Public points to ponder for pigs

Details

Published on Saturday, December 24, 2016

By Sheila Runions

Banner Staff

Verburggen Prairie Farms Ltd. gave an application to RM of Oakview council this summer which outlined their intent to build a new 6,000-pig feeder barn in that municipality. When the government’s Technical Review Committee (TRC) advertised for comments regarding the same, they received submissions from businesses, organizations and individuals, totalling 11. Between September and November the TRC prepared its 18-page report, which noted the concerns from these submissions and an overview of the site assessment. This report was provided to Oakview on Nov. 24 which then scheduled a public meeting on Dec. 19 to hear from the proponents and public.

TRC’s chairman Don Malinowski, owner Wim Verbruggen and his engineer Doug Small spent nearly an hour explaining the process and intent of the proposal. Wim told the 70-some people present that he wants to “diversify our income and grain farm. We will feed the pigs with grain from our farm and their manure will fertilize the fields for our grain. We are dedicated stewards of the land; we planted more than 800 trees last year and are in the process of building solar panels. I know how to raise pigs the way they should be and I know how to build and manage a barn like this. Best as possible, we will keep the smell as low as possible, with regular flushing, once every two weeks.”

Small addressed neighbour concerns regarding odour, water and traffic. 

“All manure incorporated into the land will be by injection. Commercial applicators use specialized injectors to make the process almost odourless; this is a critical point to be aware of. Wim has planted trees and shelterbelts to mitigate odours. And Brandon weather data shows that 96 per cent of the time, wind is in a direction other than northeast, the closest neighbour at 940 metres; 88 per cent of the time, wind is in another direction of the second nearest neighbour, at one kilometre away. We don’t believe odour to be a problem and Wim is prepared to cover the storage if it is, but he requests council to give him two years to demonstrate it will not be a problem.

“Surface and ground water contamination is always an issue. With over 2,500 acres of crop land and 2,400 of those available for use, it is a very sustainable process for manure application. The excrement will contain about half of the nitrogen requirements for his crops so he will have to supplement that. He also has enough land to receive the phosphorus; it will not be over applied as there is adequate land to recycle his application acres. He has to file a manure management plan annually, which includes annual soil tests, so the water is well monitored by the province. Storage is also regulated by the province. We will over-excavate by one metre and make a one-metre clay liner, overlapping six inches at a time, to make an excellent quality storage cell. It will be emptied annually so we really only need a holding capacity of 365 days but to give a margin of error, it is designed for 405 days; for emergency capacity, the free board allows for storage to 500 days. There is no risk of failure; it is very safe. There will be three concrete ramps for unloading purposes, to prevent damage to the clay liner, and the berm is 10 feet wide at the top and 55 feet wide at the ground level. After construction, it will still be supervised and audited to be safe and performing as expected. We will have three or four monitoring wells around the storage area.

“Traffic will be limited as he will grow his own feed. Approximately once a week will be a truck with feed supplement, one truck a week for weanlings and two a week for market hogs. All trucks will travel by Hwy. 250, which will be compensated somewhat as Wim will use his own feed so will not travel to truck it somewhere.”

Councillor Walt Froese asked Small how often construction of the earthen storage lagoon would be monitored by Small’s company, DGH Engineering. He said “maybe six times” to which Froese replied, “I think you should check it every day; six times is not enough.” Froese also wanted to know what kind of trees were planted in the shelterbelt; Marlies Verbruggen (Wim’s wife) answered poplar, spruce, dogwood and lilac.

Reeve Brent Fortune asked, “If we say in our conditional  use, we request you tarp the lagoon now, will you do it now?” He answered yes. Fortune then asked Malinowski if a site visit was made; it was not.

Councillor Gavin Reynolds expressed “appreciation of your efforts to be environmentally sustainable, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s sold, if the new owner will use their own feed and now tax our roads.” Verbruggen replied there is “no intention to sell; we want this for our future and our family.”

Public presentations

Once council concluded their questions for the proposal, it was time for public input. Two letters were read and another 10 individuals voiced their concerns; all 12 presentations were opposed, which included six new individuals from the summer TRC submissions. Several had overlapping concerns relating to smell, water use/quality, traffic/roads, devalued property/taxes, location of the barn and its lagoon, the Verbruggen history, proximity of the barn to another hog operation and the potential for disease. Two people also complained that Wim and Marlies were not “good neighbours” because they kept their diversification plan to themselves; these neighbours were “shocked to read in Rivers Banner of a new intensive livestock operation near us.” 

