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Columbus
Dispatch...
Ohio’s new farm chief
can overturn denial of egg farm
Leery of trucks, Union County officials balk
By Spencer Hunt
Thursday, April 14, 2011
A state hearing officer said the Ohio Department of Agriculture should
reject a proposed egg megafarm in Union County because local officials
don’t support it.
The decision, released yesterday, was a setback for Hi-Q Egg Products.
The Iowa-based company had objected to former Agriculture Department
Director Robert Boggs’ decision to withhold a permit needed to build
the farm that would contain 6 million chickens.
The ball is now in the new agriculture director’s court.
Environmental advocates said the issue poses a policy test for Director
James Zehringer, who will make the agency’s final decision in the case.
Zehringer owned a large livestock farm in Mercer County before he was
appointed by Gov. John Kasich to the post.
Regardless of Zehringer’s decision, advocates said yesterday that they
fear the agency might soon try to get rid of a requirement in state
livestock laws that Union County officials used to “veto” the proposed
farm.
“There is an effort under way to change the code for the environmental
livestock-permitting program to eliminate the need for a county to sign
off,” said Cheryl Johncox, chairwoman of the Ohio Environmental
Stewardship Alliance.
Andy Ware, an Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesman, said that
during a March 16 meeting, members of the agency’s Concentrated Animal
Feeding Facilities Advisory Committee voted 12-2 to pass a proposal
that recommends giving local government officials a 75-day limit to
file their responses to proposed large-livestock permits.
“If they haven’t done that within that 75-day period, then the permit
process moves forward,” Ware said.
The committee vote doesn’t change the rules. Agriculture officials
would first have to decide it’s a good idea and then ask state
lawmakers and Kasich to change the law.
In August, Boggs said that the Union County commissioners’ refusal to
acknowledge they had received Hi-Q’s road plan for its proposed farm
meant the permit application was incomplete.
Commissioner Charles Hall said he and other officials feared truck
traffic to and from the egg farm would cause excessive damage to county
and township roads.
“The road issue was the main thing,” Hall said. “Hi-Q just continually
stonewalled us on all issues that we had brought before them.”
Kevin Braig, a Hi-Q attorney, argued that state law requires that
county officials respond to the company’s plan with their own
recommendations. He said they didn’t respond, and that meant the state
could approve the permits.
“Hi-Q followed the law 100percent and did absolutely everything that it
was required to do,” Braig said.
Hearing officer Andrew P. Cooke’s opinion, filed yesterday morning,
said the permit is incomplete without the local officials’ approval.
Cooke declined to discuss his decision.
Hi-Q has two weeks to decide if it will file a written objection to
Cooke’s opinion. Bill Schwaderer, an Ohio Department of Agriculture
spokesman, said the agency and Zehringer can’t discuss the case until a
decision is made.
Environmental groups oppose the farm because they fear chicken manure
would foul nearby Bokes Creek. The stream already is polluted by runoff
from other nearby poultry operations, according to a 2002 Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency stream assessment.
Joe Logan, agricultural-program director with the Ohio Environmental
Council, said the hearing officer’s decision shows that local officials
can and should have a say in proposed farms. Logan is also a member of
the advisory committee and voted against the proposed 75-day limit,
saying it would weaken local officials’ “leverage.”
“We are certainly gratified that the hearing officer expressed some
appreciation and some deference for local authority in this matter,”
Logan said.
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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