COMMISSIONERS MINUTES                                    JULY 5, 2005

 

The Elmore County Commissioners met in special session on the above date in the Commissioner’s Room, basement of the Elmore County Courthouse, 150 South 4^th East, Mountain Home, Idaho.

 

Present at the meeting were Chairman Larry Rose, and Commissioners Mary Egusquiza and Connie Cruser.  Also present at the meeting was Clerk Gail Best.  The purpose of the special session was to hold a workshop on the CAFO Ordinance.  Chairman Rose stated that this would be the last CAFO Workshop that verbal public input would be taken, but written input would be accepted.

 

Dave Bergh, Highway 30, Mountain Home brought the Board a booklet of information and his committee’s suggested changes to the present CAFO Ordinance.  Mr. Bergh also brought the Board a Canyon County draft ordinance they are working on.  Mr. Bergh stated he was very surprised that the Canyon County ordinance was not as restrictive as the present Elmore County ordinance.  Mr. Bergh stated their group still feels they would stand by the present ordinance, the changes Cashia Brown brought in makes the ordinance extremely restrictive.

 

Dave Bergh introduced John Chatburn, Deputy Administrator of Animal Industries for the Department of Agriculture who would provide the Board with information.  Mr. Chatburn stated  Chairman Rose and he had visited the previous week regarding siting teams and he had provided him with some information he had requested.  Chairman Rose added he did appreciate Mr. Chatburn providing the information the Board had wanted to review.

 

Mr. Chatburn stated the Department of Ag regulates cattle for environmental issues.  Other animal species are not regulated unless they are located on a cattle operation.  Mr. Chatburn stated the dairy program began in 1995, DEQ, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Idaho Dairy Association entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).  In the year 1998 or 1999, the dairy program received an award for environmental excellence and Idaho was a finalist for the national award - they did not win, but they were the only agricultural participant in the running.  In 2000 the beef program began with the same three agencies entering into a MOU, which was similar to the dairy one.

 

Mr. Chatburn stated that the Environmental Protection Agency is impressed with the number of inspections and frequency of inspections of dairy operations.  The Clark Goulding audit found there are no daily discharges into surface water anymore from dairy operations.  One thing that should be noted is that at one time there were many small dairy operations in Idaho - most were mom and pop type operations.  These owners were older and retired and sold out to other dairies because of the new strict environmental rules.  Now Idaho has fewer, but far larger, dairies operating in the State.

 

Mr. Chatburn stated that nutrient management plans for all operations more than 1,000 head and records must be kept, these are reviewed on routine inspections.  On a routine inspection, you look for evidence of discharge.  If you are inspecting a site because of a complaint, it might say something like “I saw this facility discharging at this particular area”.  You would check the area that was stated in the complaint as being the discharge area, and then do a routine inspection of the site.

 

Commissioner Cruser asked how often inspections are done?  Mr. Chatburn replied that all are inspected once per year, some more, 2.5 times is the average on dairies.  Commissioner Cruser asked if there is any checking for pathogens in the waste?  Mr. Chatburn stated that the State does not require it.  The State does not require testing of manure in their inspections but areas of land where manure is applied or waste water is processed have to be tested for nitrogen and/or phosphorous on an annual basis, they check for the amount of phosphorous in the soil.

 

Mr. Chatburn added that one of the things you always hear is that there are ground water issues caused by manure and livestock operations.  With the exception of a limited number of situations, it is nearly impossible to put on enough manure to cause nitrate contamination in ground water.  It is not, however, that impossible to cause contamination in ground water from commercial fertilizer.  Mr. Chatburn added that if you are doing your soil sampling and staying below your phosphorous threshold, the amount of nitrogen from manure will not meet the crops requirement for nutrients and you will have to use commercial fertilizer to bring it up to what your crop needs.  Mr. Chatburn said that most farms around here are probably not using much manure, but with additional dairy operations they may get enough to begin using it as an organic source of nutrient.

