Danger of Goldfish. An interesting story in the Gary Post-Tribune today reports on how goldfish can damage a lake's fish population. (Unfortunately Trib links work only on the day of publication; they do not archive their stories.) Some quotes:
Being an originally Asian fish easily targeted by predators in deeper waters, goldfish in such large numbers are probably not making their way to the lake through streams or underground connections.Dairy Farm Permit. The Muncie Star-Press reports today: "IDEM to issue draft permit to large dairy."Instead, officials say, the popular, if hardly exotic, pets are being illegally transplanted there by people who don’t wish to keep them — but also don’t wish to flush them. Many will not find the fish new aquariums when they grow. And they can grow up to 17 inches long.
Introduced to a U.S. lake, the temperate fish can thrive in cold water if it’s deep enough.
“It only takes two,” said Robertson of the mysterious goldfish repopulation.
And then you have a goldfish population of bottom-feeders, not unlike common carp. The alien fish swim in and kick up the mud, officials said, and destroy bass nests in the ground.
“They can be quite destructive,” said Jonathan Lowrie, a marine biologist and California-based consultant. “They’re considered an invasive species.”
Lowrie said the goldfish produce large amounts of mucus, and can lower the oxygen level to a level they are comfortable with — but one that can make bass sick.
WINCHESTER - The Indiana Department of Environmental Management expects to issue a draft permit within two weeks to the proposed Union-Go Dairy, which would house 1,650 milk cows.Hog farms. A 6/16/04 story today on TheIowaChannel.com site reports that:"After we put out the draft permit for the public to review, there will be a public comment period," said IDEM spokesperson Amy Hartsock. "Sometime during that public comment period, we will have a public hearing."
Hartsock said the public hearing was requested by the permit applicant, Tony Goltstein.
"I asked for the public hearing to be [legally] safe, so we don't have problems," Goltstein said. "We did everything IDEM required, even the synthetic liner the opponents asked for, and monitoring wells. We did everything, so hopefully we have a good chance [of receiving the permit]."
Hartsock said Goltstein had agreed to install ground water monitoring wells and to line the large, earthen, manure-storage lagoon not only with compacted clay but to place a synthetic liner on top of the clay. * * *
IDEM's proposed decision to issue a permit is tentative. A final decision will be made after public comments are received.
The agency is requiring Goltstein to obtain an individual NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit. He had originally applied for a general NPDES permit.
A general permit would have imposed general standards, whereas the individual permit lays down requirements specific to Union-Go's operation.
"At the same time they are seeking an individual NPDES permit, they have appealed our determination that they were ineligible for a general NPDES permit to the Office of Environmental Adjudication," Hartsock said. "That is a review process that will determine if our decision was correct."
The state's highest court struck down a 1998 law passed by the Iowa Legislature that gave immunity from lawsuits to hog confinement owners. The Iowa Supreme Court agreed with a lower court ruling that the law was unconstitutional.The link to the story and to the June 16, 2004 decision itself, Gacke v. Pork Xtra, thanks to Marty Lucas of bigeastern.com.
An AP story from 6/17/04, published in Iowa Farmer Today, reported:
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that factory hog farms are not immune from nuisance claims filed by unhappy neighbors, a decision that could have widespread implications in rural Iowa.The upcoming issue of Newsweek has a story about both the Iowa case and a Nebraska suit:The Supreme Court sent a lawsuit against a rural Rock Valley farm back to district court over erroneously allowed evidence, but backed the lower court's finding that a state law granting hog farms immunity from nuisance claims was unconstitutional and an unwarranted government restriction. * * *
The high court said the Gackes, who moved into their home 22 years before the hog farm was built, suffered both financially and personally.
The court cited Iowans' constitutional right to acquire, possess and protect property, saying the immunity law infringes on that right.
"The plaintiffs' right to possess their property includes their right to use and enjoy it," the court said.
Thomas Lipps, the Gackes' attorney, said the immunity law kept factory farms from being accountable. He accused Republican legislative leaders of bowing to special interests when the law was passed in the mid-1990s.
"We are pleased that the Supreme Court has recognized that the Legislature is prohibited from allowing special interests to run over rural Iowans," he said.
Sick of the stink, the Stephenses joined 10 other neighbors and took the hog producer to court, suing for a loss of quality of life. A Nebraska appeals court has sided with them, ruling late last month that the hog producer, Progressive Swine Technologies, must compensate its neighbors for living with the noxious fumes. It was left to a state court to determine the damages. The state of Iowa has also delivered a blow to the confinement livestock industry, the factory-like farms where thousands of pigs or cattle are caged in small pens. The Iowa Supreme Court recently decided that residents could sue livestock producers, striking down the state's Right-to-Farm law. The court ruled that the constitutional right to own property "includes the right to use and enjoy it." Pig and cow manure has always been part of country life. But the huge livestock operations, with manure lagoons the size of football fields, are a bit more rank than Old MacDonald's farm.Close readers will recall that we reported on the June 15th Nebraska Court of Appeals ruling, Stevens v. Pillen, in a June 16 Indiana Law Blog entry. Posted by Marcia Oddi at July 5, 2004 04:26 PM