Hog lot draws protests

By Peter Harriman
Sioux Falls Argus Leader

CHARLES MIX COUNTY, S.D. — Opponents of a proposed 7,600-sow farrowing operation in Charles Mix County plan to blockade the road and confiscate equipment to prevent the Iowa company from starting work on the development.

Besides the physical opposition, opponents also are making legal arguments to block the project, and they hope to get a zoning referendum for the June 20 ballot to prevent similar development in the future.

Longview Farms, a limited liability partnership from Hull, Iowa, is planning the operation on a site about five miles west of Wagner and a mile south of Highway 46.

Foes of the confined animal feeding operation are testing legal arguments including whether a driveway was built illegally on tribal land and whether the project violates state or federal environmental laws or federally guaranteed Indian civil rights.

The operation's owner, Lyndon Moss, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Charles Mix County has been divided in recent years by an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that has forced the county to redraw voting districts to increase the strength of a Yankton Sioux tribal voting bloc in county elections. But a coalition of tribal members and concerned residents has come together in opposition of the proposed hog farm.

"They are finding ways to work together. It's pretty cool," said Deb McIntyre of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, which is providing logistical support to the effort.

The planned blockade of BIA Road 29, the lone access to the construction site, by tribal members and others is set to begin today, pending the severity of a winter storm that first reached the area Thursday. If roads remain impassable, the blockade will begin Monday, according to Mike

Archambeau, a tribal member heading up the effort.
"We will confiscate their equipment and barricade the road," he said.

Joan Olive, who lives near the proposed hog farm, said Longview Farms began breaking ground at the site in late March, and its building crews have largely been working at night. The project was a surprise to many, she said.

When she first saw the work under way, "I thought maybe somebody was going to build a home, and I did not think more about it," she said. "It began looking large, and I thought, 'Maybe it's an ethanol plant.' Last week, I asked and found out it was a hog confinement and thought, 'Oh no.' "

A former resident of Iowa, where the feeding operations are more common, Olive has become a latter-day Paul Revere warning her neighbors against the potential environmental harm the hog farm could cause. A major concern is waste runoff. The town of Marty is downhill from the site, and "if there is any kind of rain, it will wash that down on Marty," she said. "There is an area in front of the middle school where the water pools, and an area across the road between the tribal hall and the school where the water pools," she said. "That could be hog waste pooling down there."

Allen Hare, a tribal member and transportation planner for the tribe, said "when we found this hog farm was being built about two weeks ago, our concerns were over health issues with the waste and stuff this farm will produce and what it will do to our children and elders today. People don't really understand what this thing can do to our health."

Charles Mix County Commissioner Sharon Drapeau said while the commission has little ability to regulate the planned hog farm "one of my concerns is the economic impact is given more weight than the health issues."

Jerry Wilson of Vermillion, a member of the South Dakota chapter of the Sierra Club who has been involved in Clay County planning and zoning issues, said he reviewed the Charles Mix project at McIntyre's request.

"I offered whatever advice I could. It wasn't much, unfortunately, since Charles Mix County isn't zoned," he said.

About 30 hog farm foes met with the county commission in a lengthy public meeting Thursday. Commissioners took no formal action, according to Drapeau, but Archambeau said a result of the meeting was a decision to pursue a zoning ordinance on the June ballot.

Drapeau agreed the commission did direct the county auditor to explain to opponents the procedure for getting a zoning measure on the ballot.

"I'll bet if nothing else comes out of this, we'll see some zoning regulations in Charles Mix County," McIntyre said.