CAFO issue unclear

Details about what Jay County officials can do to hold CAFOs liable for road damage are as clear as mud.
With the construction of a new confined animal feeding operation looming, Jay County Commissioners continued speculation Monday about whether the owners can be held financially responsible for the damage roads may incur because of the increase in traffic during construction and normal operation.
When construction begins on the Green Valley Ranch LLC farm, commissioners expect the corresponding increase in semi and cement truck traffic to destroy the roads.
The facility will include include five chicken layer barns, an egg-processing facility and an open egg wash lagoon east of 2104 E. 300 South.
“As big as that (farm is) going to be, that roads going to be demolished before that construction phase is finished,” said commissioner Doug Inman.
John Hemmelgarn, the director of Jay/Portland Building and Planning Department, met with the commissioners Monday after conducting research on whether or not a precedent existed in surrounding counties for the situation.
He found that in Cass, Adams, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Carroll counties no such system had been enacted to hold farms liable for road damages.
“Nobody has a solution,” said Hemmelgarn. “They said by all means when you get it figured out let us know so we can copy it.”
Commissioners’ attorney Bill Hinkle suggested tying the repair costs to building permits. Green Valley Ranch has filed for approval from Indiana Department of Environmental Protection, but has yet to receive building permits from Jay County.
The problem commissioners found is that a baseline must be established for the roads’ condition in order to establish damage was done by vehicles involved during the farm’s construction and maintenance. To solve this, it was suggested that video or photographic footage would need to be employed to document damage.
“That’s where a lot of counties are running into problems enforcing,” said commissioner Faron Parr.
Hinkle also suggested limiting the areas where farms can be constructed. He believes since county roads typically cannot handle the heavy traffic, farms should be limited to locations near highways, which are built to manage such stresses.
Hemmelgarn will be expanding his research to other states in hopes of finding a way to handle the issue, and the commissioners also plan to consult with the county’s confined feeding operation study commission to explore their options with zoning for construction near highways.
Parr said in a worst-case scenario the commission may still deny building permits to the CAFO.
Commissioners Jim Zimmerman, Parr and Inman also passed ordinance 2015-5, establishing the speed limit of county road 200 South for 2,410 feet (about a half mile) west of U.S. 27. In 2010 the speed limit for the area was established as 35 mph. Then in 2012 it was set to 45 mph, but the signs designating the speed to motorists was never changed. Now commissioners have reverted the speed limit to 35 mph again.
The group also heard from county highway superintendent Ken Wellman, who is running into budgetary issues concerning road maintenance.
Every year about 100 miles out of the county’s 550 miles of roads are chip and sealed, which costs $6,400 for the oil necessary to complete the process on an 18-foot wide, 1-mile long stretch of road.
Wellman said his budget contains $377,000 for the year’s project, which is roughly $261,500 short of what is necessary to complete the maintenance.
Biannual state funding for the highway department, which has been used for the chip and seal work before, may still be made available for the project, said Wellman.