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VICTORY!
Board Votes 4
to 2: NO to Mega-Dairy
Wrong
Location - Property Values Protected
[3/11/08] Approximately 80 people listened attentively
as members of the Foster County Planning and Zoning Board
expressed their views regarding the Van Bedaf's wish to have
a mega-dairy within 3 miles of Carrington. Illa Zink led the
arguments against granting the Canadians a permit to
establish a CAFO so close to town. High on her list of
objections was the negative impact that a mega-dairy would
have on the families and property values surrounding the
proposed site. Dwayne Erickson agreed and stood up for
protecting the rights of the families who were already
established in that area. The final vote was 4 to 2
against granting the permit. [Opposed: Dwayne Erickson
- John Holth - Illa Zink - Tom Zink / For: Don Frye -
Justin Spickler]
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"IT'S A DONE
DEAL"
MEGA-DAIRY
APPROVED BY FOSTER COUNTY
IN A 2-0
VOTE
(COMMISSIONER CARR DID NOT VOTE)
4/1/08 THE FOSTER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
OVERRULED THE PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD'S 4-2
VOTE AGAINST THE DAIRY.
COMMISSIONER CARR DID THE RIGHT THING! WE HAVE
BEEN CRITICAL OF COMMISSIONER CARR'S ROLE IN THIS
PROJECT BECAUSE OF HIS PAST MANURE AGREEMENT WITH
THE OWNERS OF THE PROPOSED DAIRY. ALTHOUGH WE
DO NOT AGREE WITH THE LOCATION OF THE PROPOSED
DAIRY, THE PROCESS HAS BEEN COMPLETED. MORE
IMPORTANTLY, COMMISSIONER CARR OBEYED THE LAW BY NOT
VOTING AND DID THE RIGHT THING. THANK YOU,
COMMISSIONER CARR.
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April 1, 2008: Read the Associated Press article
published at the IN-FORUM website regarding this morning's
Foster County Commissioner's meeting.
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Commissioner
Carr |
It's the LOCATION, Mr. Carr!
Not the dairy!
Why does it have to be so close to Carrington?
In the
Van Bedaf's APPLICATION FOR CONDITIONAL USE
PERMIT Commissioner Carr is listed as a recipient of
the applicant's manure. Considering the all-time
high price of fertilizer, the mega-dairy manure will
be a direct financial benefit (pecuniary) to
Commissioner Carr's farming interest.
It is rumored that Commissioner Carr intends to vote
in favor of the mega-dairy by withdrawing the
contract for the manure with the dairy and
presumably resigning the agreement after the
mega-dairy project is approved.
Please read what the North Dakota Century Code
clearly states:
44--04-22. Conflict of interest law. A person acting
in a legislative or quasi-legislative or judicial or
quasi-judicial capacity for a political subdivision
of the state who has a direct and substantial
personal or pecuniary interest in a matter before
the board, council, commission, or other body must
disclose the fact to the body of which that person
is a member, and not participate in or vote on the
particular matter without the consent of the a
majority of the rest of the body.
Please call
Commissioner Carr and ask him if he intends to vote
for the mega-dairy at Tuesday morning's meeting and
violate the
North Dakota Century Code.
Ph #: 701-652-3316
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3/20/08
Paul Straley stood up before the Commissioners
meeting and said that he wanted to make sure that
they knew there is community support for the
mega-dairy, not just against it. Why is
Mr. Straley supporting this dairy? Is it
because he has a signed contract for the Van Bedaf
manure, that he has a monetary interest, like other
proponents of the mega-dairy? Mr. Topp
stood up to say that a "full-time vet" might come to
live in town. One wonders about the values of
a person who puts the "possibility" of a vet coming
to live in Carrington over the health and welfare of
a small child with respiratory problems who will be
forced to live near the mega-dairy.
