Cassia County Poultry Ordinance Comments 2

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February 17, 2010

Cassia County Board of CommissionersCounty Administrative OfficeCourthouse Room #4

1459 Overland AvenueBurley, ID 83318

RE: Proposed Ordinance Amendment for Title 9, Chapter 10 of Cassia County Code(proposed poultry ordinance)

Dear Commissioners,

The following comments regarding the proposed poultry ordinance are made on behalf ofthe members of Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment (I.C.A.R.E.).

It is evident from the hearing notice that the Commissioners would like for comments tobe tailored as closely as possible to the changes made to the proposed ordinance at thehearing on Monday, January 11, 2010. The following comments depart from that goalonly in order to address some problems that have riddled the ordinance-writing processand to provide context for our comments about the changes made at the last hearing.

1. Regarding the ordinance-writing process:

I.C.A.R.E. has reviewed all of the recordings of the Planning and Zoning hearings andworking group meetings on this matter. It is obvious that that the Planning and Zoning

Commissioners did the best they could given their limited knowledge of poultry CAFOsand the amount of pressure they were under. However, it is also obvious that industryMagic Valley Poultry in particularexerted an undue amount of pressure and evenresorted to intimidation (threats to take their proposal elsewhere) to rush the proposedordinance through the writing and hearing process. As a result, there are some realquestions about whether this ordinance change was sufficient to warrant a review of thecomprehensive plan, whether the Commissioners had enough evidence to haverecommended the proposed ordinance to the Board for review (the close 4 to 3 votesuggests that the Commissioners themselves had some doubts about this), and whetherthere was sufficient public involvement in the ordinance-writing process.

Following is an overview of the most notable and disconcerting aspects of the workinggroup meetings and public hearings on the proposed ordinance. I.C.A.R.E. wouldencourage members of the Board to listen to the recordings prior to Mondays hearing forthemselves. However, as we also realize that the members of the Board are busy peoplewho may not have time to sit and listen to nearly 15 hours of recordings in the next fouror five days, we have attached the notes we took on these recordings as an appendix tothis document (Appendix A). These notes are not a full transcription, but they aresufficient to capture the dynamics of the meetings.


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During meetings with the commissioners, Magic Valley Poultry admitted that it has hadits business plan in the works for several years. Yet Magic Valley Poultry onlyapproached the Planning and Zoning Commissioners with a petition to amend thecountys CAFO ordinance lastJuly. At the July 16, 2009 hearing, several Commissioners

expressed discomfort with so quickly approving changes to the ordinance for an industrythey knew so little about. When Magic Valley Poultry was informed at the end of thesecond hearing that the proposed amendments would not workthat, because of thesubstantial difference between the nature of the beef and dairy CAFOs the countysexisting ordinance was developed around and the newly arriving poultry CAFOs, therewould have to be a whole new ordinance added to specifically address poultry CAFOsit increased both the pressure and the frequency of deploying its chosen scare tactic(about investors balking).

Magic Valley Poultry also consistently presented the Commissioners with contradictoryarguments: when confronted with questions and concerns about the companys larger

project, the company would tell Commissioners not to worry about the scope of the largerproject because all that is needed is a Poultry CAFO Ordinance; when confronted withconcerns about the scale of proposed Poultry CAFOs and asked why the cap for birdnumbers at a single facility need be so high, the company told the Commissioners toconsider the scope of the project and think about all the non-CAFO jobs it would bring.The Commissioners also expressed concerns that the new Poultry Ordinance would betoo tailored to the needs of this specific project and not appropriate for the county in thelong termafter all, the existing CAFO ordinance would allow up to 1.2 million birds ata single facility and ensure that the County was not treating poultry CAFOs anydifferently than beef or dairy CAFOs. When confronted with these concerns, thecompany claimed that poultry CAFOs could be treated in a different manner becausemanure management would not be a problem. Of course, this argument was specific tothe plans of their company alone; it did not apply to Hy-Line, which has stated on anumber of occasions that it willland apply, or to any other prospective poultry CAFO.

Magic Valley Poultry presented the Commissioners with different estimates for thenumber of birds they would need to be able to house at a single facility at nearly everymeeting, and often those estimates would change several times during the course of asingle meeting. When Magic Valley Poultry presented the Commissioners with aproposed Poultry CAFO ordinance, it used the countys existing CAFO ordinance withonly the changes that the industry wantedprimarily changes increasing the cap on thenumber of allowable animal units at a single facility. Setbacks from residences andseveral other significant aspects of the existing CAFO ordinance remained the sameafact seem1ngly undercutting the companys argument that Poultry CAFOs aresubstantially different from beef and dairy CAFOs.

1 I.C.A.R.E. does not dispute the companys claim that Poultry CAFOs are substantially different from beefand dairy CAFOsthis is why we believe that setbacks from residences need to be increased (more on thislater)but we rais


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The lack of discussion at the working group meetings about the potential public healthimpacts of these facilities, their social impact, and biosecurity are also a cause forconcern. The Commissioners asked a lot of very good questions, but these were limited tothose the Commissioners knew to ask based on the Countys experience with beef anddairy CAFOsthey were focused on odor, control over the spread of poultry CAFOs

within the county, and the type of jobs the industry would be bringing to the county.Other groups or officials who might have been able to inform the Commissioners aboutthe unique impacts of Poultry CAFOs (such as highly pathogenic zoonotic diseases andantibiotic resistance among farmers and workers) were not invited to the working groupmeetings. When the Commissioners asked Magic Valley Poultry to provide copies ofother states poultry ordinances so that they might have some form of outside guidance,the company stated it would provide some ordinances and then failed to produce them atany of the subsequent meetings or hearings. As such, the Commissioners questions aboutnegative impacts and existing regulatory structures were answered by industry andindustry alone.

It is also clear that there was significant confusion amongst the public about the purposeof the public hearing held on December 17, 2009, and that this confusion was likely dueto a significant lack of public participation in the ordinance-writing process up to thatpoint, the lack of transparency (evidenced in the spotty news coverage) of that process,and misleading statements by industry representatives about that process that were madeto the press. The County did meet the notice requirements outlined in the Local Land UsePlanning Act (Notice of the hearing was posted at the court house November 25th, andpublished in the Times-News December 1st; the proposed changes were available to thepublic on December 1, 2009). However, as the little coverage given the proposed poultryordinance during its writing and statements made by industry representatives to the pressduring that period gave the impression the ordinance had already been written, the

public was led to believe that the purpose of the hearing was essentially to approve ordeny Magic Valley Poultrysparticular projectas2pposed to a broad change to thecountys zoning ordinance that would apply to more than just Magic Valley Poultry.3

This is not to say that Cassia Countys Commissioners are responsible for inadequatenews coverage, but it does indicate a lack of transparency during the ordinance-writingprocess as well as a lack of adequate public involvement in that process.

Based on the comments at the hearing, its fairly obvious that there was some seriousmiscommunication about what the purpose of the hearing wasmany of the citizens inattendance gave testimony that would have been much more relevant at a hearing forconditional use permit. In fact, the Commissioners noted this fact: in an attempt to clear

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e the issue in order to point out the kind of mixed messages the Commissioners received from MagicValley Poultry.On September 3rd, the Times-Newss Joshua Palmer reported that as part of the permit process, the plant

is required to receive county approval under a CAFO ordinance for poultry; on December 9th Mr. Palmerwrote that the facility needs county approval under Cassia Countys new Confined Animal FeedingOperations ordinance (my emphasis). See: Palmer, Joshua. Chicken Processing Plant Delayed DuringPermit Process. Times-News. September 3, 2009. And Poultry Plant Begins MovingAgain.3 See: Palmer, Joshua. Chicken Processing Plant Delayed During Hearing Process, Times-News,September 3, 2009; and Poultry Plant Begins MovingAgain, Times-News, December 9, 2009. Thearticles can be found in their entirety in Appendix B of this doument.


