New life for a site that has a long history as a concentrated animal feeding operation brought the site’s new owner to the Wells County Area Plan Commission’s meeting Thursday night.
What he wants is to build a holding tank for 7 million gallons of cow manure. He also wants to build up an existing lagoon that is currently capable of holding 4 million gallons of manure and increase its capacity to 7 million gallons.
That would amount to 14 million gallons of manure that could be stored at the site, at 9075S-250E, and none of the neighbors who spoke to the APC Thursday night liked that idea.
Johan De Groot Jr., who lives outside of Andrews in southwestern Huntington County, presented the request to the APC Thursday night. He has 300 heifers at the site right now but he wants to increase the number of animals to 2,000. He has them scattered in other areas with other dairy farmers caring for them, he said, and he would like to have them all at a site he owns.
De Groot’s operation is known as Sunshine Dairy LLC.
De Groot said later he chose the site on 250E because it was set up for a CAFO operation and it was empty. In fact, it was stated during the meeting that the parcel was the site of the first CAFO in Wells County.
Since the buildings were already present, he preferred to open a new operation in Wells County rather than build on a completely new site somewhere else.
De Groot said he expected to have his permit to operate from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management within the next two weeks. Construction of the new manure lagoon and expansion of the existing one will probably be done next year, he said.
When De Groot finished his initial presentation, several individuals began a steady march to the front of the hearing room to tell the APC members that they really didn’t want this much manure around them.
Ray Hartman, 1244E-900S, said he has a CAFO to his west and another directly behind him. The smell, he said, is horrible.
“Tuesday night it was nasty,” he said. “There was no wind at all. The odor just hangs there.”
The new manure lagoon, he said, “is just going to add to the whole thing in the area.”
“When is it going to end?” he asked. “In that whole area, I’m surrounded by crap.”
Gene Boyer, 10710 SE Jeff Road, said Wells County was overpopulated with CAFOs.
“The word is already out — if you want to build a CAFO, go to Wells County,” he said. The proliferation of CAFOs — Boyer claimed there are 41, with a half-million animals — negatively impact people’s property values as well as the air quality and the water quality.
Jack Pace, 4994W-1100S, has — like Boyer — spoken out against CAFO operations before. He requested the APC delay a decision for a month so more people could respond to it. A legal notice in the News-Banner had to be published 10 days before the meeting, and a notice of the agenda is customarily published on the Saturday before the meeting. That was not enough notice, he said.
Several people were suspicious of the size of the lagoons. They were concerned that trucks carrying manure from out-of-state operations, particularly from Ohio, would be making their way to Nottingham Township for disposal.
De Groot said in his initial presentation that would not be the case and that he would be willing to sign a compact that he would not do that. However, all agreed that if he had the capacity, it would be good for him to store the excess from another Wells County farmer who otherwise might be dealing with overflow problems.
Nick Pagano, who now lives at Christian Care, wanted the CAFO turned down. “I am 15 miles away from it, and I still think that’s too close,” he said. He said the health of the community was at stake, and wondered if the APC members had considered “the possible ramifications of the stink this place will produce.”
John Maddox, 11568S-200W, said as far as he was concerned, there was only one issue: Does De Groot have a permit from IDEM? Since he didn’t, he said, “reject it right now.”
It is customary, however, when dealing with CAFO matters, to condition the approval on IDEM’s granting of an operating permit.
The APC members were not sure how far their authority extends when it comes to placing additional conditions on the approval of a CAFO operation and wanted to check with Andy Antrim, the APC’s attorney, about that issue. When De Groot was asked if he had any objection to continuing the discussion for another month, he said he was amenable to the idea.
“It would be easier to be done and go into business, but I understand your concerns,” he said.
On a 10-0 vote, then, the APC members approved the continuance. The matter will be picked up again at the Oct. 2 APC meeting, which will start at 7 p.m. in the large meeting room of the Wells County Public Library, 200 W. Washington St.
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