It seems that money and special interests are
exclusively running the local proponents of the Van
Bedaf mega-dairy... not a concern for the health and
welfare of Carrington's local citizens who will be
most affected by the mega-dairy's location. |
Les Greger and Paul Straley |
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Speaker from the
North Dakota State Department of Health refused to
admit or deny that the Van Bedaf's application to
the Health Department is incomplete.
Interested citizens attended the Commissioners
meeting.
Paul
Murphy, State's Attorney, suggested that the
Commissioners delay their vote until potential legal
problems are cleared up.
Group
discussion.... |
What Is Running This Whole Controversy?
3/20/08
This controversy is very simple. The local
MEGA-dairy proponents stand to make money from the
proposed Mega-dairy by selling property, building
supplies, construction, feed, fuel and various
products or services. As well, the close farming
neighbors stand to gain cheap fertilizer in the form
of manure waste.
Out-of-county proponents include the State of North
Dakota, their Agriculture Department and University
Extension Service with their promotion of all things
agri-business related. They gain by re-enforcing
the idea that the taxpayers’ money is being
well-used to promote business in the state
Various NGOs (non-government organizations), such as
North Dakota Dairy Coalition, HWY281 Corridor, and
others, have a stake in promoting this project
because of the grants they receive from the state.
The usual
legislative lobby groups such as Cattlemen’s Association, Farm
Bureau and Dairy Association wish to promote the interests of the
lobby group.
Lastly, there are
the large corporations that will ultimately receive the production
of the dairy.
All of these groups
have the same reason in common for their pro-dairy position. That
reason can best be summed up in three words... MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.
The other side
has no monetary gain at stake.
Their potential monetary stake is one of certain loss of property
values and the quiet enjoyment of their property.
The argument for
the MEGA-dairy is completely driven by visions of money -- not the
good of the entire community or rights of long-time citizens that
will lose property values and the quiet enjoyment of their property.
This community will
long suffer because of the deep division created by the
single-minded purpose of money being more important than the rights
of the citizens of our county.
Lastly, we should
question the reason why our state government, NGOs and the special
interest lobby groups find it so important that this mega-dairy (CAFO)
be created at this location. The reason is simple. There has been
very little, if any, time in the history of the State of North
Dakota that a local grass-roots organization has opposed a dairy or
CAFO successfully. They believe we, the citizens of Foster
County, don't even have the right to reject the location. How
dare we reject the location or question the idea of this ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!
After all, who are
we? Just citizens in a small rural county in North Dakota...
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WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
[3/13/08] StinkFreeCarrington.com was created
because of Foster County's need for responsible
community/government leadership and the need for better
communication between elected officials, ag interests, and
the citizens of Carrington and Foster County.
This web site was basically the result of an application for
a permit to establish a 1500-cow mega-dairy within three
miles of Carrington.
To explain, it seemed
that some of our elected city and county officials felt that
the needs, wants, health and economic welfare of people from
another country were far more important and outweighed the
welfare and wishes of the citizens who elected them.
They led the Van Bedafs, dairy owners from Canada, to think that Foster
County would "roll out the red carpet" for their
mega-dairy. As well, they were supported by
members of the state dairy coalition, NDSU experts, paid
engineers and consultants, and various other ag interests
who treated this venture as if it were a valuable asset to
the community.
Regrettably, some of our
community leaders seemed to let their own personal interests
dictate their choices when deciding what was best for
Carrington and Foster County. Their attempt to keep
the mega-dairy project under wraps until the last moment,
away from the scrutiny of the general public, infuriated
many people who would normally have welcomed a dairy such as
the Van Bedaf's --
IF it were placed in a more
appropriate location -- further away from settled families
and the largest population center in the county.
Consequently, the selfish
interests and aspirations of certain local entities, as well
as their support by certain state, university, farm/ag
entities led to a conflict which could have been avoided.
By working together, and
considering the interests of ALL concerned, the mega-dairy
project should have been a success. After all, Foster
County is a pro-farm community with most of its citizens
being farmers or having farm connections. To repeat,
the major stumbling block was mainly the choice of LOCATION.