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up the publics confusion, the Commissioners re-read the published hearing notice, but atthat point it was likely too late to affect the testimony (much less turn up all of thosecitizens who would have attended had they understood what the purpose of the hearingactually was). The root cause of this miscommunication was not the phrasing of thenotice sent out by the county, but the rush job the county was bullied into by industry. It

is obvious from the struggle the Commissioners had comprehending the scope andimplications of Magic Valley Poultrys proposed project that Mega Poultry CAFOs (asopposed to the 1.2 million bird facilities the existing CAFO ordinance can accommodate)are not something the Countys existing Planning and Zoning guidance documenttheCassia County Comprehensive Planaddresses. As such, the Commissioners shouldhave revisited the Comprehensive Plan or at the very least held a public meeting to gatherevidence and testimony from Cassia County citizens prior to attempting to formulate aMega-poultry CAFO ordinance (which is what the proposed ordinance really is) fromscratch. The Board need only compare the publics involvement in and reaction to thisprocess to what it is when changes are made to the existing CAFO ordinance tounderstand how deeply flawed this process has been.

The decision to close the hearing rather than hold another was made on a very close voteof four to three, and theres even some indication that the commissioners were not fullyinformed about the implications of closing the public hearing and recommending theproposed ordinance to the Boardseveral were unclear about whether new informationcould be brought before the Board for consideration at its hearing, and others wereconcerned that closing the hearing would negate the purpose of having taken up acitizens offer to tour a grow house.

I.C.A.R.E. also has some concerns with how the Board proceeded in its January 11th

hearing on this matter. We discussed those concerned in depth in our January 23rd letter(appendix C), but briefly they are as follows:

It is clear that the Board had adopted a policy of only accepting changes itdeemed unsubstantial prior to the hearing;

It is evident that the Board had discussed the comments it received prior to thepublic hearing and had already come to a consensus about which comments itwould adopt and which it would reject;

Neither the Boards discussion about its policy of only accepting non-substantial changes nor its discussion of the comments it received are part of theofficial record of these proceedings, yet their consequences are.

2. Regarding the consequences of the ordinance-writing process on the quality

of the proposed ordinance and the Countys ability to deal effectively withthe challenges posed by mega-poultry CAFOs

As a result of the rushed pace and one-sided nature of the ordinance writing process, theproposed ordinance poses a number of problems for the county. A full list of4theproblems I.C.A.R.E. noted can be found in the comments we submitted to the Board priorto the January hearing (appendix D). I.C.A.R.E.s biggest concerns are that the proposed

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ordinance and existing Comprehensive Plan are inadequately configured to deal with theinevitable consequences of mega-poultry productionnamely the spread of zoonoticdiseases (such as avian and swine flu), the spread of antibiotic resistant disease(especially MRSA) among poultry CAFO growers, workers, and processing plantemp5oyees, and the concentration of these and other pathogens as well as heavy metals

(like arsenic) in poultry waste. The proposed ordinances existing bio-security zones mayward off the chance that one growers flock will wipe out anothers through the spread ofdisease, but the setbacks from poultry CAFO structures to human dwellings do very littleto prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases and antibiotic resistant bacteria from CAFObirds to CAFO neighbors. Similarly, the County has not asked whether the nutrientmanagement plans for poultry CAFOs that land-apply their waste will be adequate to dealwith the very real threat of arsenic contamination of soil and ground water. Suchcontamination could easily destroy farmers ability to use prime Ag land to grow cropsfor human consumption, and would inevitably exacerbate the countys ground watercontamination issues.

It would be a mistake for the county to take industrys word that these things are dealtwith by existing re6ulatory agencies without bothering to hear from those agenciesdirectly (which, we should note, it has yet to do). Notably, this would be the samemistake that several Magic Valley counties made with the dairy industryfailing toaccount in advance for what existing regulations do and do not cover, how effective thoseregulations are, and whether the counties need or even want to put some buffer or stop-gap measures into their CAFO ordinances to ensure that the health and well-being of theircitizens and local economies arent put in jeopardy by gaping holes in existing regulatorystructures.

3. Regarding the specific changes approved by the Board at its January 11,

2010 hearing.

As stated in our January 23rd letter, with the exception of the changes proposed to 9-10-6(A)(9), we applaud the changes adopted by the Board. However, we do not feel that theadopted changes are sufficient to solve the fundamental problems posed by theordinance-writing process, and feel strongly that the Boards discussion of all submittedcomments should have been done on the record. We also feel that the changes proposedto 9-10-6(A)(9) are sufficient to warrant returning the ordinance to Planning and Zoningfor Review.

Based on the record, there is ample evidence that the Planning and Zoning Commissionsdecision to set the limit for a Large poultry CAFO at 1,000 birds was intentional anddeliberate. There is also ample evidence that the decision to apply the four-milebiosecurity buffer to all such Large poultry CAFOs was similarly intentional and

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6ument.

We have appended several articles that tackle these matters to this document for yourreview.


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deliberate. During the working group meetings there was much discussion among theCommissioners about the need to distinguish between private citizens who might wish toraise chickens for their family and those raising poultry for commercial purposes. Therewas also a substantial amount of discussion among the Commissioners and between theCommissioners and industry representatives about how to ensure that poultry CAFOs

would not take over the county. After extensive discussion, the Commissioners decidedthat 1,000 birds was a reasonable cut-off point for distinguishing between private citizensand commercial growers. The Commissioners also expressed their intent to apply thesame set of rules to all commercial growers (operations defined as Large poultryCAFOs with over 1,000 birds) and to set a strict bio-security zone around these facilities.This particular decision was made based on concerns about the environmental and socialimpact that an out-of-control proliferation of large poultry CAFOs would have on thecounty.

Importantly, at the very first hearing on July 16, 2009, an industry representativeadmitted that poultry facilities with 1,000 animal units (or 16,666 birds)which,

under the existing CAFO ordinance would not be considered a CAFOstill have thesame concerns with disease control, prevention, transmission, that a million birdfacility would have. In light of this admission, it is impossible to consider the industrysrequest to the Board to whittle down the bio-security zone for facilities with under 50,000birds to two miles anything less than a self-serving and base attempt to circumventprecautions that were extensively discussed and deliberately put in place by the Planningand Zoning Commissioners.

For these reasons, we urge the Board to either reinstate the four-mile radius buffer zoneadopted by the Commissioners or to return the changed ordinance to the Commissionersfor review.

4. Conclusion and suggestions for future action

We understand that the Board may have the same reasons as the Planning and ZoningCommissioners for wanting to hurry up and finish this processcertainly the prospect oflosing 1500 promised jobs is daunting. But we ask that the Board consider the long-termhealth and well-being of the county, as well as the more immediate prospect of shiny newjobs. Considering, for instance, that no other Idaho county has done as much preparationwork as Cassia, it becomes a lot less likely that Magic Valley Poultrys threats towithdraw if they dont get their ordinance right away are sincerethe company wouldhave to start from scratch if it chose to do so, and it can be certain that no matter wherethe poultry industry goes in Idaho, I.C.A.R.E. will be watching to ensure that the interestsof the public are protected. Also consider how the companys constant threats may reflecton its business practices: we would think that Cassia would want to do business withcompanies willing to educate and work with county officials and citizens rather thanarrogantly assuming the right to shove something wholly unknown down their throats.Consider further that if this ordinance is designed properly, the county need not fearMagic Valley Poultrys threatened flight. If it is designed and implemented properly, thecounty will attract other well-financed proposals that will be equally if not more


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beneficial, while simultaneously avoiding the painful and problematic learning curve andordinance re-writes that plagued its experience with beef ad dairy CAFOs. It is not thecountys problem that Magic Valley Poultry did not have its ducks in a row earlier thanJuly of last year. The Board must remember that this ordinance will shape and affectmore than just the operation of Magic Valley Poultry: it will shape and affect any and all

poultry CAFOs that wish to set up shop in the county.

