Posted: 12/20/05
Feedlot decision tabled again
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
The Houston County Planning Commission has delayed a decision on a controversial feedlot proposal.
Their December 15 decision marked the second month in a row that the board tabled action on a permit by Scott Sanness to operate an animal feedlot with more than 300 animal units, and to construct a manure storage basin.
The feedlot would be a hog operation that could hold up to 990 animals units, or 2,475 hogs. A hog counts for .4 of an animal unit. Any feedlot over 300 animal units requires a conditional use permit, as does a manure storage basin.
Sanness has two proposed sites for the feedlot and basin. He told commissioners last week that he came up with the second site after people objected to the first one at the November 17 planning commission meeting.
Environmental services director Rick Frank said that plans for the second site had only been presented to commissioners on the afternoon of December 15, when they visited the 140-acre parcel in section eight of Wilmington Township. He felt the board should wait a month in order to give the public a chance to review the second site. The board then voted to do that. It will be put on the agenda of their January 26 meeting.
The new location is in the valley on the west side of County Road 17, about about a half mile south of Highway 44. The previous site was on a hill above the valley. Sanness said he preferred the lower site. ìI only put it up on the hill to get it farther away and out of sight,î he said.
Seven people spoke in opposition to Sannessí proposal at the hour-long hearing on December 15. They gave many reasons, but the issues that kept coming up were potential water quality problems, property devaluation, and potential offensive odors.
Gary Wilhelmson felt that feedlots were one of the reasons that family farms were disappearing. ìCan the little guy ever get back in when youíve got all those hog factories?î he asked.
Wilhelmson said there was no economic benefit to the project. Feed would be trucked in and manure given away, he said. ìWeíre promoting agriculture to somebody in Iowa,î he said.
Tim Clawson of Clawson Development Services in Rochester said he was asked to speak on the matter by concerned property owners. He listed numerous ways that he felt the feedlot would not comply with the 15 criteria for granting a conditional use permit.
Number 10 states, ìWill the Conditional Use be injurious to the use and enjoyment and orderly development and improvement of surrounding vacant property for predominant uses in the area.î Itís hard to override that, Clawson said. ìThey believe they should have the use and enjoyment of their property,î he said.
Clawson also pointed to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency rule 115.076, which authorizes the Agency to deny a feedlot permit to a person with a criminal convictions in state or federal court. Sanness entered a guilty plea on December 1, 2000, in US District Court for the District of Minnesota for violating the Clean Water Act. He was charged with dumping approximately 150,000 gallons of a manure and water mixture into the Duck Creek and Waterloo Creek on August 27, 1998. He did not have a permit from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or from the state of Minnesota for the release.
Zoning administrator Bob Scanlan said that no MPCA permits would be required in this case because there are fewer than 1,000 animal units. He said that the plan had been submitted to MPCA engineers and it met their requirement that the design must be signed and reviewed by a certified engineer.
Arlo Habben did the engineering work on the project for a Chatfield company, Southern Minnesota Agronomic & Environmental Services. He said that several things are built into the plans that should address peopleís concerns. The top site was placed as far away as possible for visual and odor concerns, Habben said, and the lower site would reduce the potential odor problem for one valley. The type of building used would be able to reduce odors by mechanical means, Habben added, as would trees planted on the east side of the feedlot
Kenneth Meyer, who is on the Wilmington Town Board, said the township already has a lot of roads and feedlots, and Sannessí project would add more heavy machinery. ìWeíve got a lot of feedlots in our township and theyíre not small ones,î he said.
When the planning commission started talking about tabling the permit application, Arlen Doely said the odor problem would still exist no matter where the feedlot was located. ìI still donít see where itís going to make any difference,î he said.
Wilhelmson agreed. ìAll the issues are there,î he said.
Lori Wilhelmson added that the planning commission would see all the same faces at the next meeting. ìWe want what we want,î she said.
Planning commission members are David Alstad, Spring Grove; Dave Corcoran, Hokah; Glenn Kruse, Eitzen; Garland Moe, Caledonia; Bruce Lee, Houston, Terry Rosendahl, Hokah, and Charlie Wieser, La Crescent. County commissioner Larry Graf of La Crescent sat in for Corcoran on December 15. Their decisions must also be approved by the Houston County Board of Commissioners.
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