Residents speak out against proposed Adair County hog facility

State officials are getting an earful this morning from those who oppose construction of livestock confinements in Poweshiek and Adair Counties. The Boards of Supervisors in the two counties requested today’s meeting with the Environmental Protection Commission. Barb Kalbach lives near the proposed hog facility in Adair County. She hopes state officials will block the facility.She says county officials weren’t able to block the facility and they are asking the E-P-C to do so to protect the environment. She says they’re concerned about the manure management plan submitted by facility owner Gary Weihs.She says his plan will inject manure into highly errodible land, endangering the environment. Kalbach says the facility will hurt them as they live 21-hundred feet from the site and will be impacted by air quality and water quality.Wayne Arnold lives one of Weihs’ facilities near Harlan. He downplays concerns over smells from the proposed hog facility. Arnold says the manure is injected into the fields and he’s only been able to smell it one year out of the last four. Arnold says it doesn’t smell as bad as when he used to raise hogs in the open, and there isn’t the fly problem there used to be with the open hog lot.Arnold says a visitor to his home gave further evidence of the lack of smell, as he drove by the buildings without noticing anything.Arnold says injecting the manure is a safe environmental practice and allows them to not have to put fertilizer on the fields.Arnold says Weihs has been a good neighbor.