So far, the County has only heard what industry has been willing to tell it and what a fewofficials have had time to investigate on their own. Common sense dictates that theseefforts are simply not sufficient to provide the basis necessary to produce a qualitypoultry CAFO ordinance: no business is going to want to cop to its less than flatteringaspects, and no individual encounter with an industry (no matter how ideal) is adequate tomake conclusions about the industry as a whole. Industry may counter that neither theCommissioners nor the Board, nor the citizens of Cassia county are going to becomeexperts in the entirety of the poultry industry even given another 6 months; they may beright, but Cassia Countys officials and citizens need not become full-fledged experts to

write a quality poultry CAFO ordinancethey need only be properly educated about theoutline and function of existing regulatory structures and more clearly informed about theunique public health and environmental challenges poultry CAFOs pose.

I.C.A.R.E. suggests that the Board mull these matters carefully, and consider that fillingin the blanks of the Countys poultry CAFO education need not take an inordinateamount of time. We firmly believe that the County needs to formally consider whether itsexisting Comprehensive Plan provides guidance for dealing with poultry CAFOsand,in particular, fully vertically integrated industries (such as Magic Valley Poultrysproposal). While I.C.A.R.E. does not believe that it does, we realize that the County maydecide differentlythe problem is that while County officials have clearly struggled withthe scope of these changes, and while those struggles should have prompted a review ofthe Comprehensive Plan, they did not: the question was raised obliquely in one of theearly hearings, but not directly addressed.

Once it has reviewed the Comprehensive Plan and made a determination, the County canproceed with construction of its poultry ordinance and ensure that the public is properlyinformed and involved with that process. The County need not start from scratchtheproposed ordinance in its current form contains a number of excellent provisions thatcould and should be maintainedbut it should compare and contrast its proposedordinance with existing ordinances in states where poultry CAFOs are well established. Itshould also consider the economic, environmental, and public health record of the poultryindustry in those states, and think about what its ordinance can do differently to avoidtheir pitfalls and mimic their success (if applicable). The county should also ask fortestimony (in the form of a letter or personal appearance) from DEQ, ISDA, EPA andUSDA so that it is clear from the start on what is and is not handled by those entities anddoes not find itself or its citizens in the state of confusion it and they have had to gothrough with dairy and beef CAFOs.


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I.C.A.R.E. feels that these reasonable requests are in the best interest of Cassia County inboth the short and long term. I.C.A.R.E. and its members in Cassia County want thecounty to prosper and grow as much as the Planning and Zoning Commissioners andBoard. We just hope that county officials will act based on the lessons provided by thecountys history with beef and dairy CAFOsthat it will tackle hard questions up front

and, to the exent that it can, plan ahead to ensure that short term growth doesnt lead tolong-term problems.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Alma HasseExecutive DirectorIdaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment (I.C.A.R.E.)PO Box 922Fruitland, ID 83619

[email protected](208) 695-1556

Shavone HasseBoard MemberIdaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment (I.C.A.R.E.)PO Box 922Fruitland, ID [email protected](208) 695-1488
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Appendix A:

Planning and Zoning Commission Poultry OrdinanceMeetings and Hearing Notes


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From recordings:

Note: comments in brackets are I.C.A.R.E.s

Industry representative, 7/16/09 recording through the comprehensive plan thecounty certainly recognizes that agriculture is a significant contributor to the county andthe economic well being of the county, I dont think we really need to go into that. Andthe comprehensive plan really states that the county needs to do what it can to supportagriculture interests in the county. Thats really the basis of this request. To allow anopportunity for this system to come to the county.

Regarding biosecurity: concern for disease controlThe main issue with biosecurity is that biosecurity particularly for poultry and swine hasa broad effect. If one operation does not employ biosecurity and they have a problem,they can have a fairly significant impact to their neighbors who may have similar type

operations. The problem we do have though is that there isnt a standard (no federalstandard).

Essentially a biosecurity plan what are you doing in your operation to control diseasesgetting into your farm, what are doing to control diseases getting off the farm, theadministrator also wanted to add in their mortality managementwhat are you going todo to manage your mortalities.

Intended to be a general definition. To minimize the potential for disease transmissionbetween farms

The intent here is to make sure that when someones coming in with a proposal for a newhog or poultry farm that they recognize where they are and the people around themtheother farms that are around them. To recognize what their impacts might be on theneighbors and know what other things are out there that could impact them. And thateffectsshould impactthe design of your facility.

16,666 birdsnot a CAFO. Still have the same concerns with disease control,prevention, transmission, that a million bird facility would have.Question asked regarding closeness possibility and that type of stuff where do youdraw the line? I dont see how we can make a recommendation if we have no idea.

The feds have the National Poultry Improvement Plan, and the state administers that plan.Any poultry farm in Idaho is required to be on that committee. The state has a controlplan.

Quarantine could be 1 mile, 2 mile, 5 miles. Depends on what it is.


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Mr. Beck: with this type of a program, DEQs probably got to be involved in apolicement type thing. If you put in biosecurity, and DEQs involved, and DEQ says 100chickens is an animal unit.

Matt: That rule only starts regulating facilities that are 2,000 animal units. 200,000 birds.

Your ordinance is 16,600 birds. Theyre going to have to get a CAFO permit in CassiaCounty way before theyre going to have to get a DEQ permit.

No idea how you would mandate and implement it

Regarding waste: different in form and appearance at the end of the day, what youhave is not raw manure that is scooped, piled, and applied. By specifically excluding thatproduct (windrows) think weve dealt with that concern

Question: something different from what our ordinance states in this situation inparticular, if in fact this doesnt change, if the 2 animal units still equal the acre, can they

ask for a variance based on the technology.

Matt: Pelletelized fertilizer product, and will be marketed as an organic fertilizer. Theonly other thing that could fit under this definition would be a thermal process.

Question about the process & time frame.

Matt: fully enclosed process; doesnt know all the details. Comes in, gets ground, dried,pelletelized.

Layer facilities feces would fall on the floor and be either scraped or flushed, or high-rise(a room below where the chickens are).

Broiler facilities: done right on the ground, a cycle; depending, some facilites will go acouple of cycles and then clean it out.

Question: does the manure ever go outside the facility? I can tell you right now theconcern youre going to get from everyone in this community is that they dont want abunch of chicken shit everwhere.

Matt: Ideal situation: conveyor belt; we all know that equipment breaks, trucks break..you have to have another plan. (thus the 48 hours limitation).

Ideally we dont want litter around the poultry barns for disease control.

Question: is this company in particular going to process the fertilizer?

Matt: well propose that it will go to a facility here in Cassia County that it will go to.


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Commissioner Ward: talked about cleaning those buildings between cycles. Can you giveus an idea in days or weeks of what you think a cycle is?

Broilers: 41-days.

Ward: in order to do that do they have them in a pretty confined space?

Matt: theres square footage requirements that they would have to meet. Its not that theycant move or anything.

Ward: I had the opportunity of being around a 2,000 hen unit.

Matt: requirements for layers are different than broilers.

processed CAFO waste: in lieu of minimum au/acre. Third parties: different businesseswith different owners of businesses. Keep those entities separate even though there will

be a relationship therea contractual relationship.

