MOUNT VERNON — Any consideration of the idea of industrial farming of chickens in central Ohio is bound to conjure up the name of Croton’s embattled Ohio Farm Fresh Eggs, which has tangled with neighbors and authorities for years over issues of pollution and more. A newly developed plan for a chicken farm in Monroe Township has concerned some residents there, including Lauren McKenzie.
“We’re concerned about wells and rivers in the watershed,” McKenzie said, pointing out that the planned site, at Paige and Wooster roads, is near the headwaters of Center Run, which runs south into Mount Vernon.
McKenzie summarized her main concerns as being about possible pollution from salmonella bacteria, high levels of nitrogen from chicken manure used as fertilizer, ammonia gas drift and the disposal of chicken carcasses, although she added that there were many smaller concerns, as well. She specifically expressed fears that there is an alleged strain of salmonella which can harm pregnant horses, which would directly impact her activities of breeding and training horses.
“Their farm negates mine,” McKenzie said.
The farm planned by Jim and Martha McDonald, who could not be reached for comment, will not be as large as Ohio Farm Fresh Eggs. According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Farm Fresh Eggs is licensed to hold up to 5 million laying hens. The farm McDonald is planning on building in Monroe Township would house approximately 75,000 broiler chickens. McDonald is setting up the operation as a contract farmer for Case Farms, a processor supplied by farms in Ohio and North Carolina.
Rob Clendening of the Knox Soil &Water Conservation District said he had been contacted by McDonald to help him develop a comprehensive nutrient management plan, which would calculate the number of acres needed in the operation to safely use chicken manure as fertilizer. Clendening is also working on calculating setbacks for the operation, in order to keep waste safely confined from waterways.
“He elected to contact us,” Clendening said, noting that for a moderately large chicken farm such as this, there are few regulations which come into play. McDonald was not required by law to develop a waste plan with KSWCD; his farm would come under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency as a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) if the farm were approximately twice as large. Clendening pointed out that an operation of this size is likely to produce no more waste than a moderate cattle or hog farm.
“There’s no appreciation for agriculture anymore,” said Monroe Township Trustee Brennan Durbin, who feels McDonald has gone above and beyond the call of duty by asking KSWCD to help him develop control systems.
“He’s trying to be a good neighbor,” Durbin said.
“I’m not trying to negate a family that is trying to better themselves,” McKenzie said, but expressed concern that neighbors did not hear anything about the planned chicken farm operation until close to the time construction is slated to begin, which is in April. “Nothing was told to us.”
Durbin pointed out McDonald was not required to inform anyone about what he was planning to do with his own family farm.
“The bottom line is, I think it comes down to a personality dispute,” Durbin said. “It’s pretty sad.”
Case Farms Housing Manager Mike Keefer said the company goes to great pains to have their contracted growers go above and beyond what is required by law, in order to be good neighbors. Keefer said contracted farmers are required to follow publicly recognized BMPs (best management practices) as recommended by soil and water conservation districts. These practices, numbering in the hundreds, he said, give guidelines on how to operate effectively without polluting a farm’s surrounding land, air and water.
Keefer said that initial concern from neighbors is often seen with an operation like this, but that the practical experience of living next to a broiler farm eases concerns after the first year. Keefer confirmed that a few other contracted chicken farms in the local area are pending.
Durbin, who in addition to being a Monroe Township trustee is also a farmer himself, said he extended offers to concerned residents at the township meeting Monday night to visit other similar farming operations, but the offers were declined.
According to Clendening, if any pollution problems emerge later on, they would be investigated on a complaint-by-complaint basis by KSWCD under the Ohio Non-Point Source Pollution Abatement Law, which governs discharge into state waters. Such pollution checks are administered by SWCDs statewide for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Clendening said he did not anticipate any problems from McDonald’s operation, but that he would quickly investigate if any arose.