| Hog Watch Manitoba News October 2004 |
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Manure spies
patrol tiny community's skies A group from Grosse Isle trying to stop expansion of a massive hog barn operation at a nearby Hutterite colony is using aerial surveillance to make sure it follows environmental regulations. "One of our members of the committee has a small plane," said Bill Massey, spokesman for the committee trying to stop the neighbouring Rock Lake Hutterite Colony from developing an intensive livestock operation. "We took pictures of pollution flowing into Colony Creek from the aircraft," Massey said. "You could see 200 yards of almost black sewage." The creek flows into Sturgeon Creek before it empties into the Assiniboine River, he said. The 110-member colony 35 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg has 3,200 hogs and wants to set up a 28,000-head finishing operation there. Massey is leading a group in the tiny community of Grosse Isle trying to stop the expansion, saying there is too much risk of ground water contamination from such a huge hog farm. They say the colony hasn't managed its human and hog waste according to regulations, and shouldn't be expected to do a better job if it has nine times as many animals. "(Manitoba) Conservation is understaffed," he said. "They have difficulty enforcing regulations and fining infractions, and the fines levied against people are so low they're ridiculous." That's why the Grosse Isle residents are grateful to have an eye in the sky, he said. "It's nice to oversee the situation," said grain farmer and recreational pilot Jim McCowan. "It works pretty well," he said of the aerial surveillance from his two-seater plane. "We've got a fellow who's pretty good with a camera," said McCowan, 70, whose grandchildren live next door to the colony. If the expansion goes ahead, he said he's afraid the aquifer will be contaminated for future generations. "It's pretty well impossible to spread such huge quantities of manure without contaminating the aquifer." Massey said his group took samples from the creek where they spotted sewage flowing from the colony and had them tested by a private laboratory. When high levels of E. coli were found, they asked Manitoba Conservation to investigate. Provincial inspectors discovered the colony had an expired permit for its human sewage lagoon and that it was not up to standard, Massey said. The colony was ordered to build a new lagoon, clean up a manure pile next to an open-air hog barn and build a dike around it. Massey said they flew over the colony to see that the work was getting done. "Our argument around all of this has been, and will continue to be, that the Hutterites have not been acting responsibly in terms of protecting the environment," Massey said. "How can we expect them to follow proper practices if and when expansion occurs?" Ben Hofer, a spokesman for the Hutterite colony, said they want to expand and modernize their operation and that would dissipate the concerns of people in Grosse Isle. Hofer said the expanded hog operation would replace the open-air barns and include state-of-the-art manure management systems. He said the people in Grosse Isle are complaining about the expansion even though it would be more environmentally friendly than the colony's smaller existing hog operation. "They're talking out of both sides of their mouth," Hofer said. The expanded hog operation the colony is considering would produce a lot more manure but it would be handled in a safer way than now, public health inspector Mike Fontaine said. "It's a good thing, because it puts all the manure into an engineered manure storage facility that keeps it from seeping into the underground aquifer," said the Manitoba Conservation employee based in Selkirk. Even if the expanded operation used a more high-tech manure storage system, the waste from 28,000 animals will still have to go somewhere, Massey said. He and the other expansion opponents are concerned it won't be handled properly. The RM of Woodlands has the final say in whether the colony can expand the hog operation. So far, the colony hasn't filed a formal application to do so, said a spokeswoman for the RM.
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