Justin Schneider, Herald Times
ELWOOD - Cathy Goins watches 18-month-old granddaughter Chloe stumble around her living room on short, stiff legs. She moves from guest to guest, greeting each one with a curious gaze.
Goins and her husband farmed their entire lives. But as a grandmother, she worries that the Elwood she knows will not be there for Chloe.
As a member of Elwood Concerned Citizens, Goins has joined the battle between traditional farming and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), a practice also known as factory farming.
"Air, water, property values, quality of life, these are all things we're concerned about," Goins said. "We're concerned about the future we're leaving for our children and grandchildren."
Elwood Concerned Citizens came together in April, shortly after Rick Jarrett asked the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals for a special use exemption to add another 4,000 hogs to his 5,000-hog feeding operation in Duck Creek Township.
The citizens group hired Columbus-based law firm Cline, King & King P.C. to help them fight Jarretts' request. It appealed one permit granted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, so the BZA postponed the matter until its July 25 meeting.
The citizens group collected more than 350 signatures for a petition to the BZA stating its concerns over air quality, water quality and property values.
"Gov. (Mitch) Daniels wants Indiana to be the biggest hog-producing state," Goins said. "When my property values fall 50 percent, is he going to compensate me for that?"
According to information provided by Jarrett and JBS United, the 4,000-hog expansion would generate 1.6 million gallons of manure that would be injected into 1,200 acres of nearby cropland. The expansion would also add an estimated 200 semitrailer trips per year to Duck Creek Township roads.
Jarrett said his $750,000 investment will add valuable revenue, in the form of property taxes, to the county coffers.
Elwood Concerned Citizens insists that the site for the proposed CAFO makes it a potential safety hazard.
"My home is in Elwood. There are 75 houses in the city within a mile and a half of the proposed site and some have been there for 30 years," said group member Raeanna Merritt. "This is the social and educational center of the community. We have four of five schools here, the outdoor glass festival is here and we want the air to be pleasant."
That mile and a half area also includes 12 farms and 25 rural homes. Extend that area to two miles and it includes a nursing home, assisted living facility, Birch Bayh Senior Citizens Center, the city pool, three businesses and more.
In the 2002 case of Livingston v. the Jefferson City Board of Equalization, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that homeowners within one mile of a hog confinement of 2,500 pigs or more are eligible for a 30 percent reduction on their tax assessment. CAFOs have brought similar complications in Illinois, North Carolina and elsewhere.
Jarrett said farmers have little choice but to expand their operations or be forced out.
That explanation doesn't fly with Merritt.
"We all have families, we all have grandchildren and we want to provide for them just like Rick Jarrett wants to provide for his kids," Merritt said.
Elwood Concerned Citizens has been characterized as "environmentalists" who fled the city and suburbs in search of country living, but many members, including Goins, are longtime farmers who oppose practices they call dangerous to health and safety and provide little benefit for Madison County as a whole.
"This does not benefit anyone but the Jarretts," said one member, Jodi Fesler. "Rick Jarrett said any community would welcome this kind of business but it's actually a drawback. It's an expense, a liability."
As a nurse, Fesler also is concerned about the antibiotics being administered to animals in CAFOs. She also worries about hog illnesses such as post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), which she said is similar to AIDS.
"This would have flown if we had not gone over there," Fesler said of the first meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals. "Signed, sealed and delivered. This is not real farming, it's a factory."
CAFOs are regulated by IDEM, but many, including members of Elwood Concerned Citizens, believe the regulations on the books provide the public with little protection.
On Feb. 2, IDEM Commissioner Tom Easterly addressed the Indiana Pork Producers convention and said the agency will suspend enforcement of CAFO permits until the Environmental Protection Agency clarifies CAFO regulations.
"Until we know what the federal rules are, it makes no sense to enforce them," Easterly said, adding that enforcement action would not be taken for at least three years.
Five days later, Easterly issued a statement clarifying his previous comments. He said IDEM would not enforce deadlines for storm water plans, soil conservation plans, nutrient management plans and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System applications pending the findings of the Water Pollution Control Board.
"... We will continue to hold all farms accountable to protect waters of the state," Easterly wrote. "No variance will be given to farms for violating water quality standards. And my staff and I will continue working to educate, guide, assist and oversee confined feeding operations statewide."
Linda Roby Kane, a member of Elwood Concerned Citizens, is a longtime resident of the area. She appreciates the country setting and, as the owner of a Pizza King restaurant, she offers a "hog pizza" as a tribute to Elwood's rural character.
Another member, Teresa Hembree, grew up in the area and is accustomed to farming, but she said CAFOs are something else entirely.
"My whole life I've lived within a mile of here, since I was a baby," said Hembree. "I'm concerned about devaluation of property - I'm not selling, but I would like my daughter to inherit it one day - but I'm also worried about the gases, about respiratory illness. She has already started asking me, 'Mommy, does this mean I can't go outside and play anymore? I can't have friends come over anymore?'"