October 23, 2014 at 5:34 p.m.
We should be careful with CFOs
Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
Given the current interest and concerns about existing CAFOs and the likelihood of new operations, it seems to many of us that Jay County is becoming more and more a dumping ground.
Western Ohio citizens and regulatory boards have had the good sense to see: it is no longer in their collective best interests to spread on their fields and into their ditches and waterways the kinds of wastes which none of us want near our residences, communities and places of employment.
With the western Ohio counties and countryside having reached the saturation point, eastern Indiana attitudes and efforts seem to be saying: bring it on. We’ll layer it onto our fields and no problem at all.
So the saturation point moves further west into Delaware, Grant and Madison counties and other locations toward central Indiana or even western Indiana. Before long Jay County would become more and more ground zero in the great poop wars so that we would have no basis on which to say, “OK, enough is enough.”
It may well be true that there would be taxes paid by these factories (and they are factories), which would provide the county with increased revenue, but you only have to drive a few miles beyond the state line to see the incredible proliferation of these sites. Surely we need to ask: is this what we want for Jay County?
Are we ready to jump off this precipice into an industrial waste world with only a frail parachute of a few tax bucks and maybe a tiny employment boost to cushion our fall? Are we not headed more and more into the environmental sewer?
Is it OK that we could be seeing the problems of diminishing property values, increased heavy truck traffic through rural neighborhoods, flood plain issues, water purity, bad smells, etc.?
We did not yet speak of dealing with the manure generated by millions of good-sized birds. Could their waste fill half a tank truck in a day, or perhaps three-quarters or maybe a full one, or even more? And of course the manure generated by fowl operations would only be a small fraction of that produced by swine farming. Is this what we want for Jay County?
It is no doubt true that these factories won’t turn up in everyone’s backyard, but they will be in somebody’s backyard.
Are we willing to just hand this off to our children and grandchildren and their friends and neighbors far into the future?
Are we going to run headlong into an embrace of everything in CAFO world without giving a careful and detailed look at what could be serious missteps, ones that we all would have to live with for years ahead?
Let’s hope that the “Friends of Jay County” Advisory Committee can continue its good work and find a solution everyone can live with.
In the meantime, let’s not rush into this and make mistakes we have to live with forever.
Sincerely,
Glen E. Priest
Portland
Given the current interest and concerns about existing CAFOs and the likelihood of new operations, it seems to many of us that Jay County is becoming more and more a dumping ground.
Western Ohio citizens and regulatory boards have had the good sense to see: it is no longer in their collective best interests to spread on their fields and into their ditches and waterways the kinds of wastes which none of us want near our residences, communities and places of employment.
With the western Ohio counties and countryside having reached the saturation point, eastern Indiana attitudes and efforts seem to be saying: bring it on. We’ll layer it onto our fields and no problem at all.
So the saturation point moves further west into Delaware, Grant and Madison counties and other locations toward central Indiana or even western Indiana. Before long Jay County would become more and more ground zero in the great poop wars so that we would have no basis on which to say, “OK, enough is enough.”
It may well be true that there would be taxes paid by these factories (and they are factories), which would provide the county with increased revenue, but you only have to drive a few miles beyond the state line to see the incredible proliferation of these sites. Surely we need to ask: is this what we want for Jay County?
Are we ready to jump off this precipice into an industrial waste world with only a frail parachute of a few tax bucks and maybe a tiny employment boost to cushion our fall? Are we not headed more and more into the environmental sewer?
Is it OK that we could be seeing the problems of diminishing property values, increased heavy truck traffic through rural neighborhoods, flood plain issues, water purity, bad smells, etc.?
We did not yet speak of dealing with the manure generated by millions of good-sized birds. Could their waste fill half a tank truck in a day, or perhaps three-quarters or maybe a full one, or even more? And of course the manure generated by fowl operations would only be a small fraction of that produced by swine farming. Is this what we want for Jay County?
It is no doubt true that these factories won’t turn up in everyone’s backyard, but they will be in somebody’s backyard.
Are we willing to just hand this off to our children and grandchildren and their friends and neighbors far into the future?
Are we going to run headlong into an embrace of everything in CAFO world without giving a careful and detailed look at what could be serious missteps, ones that we all would have to live with for years ahead?
Let’s hope that the “Friends of Jay County” Advisory Committee can continue its good work and find a solution everyone can live with.
In the meantime, let’s not rush into this and make mistakes we have to live with forever.
Sincerely,
Glen E. Priest
Portland
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