MUNCIE - Confined hog-feeding operations, also known as hog factories, have created unfriendly feelings in rural, northwestern Delaware and southeastern Grant counties. A Fairmount attorney - described by farmers as a "city boy" - painted a message on the doors of his old-fashioned Delaware County barn complaining that his neighbor's "hog heaven will be hell for us."
The criticism is aimed at two recently built barns owned by Matthews Feed and Grain along Delaware County Road 1200-N near County Road 517-W. Each of the 370-feet-long, rectangular barns lodges up to 2,000 hogs.
Manure from the hogs falls through slots in the concrete floor into an 8-feet deep concrete pit. The pit will be pumped dry once a year, and the manure will be used as fertilizer on farm fields.
Rural Gaston farmer Gary DeDecker wants to build a similar confined feeding operation designed to house 4,000 hogs along the Grant-Delaware County line just west of Interstate 69.
Farmers Charles Ellsworth, 85, and Fred Duling, 67, have spent 2 years trying to stop DeDecker. They are worried primarily about air and water pollution.
"This would be a finishing operation," Duling said. "The hogs would come here weighing about 50 pounds and leave when they reach about 250 pounds. They are basically sending them here to get rid of their manure."
For years, DeDecker farmed part of Ellsworth's 127-acre farm. But that arrangement ended when DeDecker proposed to build two hog barns about 1,000 feet from the farm house Ellsworth has lived in the past 60 years.
"I think I've got a right to be a little p----- off at him," Ellsworth said in an interview. "I don't like to smell hog s--- all night."
Ellsworth's wife died last year. The prospect of DeDecker's hog barns made her cry every day, Ellsworth said. "I can't say that caused her death, but the stress didn't help," Ellsworth said.
A retired factory foreman and farmer, Ellsworth restores and shows antique tractors.
He was told by an official at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management that living only 1,000 feet from a confined livestock facility could at times result in unbearable odors.
On May 1, DeDecker obtained a permit for the project from IDEM. Duling and Ellsworth filed an administrative appeal with the Indiana Office of Adjudication, the third time they have done so.
"It's either get a lawyer or watch them build it," Duling said. "We may watch them build it anyway."
The remonstrators have collected signatures of other residents opposed to the project, although the petition will be "basically of no value" in the legal proceedings, Duling said. The complaint about odors would also be of no value in legal proceedings. IDEM doesn't regulate odor emissions.
In the appeal, filed by Indianapolis lawyer Deborah Albright, Duling and Ellsworth contend that DeDecker should be required to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
The remonstrators also claim that DeDecker's manure management plan is inadequate.
According to Duling, the cost of a project like DeDecker's is more than half a million dollars.
"That means there are going to be hogs there for 10 to 20 years," Duling said. "As old as we are, you either stop it, or it's going to be there the rest of your life, whether you like it or not."
Besides the nauseating odor from the project, Duling is concerned about the "huge amounts of manure that are going to be applied." He added, "These amounts of hogs close to a person's house aren't suitable."
Last year, Duling and Ellsworth distributed a document - titled "The Rest of the Story" - containing their views of the project. They also sent a letter to James Leach, who had agreed to allow DeDecker to apply manure on his fields.
As a result, DeDecker's attorney sent a threatening letter, the intent of which was to silence opponents, Duling said.
"I have tried to make this project known to all the neighbors," Duling said. "His attorneys don't want to make it known."
DeDecker's Indianapolis attorney, Daniel McInerny, wrote: "It is one thing to challenge the technical sufficiency of a confined feeding application. It is quite another to attempt to interfere with the contractual obligations of others, or to publish statements which might be considered defamatory."
The letter warned the opponents to stop distributing the documents.
"They were driving him [Leach] nuts is what they were doing," DeDecker said. "And Charlie has threatened to shoot us, which I've reported to the Grant County sheriff. Charlie's just been a bear."
Ninety-five percent of the time, Ellsworth won't smell anything from the hog barns, DeDecker said.
"Sure, there will be times we could have some odor, but we will do everything we can to prevent it," DeDecker said. "I may move over there some day, and my mom lives right down the road from Charlie."
DeDecker has lined up more than 500 acres on which to apply manure. That's twice the amount of land IDEM says is needed to safely absorb the manure.
Each of DeDecker's two hog barns would generate 750,000 gallons of manure a year, he said. While that sounds like a lot, when applied over more than 500 acres of ground it really amounts to no more volume than a quarter inch of rain, DeDecker said. And unlike rain, the manure will be injected into the ground.
Matthews Feed and Grain this week invited The Star Press to tour its new hog-finishing factory, which is identical to what DeDecker is proposing.
The pens were breezy and roomy, giving the recently arrived pigs space to roam. There were few flies. There was no dust. The smell of manure was strong inside the building but not noticeable as you drove up to the structure.
"Everything we've done meets or exceeds IDEM's regulations, and the people at IDEM are not idiots," said Wayne Speicher, head of Matthews Feed and Grain. "Sure, there is going to be some odor. When somebody goes to the bathroom, does it stink? Odor from livestock is a fact of life. I'm used to it, and it's not something that really bothers me. I'm a country boy. "
The opponents don't talk about any of the benefits of hog factories, Speicher said. For example, the hog factory toured by The Star Press:
"How can they be against something that is helping the community?" Speicher asked.
Hog factories also keep places like Matthews Feed and Grain open.
"I want to see these elevators survive," DeDecker said. "Fairmount has lost two. Swayzee has lost one. Van Buren has lost one. It's killing these small towns."
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