Question: will they be the sole provider to the third-party?

Matt: the way were proposing the design the way its proposed is that each planttheprocessing plant will be designed for a certain capacity of chickens per 40 hour workweek.

Question: if you do that by contract with a third-party, how do you ensure that they dontjust land apply or compost that waste? Thats the concern is that we would lose

Commissioner James: the grower of the birds would remove the waste from his building,it would go into a truck to move it, what form is that in when that transfers made? Is italready dried? And then this third party The waste doesnt leave like that. So thegrower loads the waste to take it to the third party that does this. I think whatAdministrator Murrays asking is, how is there any control I just have a lot ofquestions about that, I guess. The third party, what youre saying, would have to have apermit so that the county could enforce that.

Timing concerning permits: farm & waste handlers.

Question: how are they going to transport this? (dairy manure on the road). Areaspecific? Any time you start transporting that bedding, especially straw, is going tofluff into the air. Is there a mandate that you cover it?

Matt: we havent discussed that. Those details need to be handled in the conditional usepermits.

A lot less loads (then a dairy) but itll be every day.


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Whitehead: worried about this 48-hour business. Why cant it be contained at all times?Why cant it be scraped up and put into a building?

Whitehead: basically what youre saying is theres no way to contain it.

Matt: 99.9% of the time its going to be contained.

Ward: You always have that operator thats always broke down. Got the excuse aboutalways being broke down. Im not sure about not striking that 48-hours.

Matt: we [Magic Valley Poultry] have every intention of being the best neighborsbecause its a reflection on the industry.

I would assume that the contract would put some burden on this facility to receive thelitter. So I would imagine that they have a contingency plan.

Commissioner: Youre here to ask for specific things, and were worried about theconditional use permit thats going to come in down the road.

Matt: these language changes only open the door claims that theyre not going to beapplying to that farm.

Commissioner: you can only transport compost so far.

Matt: Were going to need to go over 7500 animal units.

Commissioner: If the processing area might be on the East side, lets use Highway 27, ifthis processing facility is going to be on the East side what difference is it going tomake, because youre going to be transporting these things... to get an animal densityrequirementWe can still keep the animal density there The initial project is 1500acres to keep this. Youre transporting this no matter what

Matt: the difference is that if you require us to own an acre for every two animal units,

Hy-Line North American representative:Postpone any recommendation to the commissioners and develop a timeline and amethodology to get the information you need to make an intelligent decision.

Commissioner: The issue youre asking us for is just for the biosecurity plan or

Hy-Line: I think that we need to the time to develop biosecurity ordinance, processing,whatever these two industries havewhatever they need to go forward and do theiroperation, thats the statute we need. (Expansions).

Citys economic guy: great economic potential. Starting wages of $15 plus benefits.We see the potential of a large impact somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000,000


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per year. Over 1,000 jobs created. Cant happen until we facilitate the number ofchickens that need to be grown and processed.

Question: this job issueis there a way you could put together benefits, impacts on thecommunity? Theres got to be a way to say how many more schools were going to need,

the impact on the hospital, that type of thing.

E-guy: we have those available for you.

Commissioner Garder: With this particular business, you said youve been contacted byseveral businesses. Do you have an estimation of jobs overall?

Commissioner Primm: Board Member for Magic Valley Poultry; Magic ValleyDevelopment is the holding company.

Education curve in the poultry industry is pretty severe. Was in the dairy business for 11

years. Understand the CAFO problem. Organic fertilizer: make more profit and havemore sales.Totally integrated system: there is no waste that comes out of these facilities. Extremelyexpensive, but what makes them profitable is being able to have revenue coming off ofall those waste streams. The impact that this plant will havewell have internationalrecognition in Burley for this facility and how its put together. 14 companies. Nutrientmanagement planning was developed through the CAFO regulations to be sure that wedidnt over-contaminate our ground. The new technology develops a way that we donthave to worryIn this environment, were growing the chickens for the fertilizer. Wemake more money on the fertilizer than we do our chickens. Organic farming as youknow has taken off and this product is the required product if you dont use commercialfertilizer. End-tailgate or side-dumps. 7 plants in the US using this type of material. Notreinventing the wheel when it comes to maneuvering the product. 115,000 square footplant. About 10,000 tons per hour. Bulk package containers and 50-pound bags. Have toempty two sheds every day 80-85,000 birds. Time frames are very tight. Move thatmaterial out as quickly as we can: biosecurity, health hazard. Keep all of the sanitationpossible in our environment to remove those products as quickly as possible. Youdnever see a feather on the ground. The type of land were going to be using in the countyis importantwill have to import soy (50% from Brazil). All grains would take as muchas possible locally, but 127 million tons per year imported. What we can use is the badlands, because all we need is water. As many scientists working on this project as anyother industry in the world. The dry farm lands that we dont have to take out ofproduction is what were looking at right now. Pro-Con sheet. The poultry industry hasreally elevated itself to be one of the highest impact economically for a community andlowest impact environmentally. IF people didnt advertise you would never know whereeven to look for these facilities. The impact would be the people coming to work in themdriving back and forth. Need some housing for our management team. The majority ofthem will be brought from outside of this region because of their expertise. With a 300million dollar budget, we cant afford to spend time to train. 60 apartment buildings forour workers, 8 condos for our staff, a new pellet manufacturing facility, a daycare, a hotel


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and two restaurants, and those are all things that weve got started that were waiting forphase 1were waiting to have the processing plant started. We cant have theprocessing plant without having the chickens. Companies like Tyson that are out of room,looking to grow, theyre going to be looking for wide open spaces to do that. Typicallythis environment is perfect for growing chickens. Weve got all the things to make this

work. Storage is about 75% of the room that we have. Dont have a smoke stackathermal oxidizer. All of the air in all of the processing plants are 25-30% better than theDEQ and EPA requirements. Marketing to EU standards. We will be probably a lesserimpact for the square footage that weve got right now than any other industry that youhave. The side streams are more profitable than our main stream, which is our chickenprocessing products.

Commissioner: farm vs. industrial.Commissioner: we dont know what were getting into here. Its my feeling that we needto table this and gather a whole lot more information that can help us make a rationaldecision.

Commissioner: I think you make mistakes when youre in a hurry.

Commissioner: what number is going to work to make this thing work. You just comingin here and youre wanting a broad thing, and Im not willing to do that.

Why would we even need a CAFO permit? I think Kerry just emphasized that itsbecause its an ordinance thats already with the state. A special use permit thats specificto just our needs. Were not going to land apply.

Commissioner: Lets decide exactly what theyre asking us for and lets talk about it. Weobviously have an industry here that doesnt fit the law weve got, so weve got to changethe law

Commissioner: but weve got to understand why they dont fit.

Ward: is there anyone here for public comment? I just think we need to close it for thetaking of evidence. I thought we should table it, but it might be tabled longer than wewould want it to be, so

James: it just looks to me like you guys are way ahead of us, and we arent even close tounderstand all the things that we need to know about this.

Commissioner: but what about farm vs. industrial? Were talking about animal units peracre, and under this situation, theres not a necessity for acreage.

Youll have poultry farms that may want to land apply, but then youre going to have afacility that doesnt need to land apply.

Tabled.


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8/20/09

Magic Valley poultry: between 1,200 and 1,500 jobs created. Somewhere in theneighborhood of $190-200 million dollars. Take out of recessionary conditions. Had

several businesses that have contacted the city with things that they had or theyd like todo that are in support with this location here. General Contractor who is a partner in theproject.