Another location, further away from Carrington and settled
families, would have removed the concerns for odor nuisance,
aquifer/water contamination, and health risks for nearby
family members with respiratory illnesses.
Hopefully, in the future,
our community leaders, the North Dakota State Department of
Agriculture, our agricultural universities, the Farm Bureau,
and corporate agribusiness will base their actions on the
understanding that quality of life issues are as important
to people in small communities, such as ours, as their
desire for economic growth and development. With
North Dakota's wide open spaces, and with adequate
communication between all parties involved, it seems like
there should be plenty of room to support everyone's needs
and aspirations.
In the meantime,
StinkFreeCarrington will remain as a website devoted to
keeping Foster County citizens informed about planning
and zoning issues that may affect their lives.
We are also devoted to keeping our air and water clean and
our city and county safe from those who only wish to exploit
it for their personal gain at the expense of others.
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NOTICE:
2/13/08 Our concerned citizens meeting took place at the
Armory in Carrington on February 12, 2008, with approximately 40 people attending.
The main concerns addressed were: the location of the Mega-dairy and
its closeness to Carrington and the Carrington aquifer... the
possibility of it contaminating our ground water; the fact that we
need stricter county regulations regarding large CAFO's (Concentrated
Animal Feeding Operations such as this Mega-dairy) that want to come
to our area; that much of the planning for this proposed Mega-dairy
in Carrington was done by some community leaders without notifying the
general public.
2/18/08
Carrington Independent: Allen Stock (2/18/08) -- "Tom
Erdmann, spokesperson for the Chamber Ag Committee noted last week
that, "'You really can't bring things out to the public until some
signatures are on dotted lines.'"
Read more...
2/18/08
Interestingly enough, our server and this web site got
knocked offline part of yesterday and today so that we
haven't been able to update anything since then.
However, people HAVE been able to access the
Jamestown Sun's newspaper article where the mayor of
Carrington, Don Frye, is quoted as saying that some of our
comments are "racist" as well as information being
"inaccurate and inappropriate." Please note that he
appears to be one of the
committee members who have been meeting with the dairy
owners
and who want the Mega-dairy to locate near Carrington.
Question: Which is worse, someone who is supposedly a "racist"
because he doesn't want a bunch of illegal migrant workers coming to
the area and depleting the local economy, or an elected public
official who seems to be with-holding important information from the
public which may affect their lives in a negative way?
2/20/08 Plausible Deniability: Don't give your
public officials the chance to use this excuse.
2/08 Letter Addresssing Some of the Comments that
Commissioner Carr Had Published in Our Local Newspaper
2/24/08
What is more important? Are out-of-country, big money
interests more important than our neighbors and friends who
have been living here and supporting our community for
years?
2/26/08: Local citizen speaks to Planning and Zoning
Board
2/27/08 Report on the February 26th Meeting before the
Planning and Zoning Board
2/27/08 Mayor
Frye - Deep-Fried
2/28/08 Read the Jamestown Sun report written by Jackie Hydra.
2/28/08 Large CAFO's surrounding Carrington? A hog
factory? Read more...
3/3/08 Read the Foster County Independent news article "Pros and
cons of the dairy"
3/3/08
Local citizen questions mayor's actions (Letter to Editor, Foster
County Independent)
3/7/08 "There
are reams of scientific research reports documenting the linkages
between CAFOs and various public health risks." Read about the
"precautionary principle" in regard to CAFOs.
3/7/08
Mega-dairy engineering plan not available to public... WHY?
3/9/08
Letter to Foster County Planning and Zoning Board
3/10/08
First casualty of the
proposed mega-dairy: Real estate sale near Carrington
cancelled! Buyer, scheduled to close (on March 11th) on
property two miles from Carrington finds out about proposed mega-dairy and decides not to close deal.
3/10/08 Concerned citizens committee gets first look at
mega-dairy engineering plan... Questions immediately arose regarding
flaws and incomplete information.
