NEWS

Indiana too lax on livestock manure ponds?

Ryan Sabalow
ryan.sabalow@indystar.com

An Indiana environmental group is worried that regulations proposed by state officials don't do enough to safeguard risks associated with a smelly import — out-of-state livestock manure.

Millions of gallons of it. Stored in vast lagoons. Fouling waterways. Making life in some rural towns unbearable.

It's a vision that state environmental officials and farm lobbyists say they're actually trying to prevent as they prepare to adopt new rules to govern "satellite manure storage structures." Such facilities accept livestock waste from off-site farms until it can be used as local crop fertilizer. Some of it could be trucked in from out of state.

As it is, there are three satellite storage operations in Indiana in Randolph and Henry counties. And they're all unregulated.

The goal, state officials say, is to apply the same rules to the satellite facilities as to large confined livestock farms that handle their own waste. Next week, the Indiana Environmental Rules Board will hold a public hearing on a proposed rule, which regulates "a building, lagoon, pad, pit, pond or tank," storing at least 1 million gallons or 5,000 cubic yards of manure.

But, while applauding the state for putting some standards in place, the Hoosier Environmental Council warns that the regulations under consideration are so lax that rural areas across Indiana might become dumping grounds for out-of-state manure "without much notice or consent from the community."

The environmental group says the proposed rule only regulates the largest facilities, and doesn't adequately address concerns about seepage or spills into drinking water.

"The rule has no teeth," said attorney Kim Ferraro, the HEC's water and agriculture policy director.

Environmentalists say they're particularly troubled that the proposed rules would allow in-ground lagoons larger than a football field. Aside from manure, environmentalists say the stored waste also could include dairy parlor "wash," blood and cow afterbirth.

A Department of Environmental Management spokesman referred The Star to an online meeting notice, that includes a copy of the proposed rule.

The draft document says manure storage structures are required to meet certain standards that "minimize leaks and seepage and prevent releases or spills of manure."

Justin Schneider, senior policy adviser and legal counsel for the Indiana Farm Bureau, said farmers asked for the new regulations to prevent spills.

"They didn't want something to happen," Schneider said. "They wanted to make sure there were standards they had to follow in construction."

He said concerns about Indiana being an out-of-state dumping ground for livestock waste also are largely unwarranted. He said the three SMSSs in the state use manure shipped in from Indiana farms to be applied as fertilizer on local crops.

"If people are doing that, you're trying not to truck it very far," Schneider said.

How the state handles out-of-state manure is the latest in a long list of complaints from environmental groups over a statewide legislative push for expansion of what they disparagingly call factory farms.

Environmental groups have been critical of state efforts to encourage large-scale confined livestock operations in Indiana by taking it more difficult for local governments to use ordinances to prohibit new operations due to smells and other concerns.

State lawmakers also have passed laws that make it difficult for a neighbor to win a nuisance lawsuit against a large confined operation, some of which have so many thousands of confined animals they produce more sewage than the closest town.

IDEM officials have countered such criticisms, saying the state goes beyond federal standards in regulating massive livestock farms and the manure they produce.

Call Star reporter Ryan Sabalow at (317) 444-6179. Follow him on Twitter: @ryansabalow.

If you go

What: Indiana Environmental Rules Board hearing

When: 1:30 p.m, Wednesday

Where: Indiana Government Center South, 200 W. Washington Street, conference room A, Indianapolis

For more information: Visit http://www.in.gov/idem/6906.htm.