Jim Primm: Construction of facilities. Poultry industry has technologies that keeps birdsalive. These are tried and true systems that you cant experiment too much. Technicalinformation that the poultry industry uses for their build-outs. Metal construction insideand outside with insulation between the two layers (temp has to be within 2 degrees max& min). Floors are compacted dirt. Bedding material is for the litter to pick up moisturecontent. Dirt: clay-type material. Stops 90% of the moisture.

Rick Caldwellcompany out of Provo, Utah.

Dirt material is the only thing we can control the bacteria in. Vs. concrete, which is anatural sponge. (what do they disinfect the dirt with? Is that going to get into the groundwater?)

Question: youre saying you go in and disinfect the top residue, does that penetrate thedirt?

Commissioner: Im still concerned with where this waste goes.

Concrete stem walls.

Question: how longs the metal going to last?

Life expectancy is 50 years.

Litter is picked up after the birds are gone with a skidsteer, put into a tanker truck andhauled to the fertilizer plant.

No windows, just ventilation.

Ventilation: the air continually moves in those buildings, have backups with generators.

Commissioner: bringing fresh air in and the other air goes out. If its close to a residence,is that foul? Is that going to be a problem to a close neighbor?

The baffle systems they use in the ventilation helps stop the smell, about 60% of the odor.A layer of filters that the air has to go through before it goes out side. Those are changedevery time the birds are changed.


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Commissioner: what type of lighting do those buildings have?

Would be lit all night long. Outside security light at each door area.

Commissioner: do I hear you saying that those chickens are under light pretty close to 24hours a day, is that what youre saying?

Yes.

Commissioner: do these ventilator deals keep that does from getting outside the building?

Yes. Also have humidifiers.

Commissioner: what type of watering system? Do they ever go haywire and get thebuilding wet?

Bruce Dean: the drinking system is a nipple drinking system. 1 about every 4 feet.Produce one drop of water at a time. Theres no free-flowing water. 5 or 6 cameras ineach building. The floors are not going to get wet. Ive never seen the moisture withinabout 2 inches of their bedding.

Each building will produce about 85 ton of litter. About three semi-loads.

Have back-up inside storage for about ten days of litter. The only time itll be outside iswe cant get the trucks inside the barn. Pelletizer will run about 12 ton of pellets an hour.800 pounds to the acre on potatoes.

Commissioner: Did you supplement, did it decrease the cost of your other fertilizer?

I did, we put it on half of the field and we did the other half commercial. Bestmicronutrients.

Commissioner Whitehead: 48-hour time period.

Commissioner: are they being fed hormones to reach that?

No, theyre just hybrid birds. We dont do any hormones. Every day or two we do veryfew antibiotics in case we need to.

Commissioner: Is there any concern about that being put out in the other products youremaking from this?

Tyson has 50 plants East of the Mississippi running this.


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Commissioner: theres been some indication that maybe some of the obesity is occurringbecause of hormones and that sort of thing.

Corn, Soybeans, and micronutrients. About 18% wheat from this area.Commissioner: are there any plants in the northwest?

Oregon as well as Californiafoster farms.

Vertically integrated to where we can control from our hatchery all the way to ourprocessing. We may have some contract growers later, but up front well processeverything. Own breed barn, feed mill, take them to the barns and raise them and processthem. Only thing is is theres ventilation in and out.

Commissioner: thats one of the concernseven though its enclosed, youre stillrotating air. One of the thoughts I had as I read through your proposed ordinanceschanges was it seemed mighty funny you wanted between a quarter to a half a mile to

two miles between chicken houses but you only wanted up to 400 feet to a human house.I thought it was kind of funny when youre moving that much air who knows.

Doug: I drove out from Springdale, and I live about 250 yards from one of the worst-runchicken houses Ive ever seen. If you got close to the door within maybe 10 feet, youcould smell maybe a musty ammonia smell.

One of the reasons the odor doesnt transfer is because of the humidity regulation. Wedont have a lot of feathers and those types of things flying through the air.

Commissioner: Do any one of these guys have a specific presentation theyd like to giveon any particular segment of this operation, I wonder?

Video of the fertilizer plant. 80 broiler operations keep the processing plant working 40hours per week. The extruder makes enough heat to sterilize it, and then we can gointerstate with it.

Commissioner: where would the location of the fertilizer plant be?

Out along the railroad track. All of our facilities will be about 8-12 miles from town.

The processing plant would be in the city of Burley in a commercial zone.

Commissioner: is it mainly to keep odor down or to keep dust and feathers and thingsfrom going out?

Both.

Commissioner ward: how do you plan to transport your chickens and your broilers toyour processing plant. I dont know if you noticed, but you follow the feathers.


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Its cages and theres a tarpaulin over that. The cages, the wires on the cages are reallytight-meshed as well.

Commissioner Wills: What happens with the waste from the hatchery portion of this?

We have a pet food division. Those will be ground up and go there; those can go with thefertilizer plant also.

These type of barns are the best management practice that the poultry industry is goingto.

2 million birds for a single shift.

Commissioner: one of my concerns with your recommendations here is theres no limitfactor. Its not necessarily the animal units, its the size of this something that just

keeps getting bigger and bigger and theres no way to control it.

3 tanker loads of eviscerate a day; 3 semi-loads of poultry litter going to the fertilizerplant per day.

8 loads of chickens per day. Half a million a week.

This industry, scientifically, is probably the most scientific industry in the world. Theywere the first in the industry instead of using hormones to use genetics and antibodies.This is probably the safest, most technologically advanced production facility ever.

Commissioner: why dont we have somebody here with scientific whatever to show uswhatever. Were talking common people here. Why dont we have like a DEQrepresentative or whatever?

[no discussion so far of energy and water use, or of road strain; no discussion of zoonoticdisease]

Got ordinances from Alabama, Virginia, South Carolina, and California. Poultry wastreated as a permitted use in their Ag zones.

2 miles is roughly what the USDA looks at as a quarantine zone.

Used setbacks in the CAFO ordinance.

300 ft. setbacks from wells. In Fresno, setbacks would be reduced 50% if you haveenvironmental controls.

Only visit by appointment, 7-14 days.


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Commissioner James: DEQ, USDAsee anything that is a problem for you guys?

State poultry improvement program, will have to be a member.

14 loads of live birds rather than 8.

Bill Parsons, Hy-Line: Have to develop the Ordinance not just for these two businesses.Suggest that you deny the original amendment to your CAFO ordinance, and then instructthe two organizations to have a couple of work sessions to construct this ordinance.

Bill Garr, Iowa: produce day-old chicks. 6 commercial hatcheries in the US. Around eachhatchery, locate a breeder house (independent houses). Build 3-4 houses in the next 10-12months. 34,000 hens. Depopulated at 65-67 weeks. Producer is paid through a contract.Hy-Line retains ownership of the birds. 4 houses in the state of Iowa. Contract written tocover principle expenses. 66x585 house size. Two-story house design with a manure pitin the bottom. Odor and those concerns a non-issue. Between 500 and 520 tons per

year. 40-45% moisture content. 2-2.5 ton per acre spread.

Commissioners: is there an agreement in place now between you and them?

Yes.

Parsons: comprehensive poultry CAFO ordinance.

Administrator: have less than a quorum of you involved as a subcommittee (as a way toavoid open meeting laws)Once they have that document worked out then bring it back to this commission. If youjust have one or two of you on that task force, youd probably be ok. Obviously were notlooking to cut anybody out of the process but were just kind of trying to make it moreexpedient. 2 days notice for a special meeting. [ex-parte communication?]

What you have continued are just those four of five items. Youve got to separate thatfrom this Chapter.

Were going to deny the initial petition, but we can still continue.

Commissioners: why cant the county come up with a zoning ordinance themselves, thenlet them come in and apply for their business?

I dont think were expert enough.