3/11/08
VICTORY! Board Votes 4 to 2: NO to Mega-Dairy - Wrong Location -
Property Values Protected
3/13/08
What Have We Learned?
3/19/08
Carrington Citizens
Betrayed...for 30 pieces of silver or a pile of cow waste?
3/20/08 What
Is Running This Whole Controversy?
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Read about a recent
manure spill from a mega-dairy lagoon in Maryland. Do we want
to take a chance that something like this could happen to
Carrington?
Update: 2/14/08
Manure spill could mean months of temporary water supply
Originally
published
January 30, 2008
By Gina Gallucci - Frederick News-Post Staff - Maryland
Photo by
Sam Yu -
Vicki Poole holds a glass of
water on Tuesday afternoon that she got out of a home faucet
last Thursday. The Poole family lives on Glade Road near
Walkersville.
WALKERSVILLE -- For town
residents who remember the 1999 sewage spill that forced them to use
a makeshift water supply for five months, this could be worse. Test
results this week from untreated water show the levels of bacteria
and E. coli are greater than in 1999, said Mike Marschner, director
of the county's Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management.
The contamination is the result of a manure lagoon pipe that burst
last week, said town commissioner Chad Weddle. The burst actually
created two spills, one on Jan. 22 and a second Friday night into
Saturday morning.
This spill took about four days to infiltrate the town's water
supply, compared to 1999 when it took nine days, Marschner said.
These findings were released during a press conference Tuesday
afternoon at Town Hall. The meeting room was packed with media, town
and county officials and concerned residents.
More...
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008
Farmer apologizes for massive manure spill
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"One fear is that what happened in
Walkerton, Canada, could happen in our community. In the small
Ontario town, which is the site of several dairy farms, seven people
died and 2,300 became ill ... after drinking water polluted
with E. coli, a bacteria contained in cow manure. Cow manure washed
into a nearby well after a heavy rain, causing the health crisis,
says Peter Rehak, spokesperson for the Walkerton Inquiry, a public
commission established to investigate the tragedy."
-Metro Times - Detroit-
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Citizens against the Proposed MEGA-Dairy To Be
Located near Carrington, North Dakota
We believe the proposed MEGA-dairy project as it is now planned is a
potential odor nuisance to any person living in Carrington or Foster
County (North Dakota) who wants to enjoy the outdoors or the ability to have their
windows open.
THE PROBLEM is that the proposed MEGA-diary is planned to be placed
only 3 miles southeast of our city. As we all know, the prevailing
winds come either from the northwest or the southeast. This means
that we will be in a direct path of this planned 1750-cow dairy.
It is well understood that this type of condensed cattle feeding
operation can create odor that can travel between 4 to 5 miles.
We are not asking that dairies be prohibited from operating in
Foster County. What we are asking is that the proposed MEGA-dairy not be
so close to and in a direct wind path to our city of Carrington.
As well, we are requesting a moratorium on this type of condensed
cattle-feeding operation until and unless the county can put in
place some reasonable local regulations and violation-enforcement
capabilities.
We
believe this MEGA-dairy will be harmful to Carrington and Foster County
citizens because of the obvious offensive odor it will create. If approved
by the
Foster County Commissioners, this project will bring more than a
bad odor or stink to our community. It will also bring
numerous other problems.
Potential Water Pollution:
This MEGA-dairy solution to avoid contamination of our ground water
is the creation of a 20+ million-gallon holding pond. Their plan is
incomplete as to the exact type of holding pond that will exist. As
well, control of surface water is critical. How would their pond be
able to handle 6-12 inches of rain such as has recently occurred
in/around our area?
Considering the difficulties our local authorities have had in
abating the problems with a local cattle feeding company near
Carrington, how can we trust their abilities to monitor and abate
any potential nuisance from this MEGA-dairy with few - if any - regulations
currently existing?
