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Tom Meersman
ValAdCo, a giant hog farming cooperative in Renville County, violated state
air quality rules 158 times last year and 122 times last month despite a
1999 agreement with state pollution authorities that was supposed to reduce
odors and health risks.
Minnesota health officials have recommended immediate action to protect
those who live near the facility from exposure to high concentrations of
manure gases. The Minnesota attorney general's office also has entered the
dispute in mediation sessions that will begin today with the co-op.
Air monitoring reports show that air quality violations at one of ValAdCo's
seven sites rose 77 percent in 1999 and an additional 40 percent last year,
even though monitoring equipment wasn't working for 20 days last summer.
"We're taking this very seriously," said Patricia Bloomgren, director of
the environmental health division at the Minnesota Health Department.
A state standard allows no more than an average of 50 parts per billion of
hydrogen sulfide during a 30-minute period. The majority of ValAdCo's
violations were at least 90 parts per billion, the top scale on the
monitoring device.
Hydrogen sulfide is an odorous gas that escapes from millions of gallons of
liquid manure stored in earthen berms, or lagoons, at large livestock
operations. Exposure can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headache,
nausea, diarrhea, hoarseness, sore throat, cough, chest tightness and nasal
congestion. It also can lead to more serious health problems such as heart
palpitations, shortness of breath, stress, drowsiness, mood alterations and
even death.
All of the ValAdCo violations occurred at a site in Norfolk Township, near
Olivia in south-central Minnesota, where the co-op maintains two hog manure
lagoons covering 7.5 and 10 acres respectively. The co-op is required to
monitor air quality continuously along the site's borders. The co-op also
raises hogs on six other sites in Renville County, and measurements with
less-sophisticated equipment have suggested air-quality problems exist at
four of those sites. In recent years, the co-op has marketed as many as
4,000 to 5,000 hogs weekly.
Eddie Crum, chief executive officer at ValAdCo, said last year that the
co-op was making "excellent progress" in reducing odors, in part by
covering its manure lagoons with feltlike fabric and several inches of
straw. The covering was required for the two Norfolk lagoons by a 1999
settlement with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Covers also
were installed at several other ValAdCo lagoons.
ValAdCo also paid $32,000 in penalties as part of the 1999 agreement. The
co-op has contested some of its alleged air quality violations in the past.
Crum did not return phone calls Wednesday.
Myrna Halbach, MPCA subdistrict manager at Willmar, said the agency says
that one reason for the continued violations is that ValAdCo did not
maintain the covers properly by adding fresh straw regularly to absorb
odors. The co-op also may not have anchored the fabric covers securely,
Halbach said.
Pat Mader, MPCA enforcement supervisor, said the co-op and the agency are
at an impasse that needs to be resolved through mediation. "We have a lot
of other feedlot facilities that we need to regulate," he said. "It
[ValAdCo's case] just takes up time from our attention to other facilities."
Mader said ValAdCo is installing a different cover at the Norfolk Township
site that is supposed to trap feedlot gases and treat them.
Julie Jansen, who lives near the ValAdCo site and works as a rural
coordinator for the environmental group Clean Water Action, said she is
tired of ValAdCo's "magical cures" to reduce feedlot gases that ultimately
fail. "They've been breaking the law for six years here," she said.
Jansen said the MPCA is too willing to accept ValAdCo's "fixes," which she
calls experimental and unproven. "The MPCA always gives them more time to
fix things and keeps talking about the hardship of the polluter, not the
hardship of the people who have to live here," she said.
Halbach of the MPCA conceded that lagoon covers to control air pollution
are not a "well-documented" technology. But she said the agency is
committed to fixing the odor problem even if it involves more advanced
technology or limits on the number of hogs.
"We believe we are taking into account the issues with the citizens and
keeping the company operating," she said.
Citizen complaints about ValAdCo also have reached the state attorney
general's office, which has separate legal authority related to public
nuisances. The Renville County Board, responding to complaints from
ValAdCo's neighbors, passed a resolution last month that encourages the
attorney general's involvement in the case.
Kris Eiden, a deputy attorney general, said her staff will participate in a
three-way mediation with the MPCA and ValAdCo. "We think these are very
serious issues that have been raised, and that some meaningful action needs
to be taken immediately to address the problems out there," she said.
Ralph Novotny, a farmer who has lived in the area for nearly 70 years, said
that although odor problems receive all the attention, he is also worried
about seepage from the lagoons that can contaminate ground water. "There's
very few people who own these big feedlots who live close to them," Novotny
said. "That tells you something right there."
-- Tom Meersman is at meersman@startribune.com .
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