For immediate release: September 28, 2006

 

For more information contact: Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement

at 515-282-0484, [log in to unmask] , http://www.iowacci.org

 

Town fights for quality of life

Mount Carmel residents oppose plans for large hog factory

 

Mt. Carmel – Local residents are racing against the clock as the initial construction date nears for a 2400 head hog facility less than a mile south of their town.  Opposition was raised as soon as the plans were filed at the end of August.  Over 650 signatures have been collected on a petition contesting the location of the new facility. 

 

“Our community is united in our opposition to the large hog confinement, and we’re not going to give up,” said Tammy Murray, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement who has lived in Mt. Carmel for 13 years.  “We’re going to stand up and keep fighting for what’s right.”

 

Those opposing the facility are focused on three key issues:  water quality, health concerns, and problems with the manure management plan.  They have presented their concerns to the county supervisors, the Environmental Protection Commission, the Department of Natural Resources, local representative Rod Roberts, local senator Steve Kettering, the owner of the proposed facility, and its investors.  A county supervisor asked the investors to consider another site during a meeting the other night, 

“We’ve exhausted our list of authorities.  Everyone tells us they don’t have the authority to challenge this facility or they just flat out refuse to consider it.  Posted on the Carroll County courthouse it says, Equality Before the Law,” said Al Koren, who was born and raised  in Mt. Carmel left a few years and returned.  “What about democracy?  5-10 people deciding how 100 have to live and breathe is not democratic process.  Our town has just over 100 people, and yet we have 650 signatures on our petition.  That’s a pretty commanding assertion of the public voice.”

 

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is a 31 year old organization with thousands of members across Iowa from all walks of life who talk, act and get things done on issues affecting them the most. For more information visit www.iowacci.org.