The Register-Mail, Galesburg, Illinois
April 3, 1999

Also: Peoria Journal Star, April 4.

Letter to Editor:
 CAFO problems still exist

 

Governor Ryan has succeeded in misleading much of the public and media into believing that adequate safeguards regarding CAFOs are now in place and this issue has been put to bed. Neither is true.

Although there were some steps in the right direction, the public should be aware of the weaknesses that remain:

  • CAFOs with 2,500 head to 5,000 head of hogs 55 pounds and over need a waste management plan in a desk drawer on the premises, but it never needs to be approved to operate. Only when a CAFO reaches 12,500 hogs must a plan to be submitted to the state for approval.

  • All public information meetings and comments are nonbinding, and thus are an exercise in futility.

  • The public cannot even request their nonbinding meeting until a facility reaches 2,500 hogs. (In the last two years, 8 of 11 CAFOs constructed in Hancock County were just under this threshold.)

  • 100 year floodplains are not adequately protected.

  • Wording in the agreement is vague and ambiguous. For example, "reasonable odor controls using new technology..." What does "reasonable" mean? This can be interpreted many ways when the final rules are written.

  • The Department of Agriculture will oversee the final rulemaking for all new changes except for construction standards. The fox continues to guard the hen house in Illinois.

  • CAFOs will continue to use your property as their setback, restricting the use of what you own.

  • Heavy metals from hog manure will be allowed to build up in Illinois soil and will reach toxic levels in as little as four to ten years according to studies from Oklahoma and North Carolina.

  • Illinois lagoons will continue to seep and volatilize vast quantities of nitrogen and ammonia into the atmosphere, degrading ground and surface water. (Colorado's new law requires groundwater monitoring and lagoon covers.)

  • Illinois citizens will continue to be sickened. New studies about odors, pathogens, gases, and particulates prove how dangerous these are to neighbors and illustrate that current setbacks are too lenient.

    The negotiations that occurred were hastily executed in just three days' time and in no way addressed all the repairs that need to be done to our law. Public health officials were not even invited to sit at the table. Recently in North Carolina, the director of Public Health issued a white paper on the health impacts from CAFOs and stated odors are a real public health issue. Hear that Gov. Ryan?

    Ryan threw a few bones to the public and, in the process, stole their voice and skirted the issue. Contrary to what Ryan says, we have only just begun to fix the livestock law in Illinois.

    Karen Hudson
    President, Families Against Rural Messes
    Elmwood


    Families Against Rural Messes
    P.O. Box 615, Elmwood, IL 61529-0615, (309) 742-8895

    http://www.farmweb.org