Jobs for the
Community:
Are the potential MEGA-dairy owners intending to go the route of the
dairy
in Towner, North Dakota? The owner of this 700 cow dairy, after
his workers were arrested for being in the US illegally was stated
as saying, “he does not have enough help
now to care for his 700 animals and he may have to sell off his
herd.”
Anyone who has any experience working at a dairy knows it is
difficult work. This is not a family dairy staffed only by mom, pop and
the kids. It’s a MEGA-dairy... milking, feeding and cleaning manure
in shifts 24/7 each and every day of the week.
When our “community leaders” talk about the jobs a MEGA-dairy will
bring to the community have they seriously considered what these
jobs pay? More importantly, have they given any thought to what our
community will be forced to pay for the influx of these low-skilled
and low-paying jobs?
All of us want new jobs being brought to the area, but what kind of
jobs and at what price? Jobs that serve as a magnet for transient
or illegal labor don’t add to our economic base. These jobs don't
add to the wealth of a community. In fact, they have been proven to
be a drain by increasing crime, welfare, health care and education
expenses.
Health Care:
All throughout the United States hospitals, and more importantly,
the taxpayers are footing the bill for undocumented workers.
Agreeably, we at this point have no way of knowing how the
MEGA-dairy plans to staff their operation. They could plan on
paying above minimum wage and provide excellent health benefit
coverage to their workers. If they did so, they would be a rare
exception to most all similar operations.
The time to act is now!
This
project is now before the Foster County Planning and Zoning Board.
They have had one meeting so far and have scheduled another meeting
for March 11, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. We need to continue to voice our
opposition, continue to have petitions signed and present them to
the board at the next meeting.
As
well, each of us needs to phone our Foster County Commissioners and
tell them that we want a STINK FREE CARRINGTON!
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CALL COMMISSIONERS TO PROTEST
THE MEGA-DAIRY!
Foster County Commissioners
Chairperson:
Dwayne Erickson
180 90th Avenue SE
Kensal, ND 58455
Ph #: 701-435-2388
Cell #: 701-653-5202
Vice-Chairperson
James E Carr
6825 2nd Street NE
Carrington, ND 58421
Ph #: 701-652-3316
Cell #: 701-650-1383
Member
LeRoy Hart
7975 3rd Street SE
Carrington, ND 58421
Ph #: 701-285-3310
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Click here to print out a copy of the petition.
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Near a Large Dairy in ID
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AS-1155
Scott Birchall, Livestock Waste Management Specialist
"One of the most important
decisions when planning any livestock facility is site selection.
The site for the feedlot operation must not only be suitable for
housing, handling and feeding cattle, but also must ensure that
surface and ground waters are protected and that the impact from
odors is minimized. Whether you are planning a new facility or
modifying an existing one, the following checklist may help avoid
costly mistakes....
Odor
Minimizing the impact of odor on neighboring residents is a
combination of:
~Recognizing the prevailing wind direction. In North Dakota, this is
usually from the north west or south east (or north/south in the Red
River Valley).
~Using topography to your advantage. Odor tends to "drain" down
slope in the evening in summer.
~Reduce visual impact. Visual confirmation of dust is more likely to
result in odor complaints. Windbreaks will also help break up odor
plumes and provide stock protection.
~Providing a buffer distance to the neighbors. It is difficult to
specify a particular buffer distance without taking into account the
previous factors. Be aware that odors from some larger facilities
have been detected 4 to 5 miles distant. Anyone planning a facility
within 1 to 2 miles of neighboring dwellings will have to provide
more detailed information on how they plan to minimize odor."
Read More...
(The above web site
-produced by the North
Dakota State University
NDSU Extension Service-
is
extremely informative about the precautions that should be taken
regarding livestock waste management. How does the proposed
MEGA-dairy intend to address these concerns?)
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When the wind blows across the
MEGA-dairy lagoon and toward town, say good-by to outdoor family
gatherings and visits on the front porch.
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