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Friday, March 23, 2007

Environment - Still more on CAFO bills pending in General Assembly, and a revelation from North Carolina

When last the ILB looked at CAFO bills in this General Assembly, it was March 4th and Feb. 27th.

Pam Tharp of the Richmond Palladium Item had an excellent report on March 18th about concerns on both sides about the CAFO issue. The three bills in second house committee, SB 431 (fees for inspection), HB 1197 (one mile buffer), and HB 1308 (local zoning) are addressed, as well as the economic interests of a number of the members. Don't miss this story if you are following CAFO legislation; save it along with the two earlier stories referenced above.

In addition, Niki Kelly of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette had a good report March 20th on the Senate committee meeeting on one of the two House bills. Some quotes:

An environmental committee in the Senate took its first look Monday at a confined feeding bill sent from the House that contains a controversial prohibition against new massive agriculture operations locating within one mile of a city or school.

Members of the Senate Energy and Environmental Affairs Committee did not vote on House Bill 1197, brought by Rep. Phil Pflum, D-Milton.

“I can’t support a moratorium because I want to see the pork industry grow in our state,” said Pflum, himself a farmer and longtime member of the Indiana Farm Bureau. “But I am asking the General Assembly to pass a setback. Rural areas are where I think these operations belong.”

Confined and concentrated feeding operations are the new wave in animal production in which hundreds to thousands of cows, pigs and chickens are raised in a small area and the treated waste is kept in lagoons or is applied to nearby acreage.

Cities and counties have the ability to pass regulations – including limitations on where the operations can exist – but many units have not done so, and citizens are now stuck with confined feeding facilities as neighbors.

They complain about the smell and especially the loss in property value, and Pflum said “our local zoning boards are sort of all over the map on this issue.”

That’s why competing pieces of legislation have hit the legislature this year.

The biggest part of Pflum’s bill is the one-mile prohibition with some exceptions. He had trouble answering questions about the rest of the bill, including whether the state setback would pre-empt local zoning ordinances that already exist or whether cities, towns or counties could pass more restrictive laws.

“Regardless of how you feel about a setback, this bill has loose ends all over the place that need to be fixed,” said Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage.

Committee members questioned whether increased fees in the bill would be enough to pay for annual inspections, which are required in the bill. * * *

Pflum conceded several times the bill had flaws but insisted the group pass it.

“If you believe we are going to leave this session without a setback and calm the nerves of the critics you are mistaken,” he said. “Maybe I’m asking this General Assembly to play the role of bad guy. This is a big issue for folks, and we need to do something.

“Let’s protect as many citizens as we can.”

But Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, said her committee doesn’t pass legislation unless it is in proper order.

On March 9th, 2006, the ILB had an entry titled "Environment - Ten-year moratorium on new hog farms in North Carolina will end soon, with no viable solution in sight." A quote from that entry:
In the mid-1990s, the story reports, after several major lagoon ruptures sent millions of gallons of waste into rivers and countless complaints of the stench created by thousands of pigs raised in close quarters, "public pressure led state lawmakers to ban new hog farms. None have been built since 1997. In 2000, two top pork producers, Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms, agreed to pay for a study to identify more environmentally sound technologies."
Today the Raleigh NC News & Observer has this story by Wade Rawlins. Some quotes from the story, which could have been headlined "Hog Creep":
Lawmakers tried to halt the growth of the hog industry in North Carolina 10 years ago, but new hog farms have continued to be built, adding a capacity of more than 500,000 swine.

Seventy-three new hog farms have been given permits, 25 expansions have been allowed and four farms reactivated under exemptions to a 1997 law that established a moratorium on new hog farms, state water regulators say. Nearly all those farms use the type of hog manure disposal systems -- waste pits and spray fields -- that the state would like to phase out because of water pollution concerns.

Molly Diggins, state director of the Sierra Club's North Carolina chapter, described the growth of the industry under the moratorium as "hog creep."

"I'm very surprised," Diggins said when told the number of farms. "People assumed that the total number of hogs has been kept steady and that there are not new lagoons and spray fields being built. People knew those exemptions would allow some slippage, but not at that level. The moratorium isn't working, and it should be replaced with a permanent ban on new lagoons and spray fields."

More from the story:
Environmental groups are pressing state lawmakers to adopt a permanent ban this year on lagoons and fields where they spray the waste. They also want state funding to allow the replacement of hog waste lagoons on some farms, using waste disposal systems that pollute less. The 10-year-old moratorium on new and expanded hog farms expires in September.

Meanwhile, Smithfield Foods is seeking to take advantage of the new farms. The company is seeking permission from the state to process 1 million more pigs a year at its massive slaughterhouse in Bladen County. As part of its application, Smithfield is asking regulators to let it buy hogs from new farms that don't have innovative waste disposal methods. Currently, its state permit bars it from buying hogs off farms built after 2002, unless the farms use cleaner waste technology. State regulators have recommended keeping that ban in place.

North Carolina is the nation's second largest hog producer, after Iowa. About 9.5 million hogs are raised each year on 2,300 factory farms concentrated in Eastern North Carolina.

The total number of hog farms has dropped from about 4,500 in 1997 to about 2,300 last year, largely because of the disappearance of smaller farms. [ILB emphasis] The number of hogs produced in the state has fluctuated between 9.3 million and 10 million a year depending on market demand.

The story also has a number of quotes from the hog industry that the increased growth under the moratorium was authorized and recognized. However, nothing I have read previously indicated growth was continuing. The story today concludes:
"North Carolina citizens have been led to believe that the number of hogs and hog lagoons had been frozen in place 10 years ago," said Rick Dove, a representative of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental advocacy group. "That is nothing short of an absolute falsehood. We have allowed this industry to grow at great cost to our environment."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 23, 2007 02:45 PM
Posted to Environment