Split Floyd County supervisors board votes against hog confinement permit recommendation

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Faced with a room full of people mostly opposed to a new hog confinement site being proposed between Rudd and Floyd, a split Floyd County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday against recommending site approval.

Most of the people were concerned about flooding and water quality issues in the area, as well as the potential smell caused by hog confinement operations.

The county board held a public hearing Tuesday morning on a request for a construction permit to build a new concentrated animal feeding operation in section 26 of Ulster township. That’s about midway and slightly south between Rudd and Floyd, along Lancer Avenue/county road T38 and between 190th and 180th streets.

The proposal is for two deep pit swine finishing buildings, each holding 2,500 hogs, to be operated by Lancer LLC.

About 20 people plus the supervisors and other county officials attended the hearing, which took up almost an hour and 20 minutes of a 2½-hour supervisors meeting.

Mark Hover, a production manager and hog producer for Reicks View Farms in Chickasaw County, said one of his sons would operate the facility, with the hogs contracted by Reicks.

Much of the discussion concerned flooding problems in the areas, including times when the road is covered in water.

“Pigs need feed every three days. How are you going to get feed in there when the roads are covered?” one person in the audience asked.

Another hot topic was corporate farming versus family farming, or farms that are operated by people who live elsewhere versus farms where the operator lives.

Hover said his son would probably not live on the property because he has a home elsewhere, but he said he and his family do live where there are confinement buildings.

Doug Kamm, the current supervisors chairman, said to Hover, “You’re corporate ag. You’re not a family farm. To me, corporate ag should be ruled by the same rules (as other corporations). We have two huge chemical facilities here in Charles City, and if you had to operate under their rules it would certainly be a lot different than what you’re under right now.”

Hover replied, “I’ll speak for Reicks View Farms. They are a family farm. They’re owned by Dale and his wife and his two kids. I’ve worked for them for 14 years. I’ve been in the hog industry for 35.

“I saw the way we used to do it 35 years ago and I see the way we do it now. … I’ve been in barns for 35 years. My son lives right next to one of the barns.

“So, do they stink once in a while? I’ll say yes. Do I think they’re a good building and we control the environment? Absolutely, or I wouldn’t do it. I love to hunt and I love to fish. I don’t want to ruin that.”

Kamm said, “We all have to admit that there is a tremendous concentration of these things. And what I have said is when you do this, you’re stealing from Floyd County’s future. Nobody’s ever going to go out there and build another acreage. …

“So every time you build one of these sites, you literally sterilize a little piece of Floyd County for us. … You have to think about that, what you’re doing to the future of Iowa. And I know it’s all bailed under agriculture, but after a while quality of life has to come in someplace,” he said.

Kamm said the purpose of the meeting was to determine if the construction application meets the requirements of the state Master Matrix, a questionnaire that awards points for various aspects of a confinement plan. The plan needs to score a minimum number of points to qualify.

“I don’t know how many of these hearings I’ve sat through, but the questions, the concerns, are always the same,” Kamm said. “We could reject this application, but I guarantee you it would go down to the DNR and there’s no reason to reject it because of points, location, anything, and it would just get issued.”

One person in the audience said, “But if you approve things, it just tells the state, ‘We have no problem.’ You have to start saying ‘no, we need to stop.’”

Another person said, “We’re just asking you guys to fight for us. We elected you guys. Fight for us. That’s what we want. That’s what we expect.”

Mark Kuhn, a former Floyd County supervisor and a former Iowa legislator who helped craft the original Master Matrix but who has since said it needs major changes, was at the hearing.

He said if the board recommends against the application and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources approves it anyway based on the Master Matrix score, the county can appeal the decision to the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission.

“Very important questions have been raised” at the hearing, Kuhn said.

“This is a water quality issue that has been clearly identified. Where does this water go? It goes into the watershed that ends up in Charles City,” he said. “You have to consider all these factors, but I just see that is one reason you can certainly vote no, then if the DNR says it scored the points, object to it and go to the EPC and fight it.”

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said enough questions had been raised at the hearing that she wanted to table the recommendation for further discussion.

“I farm. We have livestock,” Tjaden said. “And I believe in family farms, I do. I’m trying to work with our county attorney’s office to see what is our stance on this. Is there anything that we as a county even have any control on?

“I don’t want to put a moratorium on livestock in Floyd County,” she said. “I’m a family farmer. I want that ability for those families that live in this community, that live in the county, to be able to flourish and to be able to provide that opportunity to their children.

“My concern is when we have these companies that are coming in here, and I say corporate farmers, … that come in and put up the buildings and they don’t live here, I think that’s where I would like to hear from the county attorney’s office on that,” she said. “I’d like some time to get to hear what their comments are.”

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said to Hover, “I appreciate the fact that Reicks Farms is allowing you to move forward with this for your family. What concerns me is, Reicks Farms appears to want to stay away from it. They’re helping you do it. They don’t want their name on it. They don’t want the liability of it.

“It looks to me like there’s a real problem with our system here. And I agree if we don’t stop it locally, if we don’t at least put our voice in, how are they ever going to hear us,” he said.

After the hearing closed, Schwickerath made a motion to recommend that the permit not be approved. He said there were no disagreements with the Master Matrix scoring, but he was concerned with the issues that had been raised: “ownership, flood, the issues of the air quality and what it’s doing to our groundwater.”

Kamm said, “Well, I just, for the sake of doing something different, I’ll second that motion, and we’ll just go through the process and see what happens. I think we’ll all be disappointed in the end, but we’ll try that.”

The vote to recommend against the construction application permit passed 2-1, with Tjaden voting against the motion.