Petition to amend was withdrawn. Motion to accept was made and passed.

9-17-09Cap on poultry CAFOs?


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Mentioned bird-flu: They actually have two zones that they want to identifya restrictedarea and a control area. Control areabetween 2-10km beyond the restricted area. Somesort of restriction does need to be in place there. Theres a requirement of doing a specialuse permit. And Hy-Lines not opposed to that, but it may be a good idea to put someprovisions in there as to what that permit is going to require.

Commissioner Beck: how about humans? We dont fall in the equation, or?

Youre not part of the USDA kill zone.

European Union: theyve established that their radius would be 3km (roughly 2 miles).Saying that thats the needed setback between facilities, thats probably a bit of a stretch.Just with 5 barns in the county, youve virtually locked up all of the ag ground in thecounty. Property rights- limitation on the rights of other property owners to build. OnlyFresno had a two-mile setback from facility to facility.

Are those birds inspected on the farm before they leave to go to the kill plant?

If theyre not inspected on the place, the outbreak itself would not be contained at thefarm.

Development density: where did these numbers come from?

Matt: The development density that initially came from we would not be landapplying. I sat down and said, ok if we have a barn and it meets the setbacks, thats goingto be a certain size facility. We dont want any large facility to be any denser than athree-barn system. Anything larger than that, you dont want to pack it in any tighter thanwhat a three-barn system would allow.

Commissioner: theres no science behind it, then they can say its not Im almost of theopinion theres gotta be some science behind it.

Isnt there some DEQ

Commissioner Beck: my biggest concern with this is the future of this thing and thebigness. We need some sort of control. In that two years we dont know what weve gotuntil youre up and running. The open-endedness of this thing. Even yourselves. You cantell us youre going to do the two-million birds, and we may say alright we can live withthat, and then you come back and say lets go four-million. Weve got to have somecontrol over that. If this thing isnt handled right, its open-ended.

If we do approve a CAFO poultry ordinance, do we put a cap on how many birds cancome to the county period?

Commissioner Beck: you can overdo a good industry sometimes. I think we can all admitthat.


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Everything is structured in the poultry industry to volume.

Feed mill: 60 tons per hour

How many birds in a producing facility does it take to run: every 20 days.

Roughly 3.5 to 4 million birds on the ground. Thats at one-half capacity.

You yourselves have the capacity to double without any problems. Were talking 8million birds.

Administrator: you can set a cap on animal units per facility. Youve gone down that roadbefore. What is the maximum facility size that youre going to allow in the county? Froma public health and safety, and general welfare standpoint.

Beck: the problem is, we dont know.

80-barn site to supply.

Commissioner Garner: Youre saying that the 166 for animal unit. Youre saying thenwhat youd do is limit animal unit per facility?

Administrator: Given the size of this, have you run the numbers on how big is the CAFOsite to do 4 million birds?

Matt: roughly, it depends on how tight that density is. Were not looking to be so tight.But what were looking at now were probably going to be somewhere in theneighborhood of a 500 acre site.

The location of those sites are based upon who we impact and how we impact thecommunity as well. And what our growth potential is.

Beck: can you see our dilemma though? We can handle you, but say California kicks emout we got 40 more of em, and thats scary. What goes in has to come out.

Commissioner: over the years, we have other counties in the state of Idaho dealing withCAFOs, and we felt like our countys done a pretty good job of handling those issues.What commissioner Becks concerned about is youre throwing those doors wide open.

Beck: Chicken air. Theyre confined. Theyre confined in a small place. I appreciate thefact that theres going to be exhaust fans, but what comes in has to go out. Weve seen itin the dairy industry.

Matt: you always have that optionwhen youre starting to see that influx, the countyhas that option of making that tweak to tighten things up.


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Administrator: any time weve tried to do that, we lag about 6 months behind and a dozenapplications.If you want to limit development to 10 million birds a year, I dont think that would be aproblem from our aspect

Commissioners: from your aspect; what about those twenty other companies?

When we had Matt look at the CAFO permit, the logical step was to try to find whateveryone else has done at this point so that we dont have to reinvent the wheel.Throughout all of that investigation, all of the stuff that were spending so much time on,no other state has regulated any of that stuff because the industry has done it.

Commissioner whitehead: you want some idea out there for you for the number of birdswe want in the county.

The publics going to be concerned about the same thing Commissioner Beck isconcerned about.

Alan Anderson: How we going to set this so itll work now and itll work later. If youlook at the old system, it was always based on nutrient management. There needs to besomething that says, if Im going to have 50,000 birds and Im going to spread themanure on the farm, Ive got to have the acreage to do that. Something that addresses itand puts a mitigating factor in.

If its confined its one ruling, if its not confined, its got to follow the existing CAFOordinance.

Its going to move a lot of farm property out of production.

Money: the state gave a number of 2.5 million.40million dollar payroll. And the jobs that were attracting here?

We need a vehicle to allow this CAFO ordinance to move forward. What Kerry hasdrafted we think will meet our needs.

Commissioner: Im not 100% confident. Hes put together something in 2 days or less ofwhich he thinks might work for the county. I dont know how everybody else thinksabout this, but Ive had this in my position 4 hours. Im not 100% sure that Im ready justto say yeah lets take this.

Density and biosecurity: two big things. Not scientific.

Setbacks arent an issue?


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Setbacks are the same setbacks that are in the existing CAFO ordinance. We think the 5miles is just way too much encumbrance.

At what level do we actually get concerned about the biosecurity?We dont start regulating them under this until they get 16,000 birds.

Beck: if we dont have something in place, we could have a problem way before that yeargets here.

Matt: if you have a large facility with a lot of birds it would have a serious economicimpact; but it would also have a serious economic impact if some other facility made thatfacility have a problem.

2-mile USDA setback, thats kind of your kill zone. Other new facilities would have tohave a 2-mile setback. From boundary to boundary.

10/15/09 work meeting

industry version: CAFO= 250 birds. 50,000 birds you cant land applyHy-Line: contract with a neighbor to receive that litter.

[what about biosecurity setbacks from land application areas?]

Bill Parsons (Hy-Line): why its important to have land application for under 50,000birds. If youre going to require to get into and not have third-party land available, iteliminated hy-line from doing this project. Birds raised for approximately 60 weeks.Clean facility, take out fertilizer and land apply. A nutrient management plan on file withthe county. Typically the operators do not have the requisite amount of ground to complywith your ordinance. Just put 5 or 6 online in Indiana. Its a matter of helping thecommission understand what hy-line does. All inside and then applied in accordance withthe nutrient management plan. 40 tons of fertilizer in a cycle.

Commissioner Garner: does that really put you out of business, or does it just make it sothat you have to have a conditional use permit to land apply?

Commissioner: Would you let the commission know about how much acreage would berequired to do land application?

Parsons: 120 acres.

Commissioner: when they land apply, do you have to have a waste management planwith the state of Idaho?

Yes.

Commissioner: Im sure youd have to have a land application one then.


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Parson: were not suggesting that we just promiscuously go out and apply fertilizer. Wewant to do it in accordance with the plan.

Commissioner: how many birds does Hy-Line have in their plan?

Parsons: the farmer owns the barn, and they just sign a contract for ten years while hepays for it.

Beck: third-party things started ending up outside our county. My feeling is if we decideto go and let them do a third-party thing it has to be county acres.

Parsons: all farmers neighbors are going to want that.

Commissioner: the bio-security thing. To me that helps structure that youre not going toget 10,000 of these things. Your poultry FFA 4-H small time people, what are you going

to do about my chickens? How does that work?

Those facilities are definitely an issue for us and for Hy-Line. Those ten chickens, theyhave an outbreak or they have an issue were going to get impacted by it.

