Citizens group sues to stop construction of factory farm
Reviving Our American Democracy, or “ROAD,” a group of citizens and neighboring property owners, has filed suit in Muskegon County Circuit Court asking the Court to grant an injunction to stop the construction of a factory swine farm.
The group hopes an injunction would protect Flower Creek, a state designated cold water trout stream, from runoff and pollution resulting from the construction of the swine confinement facility located less than half a mile from the creek. The proposed facility, which is a “concentrated animal feeding operation” or “CAFO,” is owned by Flower Creek Swine, LLC.
A phone message to Jacob Marsh for comment, made last week by the Beacon, was not returned.
According to Flower Creek Swine’s permit request filed with the Department of Environmental Quality, the company proposes to operate a “wean-to-finish” large CAFO facility. The facility would house up to 4,200 swine on-site and is expected to produce 1,526,995 gallons of manure annually. That manure waste will be spread on surrounding farmland, much of which lies within the Flower Creek watershed, according to the opponents.
“ROAD strongly supports sustainable farming practices. However, the proposal to dispose of over 1.5 million gallons of manure in the Flower Creek watershed is just plain shocking,” said Margot Haynes, a member of ROAD. “The science is clear that manure runoff from this type of large-scale confined livestock facility is fatal to cold water fisheries. We can and should protect our natural resources better than this.”
The DEQ granted the company a permit for the CAFO in May of 2018. That permit was challenged by ROAD through what is called an administrative contested case on the basis that the permit fails to protect state waters from harm due to the CAFO waste.
Since ROAD filed the contested case in July, the group said baseline water quality testing of Flower Creek has shown that it is under even more immediate and severe threat. ROAD reported the creek has already suffered due to high E. coli levels, excess sediment, and nutrient loading, and is at an ecological tipping point. ROAD added that additional runoff from the CAFO could further degrade water quality and will destroy the cold-water fishery. This water quality study was completed after the DEQ permit had already been issued, and provides new information for the Department to consider as part of the contested case.
Despite the permit challenge, Flower Creek Swine has started moving forward with construction of the CAFO. According to ROAD, this forced them to seek an injunction to protect Flower Creek and other natural resources while the contested case moves forward.
“What we are asking for right now is just to have our day in court,” said Dave Frederick. “Moving forward with construction during the permit challenge seems to be an effort to render the permit review meaningless. We are asking the Court to give us an injunction and allow our permit challenge to proceed forward in a meaningful way.”