Sides clash over hog facility expansions in Iowa

In rural Dallas County, Rob Manning and Eric Wessels are on different sides of a $7.6 billion industry in Iowa — raising pigs.

Without notice to Wessels, a nearly 2,500-pig barn is rising near his home. He fears its smell and impact on his family's quality of life.

"They can put these operations up every half mile," said Wessels, an architect. Building his home, he said, sparked more government oversight than a confinement with 600,000 gallons of manure. "It's an industry and needs to be regulated like one."

Manning sees the suburbs closing in on his family's business, hemming in his ability to grow. More people means the possibility for more crime, traffic and opposition from nonfarm neighbors.

"Hog buildings aren't bad," Manning said. "We're meeting a need. Everyone loves bacon, and there's only one way to get it."

Experts see the chasm between Iowa's urban and rural interests only deepening, as record profitability makes expansion more attractive in a state that leads the nation in pork production. At the same time, urban residents grow more concerned about water quality and worry that proposed state rules overseeing livestock operations aren't strong enough to protect their families' drinking water. Opposition also has arisen over concerns about animal welfare.

"Factory farming is one of the most pressing social issues in Iowa," said David Goodner, an organizer at the grass-roots activist group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. He sees each expansion of a hog operation as an opportunity for the group to increase its membership.

"The water quality crisis has gotten so bad in Iowa ... people are thirsty for someone to tell the truth and stand with them," he said.

The next year could add to the pressure: Producers will decide whether to push to replace pigs lost to a deadly disease that has cut herds and boosted grower prices nearly 40 percent higher than a year ago.

Expansion efforts will likely run into protest signs. Goodner said dozens of residents turn out for hearings on pig expansion projects and have stopped 11 projects in 18 months.

"We've stopped new construction roughly a third of the time" they've challenged projects," he said. "It's a damn good batting average."

Manure: Nuisance or resource?

Pig poop. Manning calls it liquid gold, and it's a big reason why he's adding thousands of pigs to his family's Dallas County farming operation, pushing the total to about 20,000.

Nitrogen in manure is key to growing corn, and Iowa leads the nation in production.

Manure is "a very valuable product," said Manning, a fifth-generation farmer who grows corn and soybeans on 7,000 acres with his dad and brother. "We're building the barns here, because this is where we farm. This is where we need it."

Before a barn is built, the state requires all but the smallest producers to report how much manure their pigs will generate, where it will be applied and how much. That plan must be updated annually or producers face fines and possible legal action.

CCI members describe pig manure being applied to Iowa farm fields as "toxic waste," layered on fields in an attempt to get rid of it.

The sheer volume of manure produced in Iowa is enormous: Iowa's roughly 20 million pigs produce nearly 10 billion gallons of manure a year, "more manure than 45 million people," CCI says and experts confirm. That's 15 times more people than live in Iowa.

"You don't know when these confinements will be built within a mile of your house, making it worthless," said Ann Hatfield Merritt, who along with her sister Jane Anchustegui owns a lake resort in Adair County, where a nearby producer has twice proposed expanding an existing pig operation.

"It's like the plague moving in ... and it's spreading across the state," she said.

Despite the large amount of manure being produced, pigs and other animals supply only about a quarter of the fertilizer needed to grow corn, soybeans and other crops in Iowa, said Dan Andersen, a professor in manure management and water quality at Iowa State University.

The remaining fertilizer is manufactured, primarily outside the U.S., although at least three companies are expanding or building nitrogen plants in Iowa.

Cities are allowed to discharge treated sewage that still contains nitrates into waterways, under their Clean Water Act permits. Hog producers, however, are prohibited from letting manure into Iowa waterways. That makes a comparison on environmental impact difficult, Andersen said.

That doesn't mean that manure never makes it into waterways. "Parts are going to break, and pumps will go down," he said.

Who's to blame for polluted water?

Des Moines Water Works CEO Bill Stowe blames livestock, corn and soybean producers for the metro area's problems with ammonia and nitrates in the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers, the source of drinking water for 500,000 urban residents.

Treating water for nitrates last year cost consumers nearly $1 million.

Stowe said nutrients make their way into the state's waterways through runoff, spills or the state's tiling system, designed to move water from fields and crops.

He wants the state to restrict livestock growth in watersheds with high levels of nutrients.

"We are a mecca of intensive livestock and row-crop farming, and there are consequences," Stowe said at a recent climate change conference in Des Moines. "Throughout the state, there are a number of impaired surface waters — rivers and streams — that aren't suitable for human contact. They're not fishable. They're not swimmable."

But state leaders say nutrients come from more than farming, and it's difficult to determine the exact source.

"We see failures of urban waste treatment plants, too, or rain events that overwhelm storm sewers," said Paul Lasley, chairman of ISU's sociology department, who studies rural issues. Nitrates can come from golf courses, city lawns and salt used on slippery roads and parking lots.

"Whether we're spraying for weeds in our fields or our gardens, we all share in and contribute to the problems," he said.

Iowa farm leaders have initiated a large effort to help reduce the nitrates and phosphorous moving into state waterways. They caution, however, that significantly reducing the amount will take time.

Manning, the Dallas County producer, said farmers do everything they can to keep manure on fields. Any manure loss hurts his business.

"In every industry, there's someone doing something wrong," he said. "There are some hog buildings that aren't managed correctly, that raise a bad stink, I guess you would say, for the rest of us.

"The vast majority of hog, cattle, turkey confinements are doing it right," Manning said. Modern construction and management practices limit problems such as odor.

Wessels, his neighbor, said he worries that short-term profits are driving farmers' decisions. "We may pay less for our food at the grocery store now, but it isn't worth what we're going to have to pay for better water quality," he said.

Snapshot on oversight

A quick look at state rules on hog confinements:

Building

New confinements with more than 2,500 pigs apply for a state construction permit — a more stringent requirement than federal law — that state engineers review. Producers building a confinement for 1,250 to 2,500 pigs must submit a construction design statement to the county outlining the standards they'll use. All producers building confinements for 1,250 pigs or more are required to have manure management plans. Most small producers are not required to meet those requirements.

Separation

The state restricts how close animal confinements can be to homes, schools and other areas. Larger facilities require more distance than smaller ones. For example, new confinements with fewer than 1,250 pigs can build next door to a neighbor. Confinements with fewer than 2,500 hogs in a rural setting require 1,250 feet of separation around them. Confinements must be 500 feet from a water source, such as a well, and 1,000 feet from a major water source.

Master matrix

Counties can provide input into approval of large confinements through a master matrix. Every facility must meet minimum requirements, but producers can choose from 44 items actions that "go above and beyond" the basic requirements to gain county approval. Producers who fail to get a passing score can ask the state Department of Natural Resources for a review. Those who fail to get DNR approval can appeal to the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission.

Activists want changes

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is pushing the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission to strengthen rules overseeing livestock operations. The group is expected to consider changes this summer. Here are some of the recommendations:

• Farmers who have spills should be required to get a Clean Water Act permit, with the assumption that more violations will occur.

• The rules should include a "three strikes and you're out" provision for repeat violators so Iowans can shut down the worst of the worst polluters.

• The rules should strengthen technical and water quality standards governing how manure is disposed of on farm fields in ways that decrease the risk of overapplication and runoff, such as increased separation distances.