We still at the end of the day biosecurity on the farm is the most important part. Alongthat line the county version calls for four miles separation between facilities.

Commissioner: third party waste is hard to control

Parsons: This is a one-time a year, every 60 weeks.

Commissioner: whats the possibility there that this guy under 50,000 wants to landapply, does it need to be done within this 4-mile

Land application cannot be within anyone elses biosecure area.

Commissioner: are we going to require the county to police it?

Parson: but it isnt your problem. And it hasnt been an issue with what theyve done inother areas.

Breeder facilities (broiler or layer): producing fertilized eggsPullet: up to 18 days: really young chickLayers and broilers: two different types of chickens. Layers are going to be vaccinatedfor different things than the broilers are.

Commissioner: we dont want to have a chicken farm on every corner. We dont want tohave a dairy on every corner like some other counties. I dont like that in there (the


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waiver). I dont understand why that would be in there if youre really concerned aboutbiosecurity.

Commissioner: I sit here and look at how much efforts being put into biosecurity and Isee no point if youre going to let someone set up right next to your barn.

Industry: no point for a cap when theres a conditional use permit process. Commentsabout adding a shift to the plant.

5 million birds to get to the first phase of the project. 4 mile setback, were talking 10locations in the whole county. Our thought is we want to have a whole bunch of chickensin one spot and as far away from everybody as possible.

Beck: if we allow an uncap-able thing in one spot, those other things become uncap-ableentities.

Commissioner wells: in that situation if youve got 5 million birds here and 5 million

birds there doesnt it become a little unreasonable to put 5 million more in the middle.

Whitehead: Im leaning towards the industrial version because of the fact that it explainsmore than the county version does.

Parson: You can always refer it to a committee. If we were to get the major things, I thinkthat it wouldnt take the four of us very long to finish off the major hurdles. The right ofthe county to inspect, there needs to be in the application for the CAFO an approved planof inspection because neither industry can afford to have somebody show up on thedoorstep.

Commissioner: tarping of this material as its transporting.

Commissioner: the numbers are kind of restricted by biosecurity zones.

Commissioner wells: about every other year or so I buy 100 or 200 chicks or so and raisethem up to butcher them and put them in my freezer, would I have to do this?

Allow hatcheries in industrial/commercial areasquestions about whether thatsarbitrary and capricious.

USDA controls how fast the processing plant can grow. They limit how fast they can addcapacity to that line. They can only add capacity every three months. It would take ayear just to double from start up. Even with 20 million birds it would take us anywherefrom 4-6 years to get to that level. 2 sections (ground). Plant is planning on starting with2 processing lines with close to 100,000 birds a shift. 4.5-5 million birds. Thats one shiftfor those two lines. Ten million for birds with two shifts.

90% of these birds would leave Idaho.


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Hy-Line maximum: each barn will not have more than 50,000 birds in it. And when theeggs are laid the eggs go to the hatchery.

45,000 birds per barn. 2 barns emptied each day (or each shift).

Barns will be all together on one piece of ground. Pods of barns, minimum spacing inbetween those pods, but then bigger spacing between pod sections.

Animal unit maximum per CAFO: 7500. 166 birds = 1 au. 1.25 million birds.

Were dealing with county people response who have to live with the situation.

Youd like a permit for 20 million, is that what youre saying?

Matt: the smaller the cap you put on us, the bigger the burden on us.

Are you saying if we put a cap at 5 million, you guys are going to walk?

Matt: 5 million cap with a 4 mile setback.

Commissioner: Im assuming youre going to affect 16 families. How many jobs are youguys going to bring in thats going to replace those 16 families? Not your introductorylabor, not that kind of thing. Im just wondering if were going to run current countyfamilies right out of their home.

Matt: I think the section we looked at there were 2 or 3 houses within a mile.

Commissioner: the real concern is that if Tamerack loop was right next door to thisfacility, how willing are you going to be.. several of those homes out there are quartermillion dollar homes, thats their whole life savings. If it takes and diminishes the valueof their home, their lifestyle

Matt: in most cases, those people with those homes are the people we have to buy theproperty from.

Industry: my task was for property acquisition. The two site locations that wevenarrowed down, both have 1 family within a half mile radius, both of which we arebuying out. The impact as far as environmental is probably the cleanest industry for thetype of facilities that we have. We like to keep all these contained facilities in onelocation so we can control that. In buying the properties we looked at those scenarios upfront. For us to pay back this note to the state, we have to be able to produce x amount ofchickens. This plant took all of the negatives out of all those scenarios for the past 20years. The state of the art facility that we have here would negate any of those concerns.

50 million dollars worth of tax base running 2 lines one shift.100 million dollars worth of tax base running twice that.


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There is nothing in these facilities that hasnt been question marked by every country inthe world as well as here locally. This is a LEED plant. The first one in poultry in the US.First total UV powerline generated. Theres very few things that we havent taken intoconsideration to be sure that everybodys happy with it.

Commissioner: I dont think everybody on this panel is ready to fess up to 20 millionbirds right now. Could we do this incrementally?

Matt: if we talk performance, what kind of performance would you guys want to see?

Commissioner: Can you see where public and myselfwere sitting here and youretelling us all these wonderful things, and they sound great, they really do. We started outwith 1, 2 million chickens in a statement 3 weeks ago and suddenly were up to 20million chickens.

If you put us in a lock where we cant grow, the investors are going to look at that andsay why would we want to do that. Claims about a shortage of poultry in the world.

2 sections is typically as much as we would ever grow in one facility in one location. 50-mile radiuses are typical. When we put our four-mile radiuses around we looked at thatand we saw 5 facilities.

Commissioner: theres always going to be people who are going to complain about that.Lets step forward and say lets help these people succeed.

Industry: $12.50 and hour average with benefits. 1500 employees.

60 new managers, their average salary is $90,000.

The wage scale weve got for the $12.50 across the board is the number that the stategave us.

7 facility types coming in at one time: grow-house, breeder, pullet, production plant,fertilizer plant, pet food plant, feed mill, grain storage.

Conflicts manager is $250,000 income. The mid managers average income is $60,000 forthose 52 offices.

The people who are going to be running this thing are going to be making a whole lot ofmoney. The people who work for those people have the ability to rise up.

2% VOCs regulated. Water effluent will be cleaner than the water youre drinking fromyour faucet now.

Commissioner Wells: with your biosecurity youd only be able to put up 5 facilities.


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Matt: the map that we had is a five-mile radius

What might simplify the boards decision is a maximum of 2 sections. The industryregulates itself. Thats unique.

Commissioner: I have a thought. If they come in and apply for a CAFO permit for 5million birds, and in our permitting process we gave them the permit for 5 million birdsand in the permitting process we stipulate that it would have to be build exactly accordingto the permit. If they want to expand, theyd have to come back in.

Up to 10 million birds the first year.

Every week, half a million birds. That number would go up after we put on the secondline.

10 million birds takes us through the first 12 months at full capacity. Its not easy to put

200 million dollar packages together with the local banks right now.

Commissioner: Its not easy to make that decision, and youve had ten years and wevehad three weeks.

Commissioner: we cant talk about preferential treatment.

Unemployment in the county right now: 7.8%

[numbers a big issue; keeping track a big issue; ghost town issues]

We thought that the dairy industry would help downtown, we thought they would helpgive our young people jobs so they wouldnt have to go work somewhere else. Andinstead, weve had to bring in more police force because its brought in the minimumwage people that the dairy industry attracts I think out of that 1500, I think maybe 90or 95% of those jobs will be minimum wage jobs.

Whats going to keep in the future from running 24 hours?USDA.

