Feb 09, 2007 - 03:57:17 CST
The large industrial feedlots that symbolize modern animal agriculture are causing a stink in the state Legislature.Sen. Robert Erbele, R-Lehr, is pushing a bill to give the North Dakota Department of Health greater control over the regulation of these operations.
He says the measure is crucial to North Dakota's agricultural future because local governments and zoning boards are vulnerable to campaigns by environmental groups that want to ban or limit these operations.
"I think there's some real opposition out there to advancing animal agriculture," Erbele said.
Known as Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs for short, the farms are designed to feed or milk thousands of animals in a restricted area that does not allow for traditional grazing.
Environmental groups such as Sierra Club see CAFOs as an environmental threat because of the large amounts of animal waste that both seeps into ground water and causes a pungent odor.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CAFOs are responsible for polluting 35,000 miles of river in 22 states and groundwater in 17 states.
Animal rights groups also object to the operations because of the tight, restrictive conditions they place on the animals.
But CAFOs are also big business, especially in rural areas with few alternative job prospects.
Lance Brower, a North Dakota State University extension agent in Logan County, said his county has long been reliant on animal agriculture for its economic survival.
"What I'm trying to say is that the dairies affect everyone. Folks on Main Street really get nailed as the dairies dry up," Bower said Thursday at a Senate committee hearing on the bill.
Pam Brekke, a county commissioner in Ramsey County, said the CAFOs are necessary if North Dakota wants a part of modern agriculture.
"The truth is that the times have changed, technology has changed and we in agriculture cannot be satisfied with how things were 100 years ago," Brekke said.
Brekke's County is on the frontlines of the CAFO fight, which has divided local officials there and sparked a lawsuit by farmers seeking to loosen the county's zoning requirements for new feedlot operations.
At Thursday's hearing, local officials from throughout the state formed the bulk of opposition to Erbele's bill.
Harvey L. Hope, who serves as a Cavalier County commissioner and West Hope Township supervisor, said the bill takes away from local control.
"Who knows the issues better than the local officials on the ground where it's happening?" Hope said.
He said individual counties need the freedom to adopt stronger or weaker CAFO laws based on local conditions.
"Don't weaken or take away from that which works now," he said.
Ken Teubner, a Towner County Commissioner who serves as president of the North Dakota Association of Counties, said he worries the proposal would open the door to a total takeover of CAFO regulation by the state.
"County commissioners deserve to have their land use decisions made locally, not in Bismarck," he said.
(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@;gmail.com)
Comments are reviewed for taste, tone and language before posting.
Some comments may be used in the Tribune's print edition.
We value and respect your privacy, but The Bismarck Tribune might
disclose certain information to governmental entities if served with subpoena.