 

Chairman Rose asked if there wasn’t an agency that monitors or controls application of commercial fertilizer?  Mr. Chatburn replied “that is correct Mr. Chairman, the application is not regulated.”

 

Commissioner Egusquiza asked if the various governmental entities work together on issues such as complaints?  Mr. Chatburn replied “Yes - DEQ primarily gets lots of complaints, and may involve others like dairies or feedlots - they forward it to us.  We get complaints on water quality, but primarily odor complaints like potato processors or feed manufacturing - we forward those to DEQ regional wherever the complaint came from.” Mr. Chatburn stated they have lots of communication with Boise, Twin Falls, and Lewiston regional offices, we all work together on a regular basis on the various issues that come before us.

 

Dave Bergh stated he would like to comment about the third party applicant which has come up from time to time.  Mr. Bergh stated the third party applicant is regulated by the pocket book.  It is expensive as a grower to be noncompliant, and he would not let it happen.  Mr. Bergh stated his ground is his livelihood so he believes that issue is self policed.  Mr. Bergh stated he uses what he needs, but he is not going to over use.

 

Commissioner Cruser asked about regulation on sage brush ground?  Mr. Bergh stated the ground must be irrigated to use the nutrient.

 

Chairman Rose asked how many acres are under grass in this town?  If you consider all the parks, public buildings and residences how much of that is being over fertilized with the notion that if a little commercial fertilizer is good, a little more is even better.  Chairman Rose stated he knew it had happened in the Glenns Ferry area.  Mr. Chatburn stated that was a good point and there is no regulation on that.

 

Chairman Rose asked Mr. Chatburn to relate the story he had told him the other day.  Mr. Chatburn stated they had a feedlot that was sued over a water quality violation.  The feedlot did not want to go through the entire lawsuit process and chose to settle.  As part of the settlement they were required to hire a soil scientist, which they did.  The soil scientist came and took a backhoe and took various samples to see how much contamination was coming from the feedlot pens.  The results showed the deepest penetration ended up 12 inches, studies have shown that in the pens the material seals up and does not penetrate the material beneath it.

 

Siting teams were discussed.  The process is that the various members of the team have expertise in many different areas, they all separately numerically rate the site, according to their own area of expertise and those numeric ratings are totaled to come up with a total numeric rating for a site.  Low risk is a score of less than 200, moderate risk is 200-300, high risk is over 300.

 

Mr. Chatburn stated he would take questions if anyone had some.  Rich Carlson, Box 21, Filer, Idaho, stated he lives south of Filer and works with the Idaho Rural Council, a non-profit organization.  The Idaho Rural Council works with a lot of the agricultural community.  Mr. Carlson stated that in the Filer area lots of folks have been forced out of their homes because of the environmental conditions from the dairies.  Mr. Chatburn came down there and did tours, which got a lot of attention, and the Governor came down to the Twin Falls Airport and said that it would all be cleaned up - but it hasn’t been.  Mr. Carlson said Mr. Chatburn is the Team Advisor and that he, himself is involved with the team.  The team has done odor measurements, for one year the Department of Agriculture has had the power to fine operators, and there has only been $2,500 collected in fines so far.

 

Mr. Chatburn replied that if something goes wrong the operator is notified to correct the problem.  There is a period of time in which to correct the problem.  If not corrected, there should be a fine, a civil penalty.  Odor issues were discussed at length.

 

Dave Bergh asked Mr. Carlson what his background was in Elmore County?  Mr. Carlson stated he is a lawyer, helping rural people with rural issues.  Mr. Bergh stated he has a problem with people coming in to Elmore County that do not know the County.  Mr. Carlson stated he was not against dairies or farms, but that people have to realize that times are changing and the way things are done must change right along in the process.

 

Terry Ketterling, 475 East 16^th North, Mountain Home, stated he thought this was to input on the CAFO Ordinance and although this was interesting, was if helpful?

 

Ron Parks, Meridian, Idaho, who is an Environmental Manager for Simplot, stated that they have created Best Management Plans to help with the water problems being seen today.  Waste management plans must constantly be reworked as things change.