Save the St. Joseph County CAFO Health Ordinance
March 25, 2007
Linda Wolfson's Alert
SB 431 is one of three CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) bills currently being considered in the Indiana General Assembly. This bill was amended before it passed the Senate to give IDEM and the environmental boards sole regulatory authority for protection of human health and the environment concerning both CAFOs and CFOs (confined feeding operations - smaller than CAFOs). It also limits political subdivisions (such as St. Joseph County) to regulating CAFOs and CFOs only with regard to land use and zoning. If passed, this law would take effect on July 1, 2007.
SB 431 would take all authority away from the local health departments and prevent implementation of the St. Joseph County CAFO health ordinance.
The House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee will hold a hearing on SB431 this Tuesday, March 27, at 8:30 AM (Room 156C at the state capitol).
Please take a few minutes to express your opposition to Section 8 of SB431. We hope that a deluge of opposition from St. Joseph County will help to convince our legislators to remove this amendment from the legislation. There are many good provisions in SB431. Section 8 is not one of them!
For complete information on SB 431, go to http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2007/SB/SB0431.3.html
For more information on our local ordinance, contact lwolfson@sbcsc.k12.in.us
To communicate your views on this legislation, email the following before their meeting on Tuesday morning.
(1) We suggest that you identify your position in the subject of the email. For example, Subject: Remove Section 8 from SB 431.
(2) Send your email to the Chairman of the House Agriculture and Development Committee: Representative Pflum h56@in.gov.
And, Cc the other members of the committee:
Representative Stemler h71@in.gov
Representative Battles h64@in.gov
Representative Bischoff h68@in.gov
Representative Dembowski h17@in.gov
Representative Goodin h66@in.gov
Representative Grubb h42@in.gov
Representative Gutwein h16@in.gov
Representative Friend h23@in.gov
Representative Knollman h55@in.gov
Representative Lehe h15@in.gov
Representative Stutzman h52 @in.gov
(3) Send your email, as well, to your own representative so that they know of your interest in this legislation.
Representative Fry's email address is h5@in.gov
Bauer: h6@in.gov
Niezgodski: h7@in.gov
Dvorak: h8@in.gov
Walorski: h21@in.gov
Neese: h48@in.gov
Jolinda Buchanan's Alert
March 22, 2007
Efforts underway again to strip our counties of their authority to protect their citizens and land!
SB 431 was amended during third reading and now contains the following in SECTION 8. (IC 13-18-10-0.4):
(a) The department and the boards have sole regulatory authority for the protection of the following with respect to confined feeding operations and CAFOs:
(1) Human health.
(2) The environment.(b) A political subdivision has regulatory authority for confined feeding operations and CAFOs only with respect to the following:
(1) Land use.
(2) Zoning.
Many of you have seen first hand the problem this will create. Our Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and the IN Dept of Environmental Management (IDEM) toured the state this past year with a message that local government and zoning serve an important role in the permitting process. After counties persued the message, putting protections in place with local ordinances - SB 431 is attempting to strip that authority away.
While we believe SB 431 contains many good provisions such as requiring CFOs/CAFOs to submit a list of responsible parties, requiring previous violations disclosure, and requiring notification to property owners within 1 mile - we believe it is imperative that section 8 be stopped. Local officials at the local level know what's best for the local level!
With the scale of CAFO operations we are seeing entering Indiana, it is critically important that local officials have authority on the degradation of the county's resources, land and citizen's livelihoods.
The House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday, March 27th - 8:30am - Rm 156C at the state capitol.
Please let the committee members members and the bills author hear your concern for of our counties' right to control what happens in their county. To deny this right is not only a bad decision for Indiana farmers and other citizens, it is also a bad decision for democracy and against many of this country's founding principles! ! !
Please send a letter today and urge opposition to section 8 of SB 431! If needed, full language of SB 431 is at:
http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2007/SB/SB0431.3.html.
Contact information can be found below.
Thank you much for voicing your concern - I'll see many of you on Tuesday!
Jolinda Buchanan is Farm Program Coordinator for Citizens Action Coalition. You can reach her at: cacfarmprogram@earthlink.net. Jolinda was on the advisory committee which helped draft the St. Joseph Co. CAFO health ordinance.Sample Letter
The following letter is suggested by Rae Schnapp.
Dear Representative Pflum,
I wanted to let you know that we (I) CANNOT SUPPORT SB 431 with the language in section 8. This section would give the Department of Environmental Management sole authority to regulate cafos and cfos with respect to human health and environment. They have had this authority all along, but they have not been protecting us. In fact, IDEM has been telling us for years that their regulations are just a baseline and that counties can do more. We feel strongly that counties need to retain the authority to offer citizens more protection. Please amend the bill to add setbacks and remove Section 8.
Thank you for your consideration,
YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS
Feel free to put the letter in your own words and briefly describe your personal experiences with CFOs or CAFOs. Send your letters to all House Ag committee members (listed in the first alert). Please copy bill author Senator Gard s28@in.gov and me (Rae Schnapp), if you don't mind.
Rae Schnapp is the director of Hoosier Environmental CouncilSt. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN