Farson CAFO - Archive

After a four month long battle to stop Keith Aljets’ & Twin Pines from building a 4,300-head sow factory farm near Farson in Wapello County, Southeast Iowa CCI members are celebrating a victory! Today the Iowa DNR denied the permit application after giving the facilities five tries to get it right!

Iowa CCI members living in Wapello County went to the County Supervisors in early January and were able to get the Supervisors to oppose the site. The comments that members submitted identified numerous problems, including proximity to a floodplain, waterways and creeks bisecting the land, and highly erodible land – anywhere from 9% all the way up to 40% slopes. Chapter members took DNR director Vonk on a tour of the proposed site and met with him to lay out the problems again. As a result of this work, EPC commissioner Francis Thicke reviewed the manure management plans and found numerous problems. He reported this to the Iowa DNR and EPC at the February EPC commission meeting. It became apparent that the factory farm operator had used inaccurate numbers throughout the manure management plan – anywhere from saying the hogs would produce half the amount of manure that they actually would, to inaccurate slope values, and more than double the acceptable yield rates on HEL ground.

The DNR continued to give Aljets additional chances to fix the problems. On March 20th the EPC recommended that the DNR deny the permit after 3 failed chances, however, Aljets was given two more chances to get it right. When Aljets did not meet the April 13th deadline that the DNR set to get the last revision in, the DNR finally said enough is enough and denied the permit!! This is only the second time that the Iowa DNR has denied a permit. The first time was 10 years ago when a factory farm wanted to build in the Loess Hills.

In addition to denying this permit, the DNR has decided to change their policies on how they deal with extension requests from the producer, DNR’s request for additional or corrected information, and the acceptable yield rates for the phosphorus index. These policy changes will help the DNR better protect our water and level the playing field a little, so they are not just bending over backwards for factory farm owners.

Earlier Reporting on the Farson CAFO

Over 50 neighbors from the Farson area (five miles west of Packwood just across the line from northwest Jefferson County) gathered Thursday night to plan strategy to fight the latest attempt to bring a large swine CAFO to the Jefferson/Wapello County border area. The group was made up entirely of farm families (young, older, and retired) living in the rural area. Many of the folks there are traditional livestock farmers now or have been in the past. All are united in their desire to keep their neighborhood a safe and pleasant place to live. Once again, a veterinarian from outside the area is heading up the project.

While this site is about 4 miles further from Fairfield, it is an even worse location than the "Batavia site" proposed last summer. The facility itself, and the land in the "manure management plan", is on "highly erodible land" that slopes directly to Competine Creek. Over three million gallons of toxic manure will be spread in this area EACH YEAR. Competine Creek flows directly into Cedar Creek which is the main waterway through Jefferson County.

Iowa CCI is working with the families to plan efforts to stop construction. We will notify JFAN supporters as soon as there are action points we can take to help in this effort. Even though the facility is not in Jefferson County, Wapello County development will spill into Jefferson County. This facility will sell 800 to 1,200 "weaner pigs" (usually about 15 to 35 pounds) weekly. About 4400 pigs will be on site in a continuous rotation, the vast majority being sows. It is very likely that "finishing operations," where the pigs are grown to market weight, will be constructed within easy shipping distance (read Jefferson County) of the facility.

Opponents of CAFOs are beginning to experience some success across the state. It shows that our goals are achievable but will take much effort. Please continue your support in any way you can