SOMETHING STINKS IN RURAL INDIANA
PUBLIC ACTION NEEDED TO KEEP FACTORY HOG STENCH
AWAY FROM HOMES, SCHOOLS, AND BUSINESSES

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is currently working on regulations for hog factories. Hog factories are not traditional hog farms. Instead, hog factories are actually designed to force traditional family farmers out of business.

Hog factories consist of large barns hundreds of feet long containing thousands of sows and accompanied by 25 to 30 million gallon cesspools which hold liquid hog manure. One of the most important issues being discussed is "setbacks." Setbacks establish a certain distance that hog factories and their cesspools have to be from water wells, streams, and places where people live, work and pray.

Setbacks for factory hog factories from homes, schools, churches, hospitals, and businesses should be at least one mile to protect public health and property values. Here's why:

• Studies conducted in North Carolina suggest that depending on weather conditions the gases which cause stench from hog factories are as concentrated 1500 ft. (over 1/4 mile) from a barn or cesspool as they are immediately outside a barn or at a cesspool.
• Gases emanating from hog cesspools, such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, cause respiratory and other problems. People living near hog factories have complained about increased instances of allergies, asthma attacks, bronchitis, sinus problems, depression, headaches, vomiting, and loss of energy.
• The proximity of hog factories to homes can result in reduced property values.
• Hog factories attract flies. Infestations can occur within a two mile radius of a hog factory. One person living near a hog factory reported having to vacuum large amounts of flies off their walls. Another reported seeing walls outside their home covered with flies.

The state's Solid Waste Management Board and Water Pollution Control Board will review the regulations for hog factories. Indiana statute requires all three environmental boards to consider air quality and water quality in the surrounding area, as well as uses of land. Moreover, Indiana statute requires all three boards to take into account "the right of all persons to an environment sufficiently uncontaminated as not to be injurious to the reasonable enjoyment of life and property."
(Please read the back page for details on what you can do.)
Clearly, hog factories threaten reasonable enjoyment of life and property. CAC believes a setback of at least one mile for hog factories from homes, schools, churches, hospitals, and businesses is required to adequately fulfill that right.

Your Calls and Letters are Needed to Protect the Quality of Life and Property Values in Rural Indiana And to Preserve the Family Farm.
Please Act Today!

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