Citizens are starting a campaign to stop a Netherlands couple from building a 2,000-head dairy CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) two miles northeast of the city.
Gerwin and Marinke Oolman intend to apply within two weeks for a permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to construct and operate the dairy, according to one of their consultants.
It would be the 13th dairy brought to Indiana by Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development, a Wauseon, Ohio-based firm that helps Dutch and other European dairy farmers re-locate to Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
"Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations ... are more akin to industry than they are farms," legal assistant Elizabeth Thomas told the Blackford County Commissioners at a meeting last week. "That is the reason why they are frequently known as factory farms. Just as industry is subject to local zoning regulations, I believe factory farms should be also."
Commissioners are considering a request from Thomas and other CAFO opponents to adopt an ordinance that would give the Board of Zoning Appeals authority over the siting of CAFOs.
The proposed Oolman Dairy would be Vreba-Hoff's fourth dairy project in East Central Indiana.
Last week, IDEM issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit allowing Tony Goltstein to build and operate a 1,650-cow dairy CAFO, including a 20-million-gallon manure lagoon, southwest of Winchester. Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Randolph County is appealing that decision to the state's Office of Environmental Adjudication.
Thomas said opponents in a week gathered 225 signatures on a petition opposing Oolman Dairy. The petition was given to the county commissioners. Opponents are concerned about water, air and noise pollution, decreased property values, and a breakdown in their quality of life.
"Distributing this manure on thousands of acres is not something anybody's going to like," Thomas said in an interview.
IDEM lacks jurisdiction over CAFO issues such as odor, wear and tear on roads, property values, and noise from fans, Thomas told commissioners. But those issues can be regulated at the county level, she pointed out.
Commissioner Fred Walker, a grain and beef-cattle farmer, has asked the Area Planning Commission to discuss the possibility of a CAFO amendment to the zoning ordinance at its Oct. 12 meeting. Walker lives about a mile north of the proposed dairy.
"I think we need more answers," Walker said of the dairy. The owners of the dairy met with neighbors and elected officials early this month. "Some of the questions that were asked that night by various people, I'm not sure they were answered sufficiently," Walker said.
CAFOs currently are a permitted use in Blackford County's agricultural zone, said Lisha Christman, executive director of planning and zoning for the county.
The planning commission will consider an amendment to the agricultural zoning ordinance that would make CAFOs a "special exception" requiring BZA approval rather than a permitted use. While the issue is expected to be discussed by the planning commission Oct. 12, a public hearing would be conducted at a later meeting before the commission made a recommendation, Christman said.
The recommendation would then be forwarded to the county commissioners for final action.
The 10-member planning commission is chaired by Paul Schriver, a school teacher who also chairs the BZA.
Some farmers have expressed support for an ordinance giving the BZA authority to site CAFOs and impose conditions on them, Walker said. "I'm not saying they're all for it," he said. Those who are supportive of amending the ordinance think the public ought to be able to raise objections to a local authority when CAFOs are proposed.
Thomas said opponents do not object to family farms. She believes it is the responsibility of the commissioners to support "small enterprise and family farms, reward stewardship, and promote balanced and sustainable agriculture."
The Oolmans could not be reached for comment. They are still residing in The Netherlands, according to their consultant, Brian Daggy. Mr. Oolman has spent some time in the Midwest, where he worked on a dairy farm or two to investigate the possibility of building a dairy CAFO here. The couple were in Blackford County around Labor Day to discuss their project with local officials and neighbors. Then they flew back to The Netherlands. They will probably relocate to Indiana shortly after the first of the year.
The couple received a "lukewarm" reception in Blackford County, Daggy said.
Livestock is a nearly $3 billion-a-year industry in Indiana. The swine industry generates the most livestock receipts in the state, followed by the poultry and egg industry, the dairy industry, and the cattle industry, according to Indiana Farm Bureau.
Based on IDEM inspections, the percentage of Indiana confined feeding operations in compliance with the law increased from 88.5 percent in 1998 to 96 percent in 1999, then dropped to 87 percent in 2000 before rising to 97 percent in 2001, Farm Bureau officials say.
Local farmers will supply more than 2,000 acres of feed and forage for the Oolmans, according to Daggy.
The dairy also would support veterinarians, dairy equipment suppliers, milk processing plants, milk hauling, farm equipment dealers, agricultural lenders, heifer and calf raising, and careers in dairy management.
