Subject: Adair County articles

by Ann Kult
Editor-Stuart Herald, Stuart, IA
    Permit denied.
    Two little words members of Adair County Families Against Factory Farms
(ACFAFF) wondered if they'd ever hear.
    Permit denied.
    Two little words the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) has never
before proclaimed regarding a Department of Natural Resources decision to
grant  a  hog confinement construction permit.
    But at the Oct. 9 appeal hearing in Des Moines, after hours of
presentations by concerned citizens, lawyers and Harlan hog
producer Gary Weihs of Natural Pork Production II (NPPII), the EPC, on a
vote of 5-4, overruled the DNRís approval of Weihsí permit application to
build a 7,000-head sow farrowing facility in Adair County.
    Permit denied.
    Two little words with huge implications for the corporate hog  industry
in Iowa. History-making words of hope to other Iowa counties,  family
farmers and other concerned citizens battling the proliferation of mega hog
confinements in their rural neighborhoods.
    Permit denied.
    Members of ACFAFF, who for nine months battled Weihs and fought for his
permit to be denied on the basis of an error-laden manure
management plan (MMP), are still pinching themselves.
    I'm still on Cloud 9, said Christy O'Brien, a resident of Harrison
Township south of Stuart where Weihs wanted to build his facility.  "I
didn't think we had a chance.  But the EPC's decision has renewed my faith
in the system -- in some of the members of the system, anyway!,she said.
    We were just determined to see everything done right, O'Brien added.  We
tried to give Gary Weihs the benefit of the doubt, but the more we
uncovered(about his MMP), the worse it got.  We couldn't trust him.
    Weihs, who originally submitted his MMP to the DNR last February,  was
required to revise and resubmit the plan three times because of dozens of
errors and deficiencies uncovered by ACFAFF. Members of ACFAFF also
maintained that Weihs' overall plan failed to comply with required
separation distances from the nearby home of Brett Lovely.  The group also
pointed out to the DNR that Weihsí latest MMP violated current federal
conservation compliance plans.
    The  Adair County Board of Supervisors, in a bold move, appealed the
DNR's decision based on seven reasons.  The EPC, in the end,
denied Weihs' permit based on the following two reasons:
      The MMP as submitted is flawed and lacks sufficient documentation to
clearly support the requirements that all conservation programs and
requirements are and will be met for highly erodible land, as per DNR
correspondence to NPPII dated Aug. 12, 2002.
    A residence exists within 408 feet of the proposed Confined Animal
Feeding Operation (CAFO), a violation of the Iowa Administrative
Code, and further creating a known health risk for the occupant's family.
    Gary Weihs' plan was all wrong.  And there was  nothing they said
anywhere that made it right, said Barb Kalbach, ACFAFF member
and farmer who lives less than a mile from the proposed confinement
construction site.
    The secret to ACFAFF's success in this landmark appeal victory?
    We never quit, Kalbach said. I've learned that people can pull together
and really make a difference.  We stayed focused.  We didn't split off.  Now
other counties can look at us and say, "This is how we can protect ourselves
and our environment."
    I don't think Gary Weihs took us or the DNR's permit application process
seriously, said Sharon Jurgensen, a Stuart realtor and member of ACFAFF. We
might be family farmers out here, but we're not dummies.  Fortunately, we
had the talent, the energy and the wherewithal to hang in there and keep
digging.
 It was a total team effort.
    A team effort that, according to Jurgensen, exposed many loopholes in
the DNR's permit application process.
    We found gaping holes for corporate hog to walk right through, she said.
The DNR  feared they would be sued, so we had to do their job for them.
    Reza Khosravi, a DNR CAFO supervisor, said he respects the EPC's
decision.
    I think the crux of the problem was the highly erodible land, he said.
That's a big issue.  It's probably in the best interest of the department to
have a rulemaking on D, E and F slopes.     Greenfield attorney Jay Howe,
who assisted Adair County Attorney Clint Hight in preparing the county's
successful appeal, said he believes one of the pivotal factors in the matter
was Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack's
decision to appoint Greene County farmer Jerry Peckumn of Jefferson to the
EPC. He succeeded Jim Braun, who left the EPC in early September.
      If there had been eight members on the commission, I think the appeal
would have stalled and the permit would not have been denied, he noted.
    Permit denied.
    Obviously, we were disappointed, Weihs said Monday.  I wouldn't say we
were surprised because we didn't know what to think either way.  We were not
familiar with the EPC.
    We knew the DNR was in favor of granting us the permit because they
already had, Weihs continued.  We thought we had worked with
them and gotten it really fine-tuned to where they were happy with it.
    Weihs described the permit denial as "frustrating".
    We've had some pretty good successes in the Shelby County area working
with the neighbors,  he noted.     So he's  having a tough time
understanding what he called "a kind of huge negative force"that NPPII met
up with in Adair County.
    Weihs isn't sure at this point what he is going to do. He said NPPII is
weighing its options.
    I'm pretty sure there's an opportunity to appeal at the district court
level, he said.  It's a matter of if we want to pursue it and if we do,
how fast. We still believe that we're good for the community.

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