PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - One of Illinois’ largest pork producers has cancelled plans to build a 20,000-hog confinement in downstate Fulton County.
An affiliate of Professional Swine Management formally removed its notice of intent to construct from the Illinois Department of Agriculture last week, the Chicago Tribune (https://trib.in/2jWQ4sS ) reported.
The decision came a day after local residents protested the hog confinement at a meeting last week. Some residents fear that waste from the facility could pollute rivers and creeks.
Nearly half of the 1 million fish killed in Illinois water pollution incidents from 2005 to 2014 were due to waste spills from hog confinements, the newspaper reported.
The Fulton County Farm Bureau supported the project, which prompted local farmer Matt Howe to resign from the bureau’s board of directors. Howe said his own home and farm are about 3,000 feet from the site where the confinements was to be built.
The decision to cancel the hog confinement is “a great thing,” Howe said. “Twenty-thousand animals is a monstrosity. I don’t count it as agriculture.”
State agricultural officials said Professional Swine Management could restart the permitting process if it turns in a new application.
The newspaper couldn’t reach the company’s officials for comment.
Professional Swine Management has installed 27 hog operations with a total of more than 120,000 sows in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. The company has faced periodic opposition from local residents and environmental and animal welfare groups. Illinois’ Fulton County has at least five of the facilities.
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Information from: Chicago Tribune, https://www.chicagotribune.com
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