A dysfunctional and toothless state regulatory system “failed to protect rural communities” and the environment from pork producers that “repeatedly exploited weak Illinois laws to build and expand … massive” confinement facilities over the last 20 years, according to an investigation by the Chicago Tribune.
Illinois, the nation’s fourth-largest pig producer, has issued some 900 “swine confinement” permits over the last two decades under the Livestock Management Facilities Act. The Tribune found that the stench from manure lagoons at confinement facilities compromised the quality of life for their neighbors, and the runoff “created a persistent new environmental hazard.”
“Pig waste flowing into rural waterways from leaks and spills destroyed more than 490,000 fish in 67 miles of rivers over a 10-year span,” the paper said. “No other industry came close to causing that amount of damage, the Tribune found. Many operators faced only minor consequences; some multimillion-dollar confinements paid small penalties while polluting repeatedly.
Critics liken the state regulatory scheme to “a frontier-era timber blockade in the path of a bullet train.” The only opportunity residents have to challenge proposed new facilities is through county-level hearings that are only held if the local county board requests one, or if at least 75 citizens ask for one via a petition. “Even when the process moves to the state level, the Agriculture Department lacks the legal authority to deny a permit application,” says the Trib. “At most, agriculture officials can send an application back with questions.”
The investigation showed that the vast majority of proposed confinement facilities get approved, and the pace of applications is accelerating. “Last year, Menard County commissioners voted against a proposed 9,300-hog confinement near Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site in central Illinois after citizens at a packed, eight-hour-long hearing voiced concerns that it would damage the region’s tourism and rural lifestyle,” said the Trib.
But the state Agriculture Department approved that permit anyway. “It was clear that our testimony had no bearing on the case at all,” said Sean Londrigan, 45, a retired Air Force test pilot who raises about 500 hogs at his family’s chemical-free farm in nearby Petersburg. “It was disheartening.”