Local Citizens Voice Hog Farm Concerns

Four industrial hog farms near Wheatland, home to 55,000 pigs and piglets, continue to operate in violation of their permits, generating a powerful stink that has significantly affected the lives of area residents.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) contends that the problem will be solved by remedies the department is proposing to Wyoming Premium Farms, the facilities' owner. However, the persistent odors generated by the farms and their owner's history of poor handling of hog waste raise many questions about DEQ's lack of enforcement and the potential for more serious environmental impacts. Two local citizens voiced their concerns in the following letters to the editor of the Casper Star-Tribune.

Editor:

In reference to the horrific stench that I encounter on a regular basis, caused by the Wyoming Premium Farms: I live 10 miles away from one of the facilities and am regularly assaulted by the smell. This is not a "farm smell" as some would like to believe. It is a sickening, foul, vulgar odor that we, the community, were told we would never experience if the industry was allowed to move in. My "stink log" that I submit to DEQ on a monthly basis documents up to five times a month that I am affected.

Citizens of Platte County: Now is the time to be heard. Your Planning and Zoning Board is reviewing the Interim Zoning Resolution for Platte County and will submit their recommendations to the county commissioners. It is time that we tell the Planning and Zoning Board to make stronger zoning regulations for this industry so that they cannot expand as they have plans to do. If the state agency (DEQ) cannot successfully monitor the four facilities that are currently operating, how can we afford to allow more factory farms in our county?

Although DEQ swears that WPF is in no odor violation, how many times have they actually checked? WPF is in fact in violation of their water quality permits as per a letter dated Aug. 22 to Mr. DeRouchey from Lou Harmon of DEQ. Instead of demanding that WPF stop this violation, DEQ is in fact going to grant additional permits for additional land application. This will allow the factory to spray the effluent from the lagoons on the land so that the total amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that are currently exceeding the legal limit can be alleviated. Does that sound right to you? Does it sound like DEQ is acting in the best interest of the people they are charged to protect or to the industry that is in violation?

Strict zoning regulations specific to corporate hog operations are already in place in our neighboring counties as well as in other states. We must ask our zoning board and county commissioners to adopt stricter zoning regulations specific to this industry. Currently the state setback regulation is one mile. The county has imposed a two-mile setback (which supersedes the state's regulation) but if the odor can't travel 10 miles away-a two-mile setback is not enough.

You may not smell the stench from the current factories operating in Platte County based on where you live but ask yourself this question: If the county does not adopt stricter regulations and in fact allows more confined hog operations to move in, are you prepared to be assaulted by the smell at your place?

Karen Davoli, Glendo

Editor:

Beneath the southeastern counties of Wyoming lies a geologic phenomenon called the Ogalala Aquifer. This aquifer is part of a complex water system called the High Plains Aquifer which extends east to Omaha, Neb., and south to Odessa, Texas.

This incredible underground water vault is like a gigantic sponge sitting on bedrock that, according to National Geographic magazine, March, 1993, encompasses 174,000 square miles under the arid region just east of the Rocky Mountains and contains a quadrillion gallons of water; enough water to fill Lake Huron to the brim.

Because 95 percent of America's fresh water is actually located underground, it is important, especially to those of us in arid regions, to keep close watch on our slice of the aquifer pie for domestic and agricultural uses.

When I read the article, "DEQ hopes to cut back on hog odors," Dec. 2, I felt I needed to remind everyone that our odor problem is only the immediate problem-the "tip of the iceberg" if you will.

The bigger picture is one that will be even more difficult to remedy. That issue is surface and ground water contamination and depletion. If lagoon design, waste application management, and most importantly, surface and ground water pollution issues aren't addressed and regulated carefully by someone, then I would strongly support asking Wyoming Premium Farms to close their doors, clean up their mess, and "get out of Dodge."

I would also encourage an investigation into the DEQ to find out who in Cheyenne is responsible for bad decision and indecision by our state regulatory agencies.

During the past four years, residents of Platte, Goshen, and Laramie Counties have repeatedly shown DEQ sound evidence that confined hog facilities around the county have been unable to effectively manage water contamination and odor abatement issues. (By the way, Goshen and Laramie Counties have effectively put a stop to construction of hog factories in their counties.)

Even during the two years prior to DEQ issuing construction permits to WPF, scientific evidence of odor problems and surface and ground water contamination by pig factories in other states was handed over the DEQ, and evidently ignored. Why?

Now thanks to Richard and Bonnie Johnson, an environmental engineer from Oklahoma has done the work DEQ should have been doing.

If you would like more information about the serious problems presented by high-density hog facilities around the nation, please contact me or any Concerned Citizens of Platte County member, and we can supply you with factual information to help you understand this terribly important issue more clearly.

Dan Brecht, Wheatland