San Francisco-based environmentalists take aim at family farm operation
By KIRBY ROSS
Phillips County Review
PHILLIPSBURG — Late last year the Kansas Department of Health and Environment began looking into the construction of livestock facilities in Phillips County following the filing of a series of complaints by the Sierra Club, a San Francisco Bay-area environmentalist organization.
The Sierra Club has previously undertaken efforts to attempt to regulate water that gathers on farm ground and dust created by farming practices.
Sierra Club Partners With KDHE
As reported by the Phillips County Review in April, at the prompting of the Sierra Club which cited the potential for farm odors and animal waste, KDHE began looking into buildings constructed by Prairie Dog Pork between Woodruff and Long Island that are designed to handle 24,000 hogs and create a number of new local jobs.
Prairie Dog Pork is owned by Julia Nelson, the daughter-in-law of Terry Nelson, who owns Husky Hogs.
After reviewing Prairie Dog Pork’s application to build the facilities, KDHE approved the construction. But even though the construction was approved, KDHE then fined the Nelsons $152,000, claiming the dirtwork and work on the buldings began too soon.
Prior to KDHE approval no hogs are claimed to have been housed in the facilities, or waste generated in them.
“Construction undertaken before approval of all of these documents is considered to be a violation of the statute,” KDHE lawyer Katelyn Radloff said in issuing the huge fine.
Sierra Club Turns On KDHE
With KDHE first undertaking an investigation of Prairie Dog Pork pursuant to complaints filed by the Sierra Club, and then imposing a significant fine, and despite working in concert with KDHE through those stages, the Sierra Club then turned on KDHE for approving the construction, which has now resulted in the Sierra Club initiating a lawsuit against the KDHE.
Filed last Thurs., June 7, the legal complaint argues that for the purposes of regulatory oversight the two companies — Husky Hogs and Prairie Dog Pork — should be treated as one company because the owners of each are related to one another.
Namecalling — Family Farmers Are “Devious”
The lawsuit suggests that were the owners of the two companies strangers to one another, there would be no problem. But since the owners are relatives, the Sierra Club is taking the position that the set up is not just illegal, but untoward.
Bob Eye, attorney for the Sierra Club said as much by claiming “It is a clever, but devious, means to evade separation distance protections.”
Sources express concern that if successful, the Sierra Club lawsuit will have implications far beyond Phillips County and affect not only two Phillips County ag producers — the treating of ag producers who are relatives as a single entity has the potential of upending family farm operations across the nation.
With a nationwide battle brewing and Phillips County sitting at ground-zero, the Kansas Livestock Association has been providing legal aid to the Nelsons, and other farm organizations are anticipated to become involved.
— Republished with permission