Verbruggens once owned and managed The Dutch Barn, a farrow-to-finish operation which is three times the size of their current proposal. The Dutch Barn was sold three years ago to a Hutterite colony. Several neighbours, who have lived in the area all their lives and now have grandchildren, have not forgotten the past, which included some neighbours moving from their farms to avoid the incessant odours from The Dutch Barn. “How are we supposed to have any confidence in the promises made for this proposal? We haven’t forgotten the past promises made and broken.”

In addition to water quality as addressed earlier, the public was also concerned with the amount proposed for the barn. A PMU operation with a 35-year history located 2.25 miles away mentioned how a lower aquifer may affect their business needs. Even council questioned TRC about the proposal and how it could advance to this stage without knowing if water needs are adequate. All Malinowski would say was other government departments would determine aquifer impacts and water rights licensing. Verbruggen refuted a concern that the need of 19,800 gallons per day was inaccurate because it was raw water and not treated to remove the iron, which causes pigs to have diarrhea; he explained the treatment process had been accounted for. Several citizens also mentioned concern for downstream users of Lake Wahtopanah. which is also the source of Rivers’ drinking water.

One citizen surprised the audience when he showed aerial photos of a secondary water flow which cuts through the proposed lagoon cell; two other presenters also had this information in their speech. One of the men expressed great “concern how this will affect our well downstream. Studies in Manitoba over several years by Manitoba Conservation conclude earthen storages seep and are a threat. Digging a hole the size of 11 Olympic-sized swimming pools is not cutting edge technology.” Malinowski said, “At this point, the second waterway is a non-issue as there is no application for the manure storage cell but once that has been received, this would come into play.” Small also addressed that matter by saying, “As for the second waterway, that land is cropped and has been for 20 years.”

While Small provided estimated truck numbers, some neighbours thought those low, especially if Verbruggen’s own grain is diseased/contaminated or the yield lower than expected. Neighbours know Verbruggen has no feed mill, so how can his own grain be processed for the pigs? They expect more trucks because he is “most likely not able to feed all pigs from his own grain.” There was also much concern about spring road restrictions; Verbruggen never said lighter loads would be hauled more often over Hwy. 250 but that during those times, approximately five miles of gravel roads would be used south and east of the proposal, to take the trucks to Hwy. 24. As one man stated, “Decisions on when to transport don’t wait for weather. We, the taxpayers, have to pay for fixing these damaged roads, which get soft and are full of ruts and potholes.”

There are 10 homes within 1.75 miles of the proposed 58,000 square-foot new barn southeast of Cardale, and in those homes are eight children under the age of five. Expand the radius to 2.5 miles and there’s another eight homes in the grid as well as the PMU barn and West View Pork, formerly The Dutch Barn. Quality of life for these families was mentioned more than once, as was the property value of their acreages, which studies have shown will decrease 10-20 per cent. One resident, who lives one mile from a hog barn, said, “I really used to appreciate the quietness of my yard, but when you are downwind and there is high humidity, the exhaust fans sound a bit like a 747 jetliner warming up at the end of the runway. It’s not a big deal but it is an irritation that could likely be fixed at the design stage at relatively low cost.” West View also expressed “some concerns. We are not against the hog industry or new hog barns, but this is too close for disease; it’s a big issue. The applicant owns land less than a quarter-mile from our barn and if he wants to spread on his land, there is more concern for disease. Barns should be a further distance apart; even wind can blow disease; this is a big risk factor.” Following the colony’s presentation, Malinowski explained they had “consulted with the provincial veterinarian to talk about the disease concerns which were raised. While the province recommends a distance of three kilometres, it is not regulated as such. The risk is less if the two barns are of similar nature so it’s important to work together to determine the best protocols for manure spreading.”

Council, and indeed all those present, listened to four hours of presentations. At its regularly-scheduled council meeting on Dec. 20, members discussed the Dec. 19 public hearing for more than an hour before making a decision. The conditional use application by Verbruggen Prairie Farms Ltd. was rejected by five councillors; one abstained from voting.