spirited testimony Monday from supporters and opponents when they go before a Senate panel.

Sen. Beverly Gard, who chairs the Senate's environmental affairs committee, is sponsoring the most sweeping of the bills --one that would significantly increase permit fees for new livestock farms to help the state hire more inspectors to monitor the farms for violations.

Her bill contains several other provisions, the most significant of which would require the State Chemist's Office to train farm workers in applying animal waste on cropland as fertilizer -- the most common method of disposing of the large amounts of manure the farms generate.

Gard, R-Greenfield, said the single biggest complaint she hears about the farms arises from problems with land application of the manure they produce. Improper application of the nutrient-rich waste can threaten drinking water or kill fish.

Right now, she said Indiana has only enough farm inspectors to inspect each of the state's roughly 2,200 big livestock farms once every six or seven years.

Gard said the goal would be to hire enough additional inspectors so that each farm could undergo annual inspections.

''Confined feeding farms are a valuable industry and I believe they can coexist with everybody else, but it's a matter of how you manage them,'' she said.

Her bill has already generated opposition from agricultural groups because it would raise permit fees for large livestock farms up to 30-fold to help the state hire more inspectors.

''That's causing a little bit of an issue because it's a pretty big sticker shock,'' she said. * * *

Aside from Gard's bill, her committee will also hear testimony Monday on legislation sponsored by Sen. Allen Paul, R-Richmond, that would impose a three-year moratorium on new CAFOs from being built in Indiana.

Paul's east-central Indiana district has seen a large number of CAFOs built in recent years, prompting complaints that farm odor and runoff are hurting property values and quality of life.

The third bill on Monday's agenda would forbid county ordinances from adopting provisions beyond those specified under state law. The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Bob Jackman, R-Milroy, would take effect after May 15, 2007.

Here is the Committee notice:
AGENDA FOR: Energy and Environmental Affairs

MEETING: January 29, Upon Adjournment [ILB - Note that the Senate is set to convene at 1:30 p.m. today - Mon.] , Senate Chamber

CHAIR: Senator Gard

MEMBERS: Riegsecker R.M., Bray, Dillon, Drozda, Hershman, Miller, Hume R.M.M., Errington, Lanane, Tallian

AGENDA: SB 0431 SB 0447 SB 0570

NOTES: 1 hr. information, 1 hr. CAFO opposition & 1 hr. CAFO support

ILB - You may be able to watch this hearing online (but only while it is in progress). Check this link later today.

In a related matter, the Muncie Star-Press has this story today by Seth Slabaugh, headed "Pork producer negotiating plea deal." Some quotes:

MUNCIE -- Criminal and civil complaints against a pork producer who allegedly violated environmental management laws are likely to be settled without trials.

"We are still negotiating a plea agreement," said Eric Hoffman, a Delaware County deputy prosecutor, which is the same thing he said in August.

Jacobus "John" Tielen, 38, rural Eaton, faces three class D felony counts of violating environmental laws filed Oct. 12, 2005, dismissed on April 4, 2006, and re-filed the next day.

He is accused of knowingly or intentionally failing to maintain the required minimum freeboard of two feet in a lagoon holding 12 million gallons of hog manure. Freeboard is the distance between the manure level in the lagoon and the top of the lagoon.

On June 8, 2005, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management filed a lawsuit against Tielen to restrain him from further swine breeding and to address his "brimming manure lagoon." The breeding ban was later lifted.

Since 1999, Tielen has been fined more than $21,000 for spilling manure, failing to report a manure spill, killing fish and other violations. Authorities claim he has continually shown contempt for laws, rules and orders governing manure management.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 29, 2007 08:24 AM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Government