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the local standard. For example, a class 1D CAFO has a capacity
<br />of 300-to 1,100 AU; class lC includes 1,101 to 1,650 AU; class
<br />lB h~ 1,651 to 2,000 AU; and class lA covers 2,001 AU and
<br />greate?. Communities that have the power to zone may make
<br />CAFOs a conditional use. They have the option of classifying
<br />them Separately or simply setting a threshold. Watonwan
<br />County, Minnesota, requires a conditional use permit for new
<br />or expanding facilities that exceed 800 AU.
<br />
<br /> Air Quality Impacts
<br /> Air q~ality has received the most media attention because it is
<br /> easy tO: understand that the stench of industrial-scale hogging
<br /> creat~ a serious blight. Terry Spence says families that can afford
<br /> to mdve away from the smell do so. Most people cannot afford to
<br /> move because no one will buy their houses. The manure emits
<br /> hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane. The dangers of
<br /> concentrated exposures to these.gases are well documented, but
<br /> the long-term effects of lower exposure are unknown.
<br /> N6t everyone has the luxury of low-level exposure. Many
<br /> rural residents are exposed to toxic levels of gases every time the
<br /> wind [blows their way. Julie Jansen of Renville County,
<br /> Minnesota, did not expect a problem when a CAFO set up next
<br /> door.iAfter a couple of months, in which the family had
<br /> constknt bouts with influenza, she began to notice a pattern.
<br /> Headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting arrived only when
<br /> the wind blew from the south. Jansen called the state poison
<br /> control center. "We had every symptom of hydrogen sulfide
<br /> poisoning except seizures, convulsions, and death," she says.
<br /> She began a long batde with local authorities, trying to
<br />convince them that her family was endangered by the gases
<br />blowing off the lagoons. Tests in her backyard have indicated
<br />hydrogen sulfide gas levels three times above those considered
<br />safe, Ond her family's symptoms are consistent with those of
<br />peop!¢ living next to CAFOs all over the country. The county
<br />health department concurs with the diagnosis of hydrogen sulfide
<br />poisdning but.is powerless to act. The CA_FO operator and the
<br />local ~nvironmental authorities dispute the tests. "Watching your
<br />kids get sick and not being able to do anything about it is hell,"
<br />Jansen says, but moving is not an answer. "There's no place safe
<br />anymore. What should you do: file bankruptcy, move away, and
<br />just pray that one of these things doesn't move in next door?"
<br /> Sdveral techniques are used to combat air quality problems.
<br />Wat6nwan County has eliminated the use of open liquid waste
<br />lagodns. New CAFOs must construct covered cement basins
<br />and meet a half-mile setback. This does not eliminate odor or
<br />expokure to gases, but it can lessen air quality problems. Most
<br />CAFO regulations require setbacks from populated areas. Pettis
<br />Couhty, Missouri, requires class iA CAFOs to be set back
<br />three:fourths of a mile from an occupied dwelling not owned by
<br />the ~O, with an additional quarter-mile for each 500 AU in
<br />exce~s of 2,000, and a two-mile setback between a lA CAFO
<br />and ~ populated area, with a quarter-mile_increase for each 500
<br />AU in excess of 2,000.
<br /> I~ Lincoln Township, Missouri, the lagoons themselves are
<br />set b~ck from dwellings. The distance is determined by the
<br />aggregate capacity of all the lagoons on the site. Lagoons
<br />holding 10 acre-feet or less are set back 1,400 feet. Those with
<br />more than 10 but less than 20 acre-feet are set back 2,800 feet.
<br />Lagoons larger than 20 acre-feet must be set back one mile.
<br />
<br />Mic~;ael Barrette is a fotw;er APA research associate currently in
<br />graduate school at DePaul University.
<br />
<br /> Pettis County also includes a buffer area for the application
<br />of liquid manure in order to keep it from being spread too close
<br />to residences. A quarte~;-mile buffer is required for surface
<br />application, and 500 feet for subsurface injection. Dry manure
<br />may not be used within 500 feet of a dwelling. To protect
<br />downhill residences on hilly terrain, the ordinance includes a
<br />clause that prohibits manure application on a slope exceeding
<br />10 percent. Spacing requirements are used to disperse the
<br />cumulative effect of multiple CAFOs. Class lA CAFOs may not
<br />exist within a mile of each other, measured between the newest
<br />points of the confinement facilities or waste containments.
<br />Smaller class CAFOs have shorter spacing requirements.
<br /> Lincoln Township requires operators to design their facilities
<br />"in such a manner as to avoid the unlawful degradation of air
<br />quality." The ordinance includes a table of gases and their
<br />maximum all~)wable concentration. Such ordinances should set
<br />forth guidelines for measurement methods in order to avoid
<br />disputes over monitoring techniques.
<br />
<br /> Water Pollution
<br /> CAFOs also threaten water
<br /> quality. Animal waste contains
<br /> dangerously high concentrations
<br /> of bacteria, nutrients, and heavy
<br /> metals. The constant
<br /> application of effluent may
<br /> endanger drinking water unless
<br /> done properly. A Missouri study ·
<br /> found 150 sites where manure
<br /> was being overapplied. In one
<br /> case, manure had been applied
<br /> at 150 times the appropriate -~
<br /> level. The study also found that, ~
<br />while the corporate pork ~
<br />producers projected a hay yield
<br />of four tons per effluent-applied acre, the actual yield was half
<br />that, indicating that the crops are not absorbing the nutrients as
<br />expected. Instead, the high concentration accumulated in the
<br />soil is gradually released into the watershed, threatening water
<br />supplies and promoting algae growth downstream, which can
<br />have deadly consequences. In the fall of 1995, an estimated I 0
<br />million fish were found dead in the lower Neuse River in
<br />southeastern North Carolina, State officials closed the river to
<br />swimming and commercial fishing. Investigators determined
<br />that algae growth had so depleted oxygen levels that the river
<br />could no longer support fish. The state subsequendy
<br />recommended the maintenance of a 50-foot-wide wooded
<br />buffer between all streams and CAFOs.
<br /> Despite industry claims about state-of-the-art technology,
<br />lagoon failures and effluent spills are common. The worst spill
<br />occurred in June 1995 on a 12,000-hog CAFO in Onslow
<br />County, North Carolina, where 25 million gallons of hog waste
<br />burst through a lagoon wall and flooded the countryside knee-
<br />deep. Progressive Farmer reported that a wall of excrement
<br />"swept across crop fields and swamped a rural highway before
<br />spilling into the headwaters of the New River." A 20-mile
<br />stretch of the river lost thousands of fish, and communities lost
<br />income when the fishing, tourist, and recreation trade collapsed.
<br /> A subsequent investigation determined that the lagoon had
<br />been overfilled. Once the effluent topped the lagoon, it quickly
<br />eroded a section of the surrounding earthen embankment.
<br />North Carolina is the second-largest pork producer in ~he
<br />nation, but, like most states, does not require routine
<br />
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