Biosecurity: because we cant let them get sick110 sheds total, between 8 and 10 miles south of Burley

34 years ago, we had an integrated system here. We raised around 2 million chickens,maybe 2.5 million. I had 5 coops. Some of them held maybe 15,000. This one coop willhold as many as I had total. I had a cattleman come to my place. He was so surprised. Iwas raising more pounds of meat in that one house than he was in his whole lot. He wasdumbfounded. The technology that has come along in the past 34 years is astounding. Iwent through Springdale Arkansas, I never have been in a more beautiful city than that.Just is clean and beautiful. And the big processing plant was there before some of the


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town. The town built around it. It just takes 8 weeks, and youve got 4 and 5 pound birds.Money starts flowing fast. It isnt like a lot of other businesses. It turns over every 8weeks. We have an opportunity here in Burley, Idaho.

11/19/09

Our broilers are where the meat is going to be produced or raised to the point to where weget to production weight. We have to start at one end of the farm and move back throughthe farm to get to one cycle.

Industry: state estimate-- $50 million to the county in taxes. Threats to move.

Commissioner: The reason you were out of business is because the big guys cut the price.Whats going to keep that from happening here?

Industry: its a factor.

12/17/09public hearing

Level Turner: Nothing to gain or lose, representing the Turner clan. Came in 1936. DougManning- thought they were crazy and still do, but is convinced they can do what theysay they can do. Concerns about developers selling out to big boys. Big operatorsconsider violations and fines a natural cost of doing business. EPA and local regulatorsdo not have enough money to enforce regulations. Whats a $500,000 fine to a companydoing several billion dollars worth of business. Tyson tied to immigration conspiracy. 36-count indictment. Human trafficking. Encourage you to set in place any kind ofregulation that you could do to slow down this chicken deal. Its not going to work for us,our locals are not going to work there. It will be migrant workers coming in. Theyre notgoing to buy their products locally.

Dale Turner: been all over the country with trucks. Were in a slump, we could use thework. But I would caution you to take a look at this. You can smell these plants virtuallyanywhere you go. Just open your windows and carry a bucket with you cause youregoing to throw up. This plant in CA was killing 660,000 chickens a day. All you had todo was follow the feathers. What are they going to do with all these dead and these otherchickens that are out there? Thats an awful lot of feathers, grease, and residue. Theydlike to tell you they can sell everything but the squawk on these chickens. Thats not true.Take a look at this situation here, and dont run headlong into it. I can tell you wereimporting a storm because of the economic situation right here. These guys have way toomuch money, too many lawyers. Be careful. Real careful on this.

Garner: concern about the number.

[what about using available land base?]


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Commissioner: USDA and EPA regulate emissions. Its based on effluency. Theres afew entities that I came in touch with that were of some value. Space Dynamics. It wasmade for the US government. They said under the very best circumstances were tryingto make ordinance changes before doing an application these people have doneresearch for the government on chicken farms, dairy CAFOs, etc. The number one

effluent was the almond industry. The number two was the chicken industry. The numberone thing thats going to be involved is airborne. Were not here to discuss whether or nottheyre coming to town. Were here to discuss the numbers. The key is to keep themoisture low enough so the chickens dont get disease. 10-15% of that pollutants goingto go out of that fan and into your atmosphere. So the question is how many chickens?What number is there out there thats going to be reasonable?

Beck: how do you control or limit where these things go?

Commissioner: Once we permit something, we dont have any control. Its based on EPAand USDA regulations. You understand what putting teeth into it is from the USDA EPA

standpoint? The EPA and the USDA will administer a fine. Theyll give you a fine for it.Typically theyll pay the fine and come into compliance.

Resident: So what youre saying is the county cant control through its standards sowhat are we talking about then?

Truth of the matter is, the difference between some of these areas are, the towns werebuilt around the facilities. The question remains, what number are we willing to have inthe county?

Jeff Hawker: this issue you guys are talking about is the ordinance of where theyregrown, correct? The southeast portion of this county can handle a lot of stuff, I meanwere not talking about a lot of stuff having to be grown in one given area, are we?

Beck: yes we are.

Visitors drove past the grow houses. Didnt actually go into them.

Resident: as far as control is concerned, they have to have their own veterinarian in theplant. They have meat inspectors. Its probably one of the most self-policied industriestoday. Some of those things that they have done in the past were done by bad operators.Every application is an individual application. You dont have to just because you gaveone to Charlie doesnt mean you have to give one to George. Im convinced that youremaking this a little bit more difficult than it needs to. If you have CAFOs and you have aproblem, they can be reversed. 10 million chickens is not unreasonable.

I talked to the neighboring mayor from Springfield. He said one thing I wouldnt havewas a kill plant. The other thing he said was our social structure has really changed. Youmade a comment that just because we did one. If we change the ordinance, and we give it


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to the first one, if they come in, we cant stop it. What Im saying is we dont have asmuch control as a county as people think. You dont reverse very easy.

Garner: the one thing that we are interested in is when we make these changes we areconcerned about the whole county. You can see the same mentality that everybody else in

the county. Somebody is going to have it in their back yard.

Resident: if you get within 50 feet of it youre going to smell it. But you have to bewithin 50 feet of it to smell it.

Beck: eggs and chickens are two different things.

Commissioner: no clue how many cattle they have in the cattle.

Half a million.

Commissioner: those people you spoke with, did they actually work in the facilities?

Resident: one person.

Commissioner: what kind of jobs were they? Were they minimum wage paying jobs?

Resident: she said that they were jobs that were providing incomes of between 20-25,000 with benefits. I think they were finding that both spouses would have to work in ahome.

Industry: need 4 million birds in the biosecure area.

Commissioner: we keep talking all kinds of different numbers here. Was it 6 millionMatt, that we talked about last time?

Matt: 6 million for two broiler plant shifts. The market is going to dictate what thatnumber is. The main processing equipment, their equipment can range from 104 birds perminute up to 140.

Commissioner: Ive just heard so many numbers over the past three months I cant keeptrack.

We talked about how many entities were going to be involved who were going to applyfor permits. We were told there were going to be five different entities applying for thiswhole thing. We were trying to have a number so if every entity would have a number wewould reach this end figure. Thats why the numbers are the way they are.

4 million for two lines one shift; 8 million for two lines two shifts.


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Commissioner: when you talk four million in a biosecurity zone, would that increase tomaybe 8 million in a single zone?

No.

How many biosecurity zones in the county? Two mile buffer zone between the outsideboundaries.

Am I right in my thought process that theres 5 biosecurity zones in the county? Or isthere more?

In Arkansas the density issue isnt an issue because they are so worried about thebiohazards that anybody who raises chickens is far away from anyone else who raiseschickens.

My cousin said that its basically self regulating. Place a cap and some distances between

each. Cooler temperatures in this area would be a lot less air displacement in the sheds.

Resident: economics of scale. If your numbers are floating around, if I can Im goingto be used as the scale of how bad it could be and what youre facing. CWA & CAA:what happens on our place will be the worst case scenario. This case will only be better.Last month I applied in the city of Declo a mixture of biosolids from the city and chickenmanure from hy-line. Some people took offense and some people did not. To keep out ofUS waterways, weve got to figure out a way to apply them. This is not only a well-written proposal, it has teeth and protections thats far superior to what were governedby. Opposition in all things.

Keith Couch: Arkansas tour. The plant was immaculate. They use a lot of water and theykeep things very clean. We talked to the plant manager and different people and theywere very positive. Ive never seen such a clean facility. It was an older facility. I believe50 years old. A lot of employees. They ran about 460-480,000 birds a day. After that wedrove around and looked at some of the routes. No smell 20-25 yards away. The mainfacility was on 10 or 12 acres or something like that. If I had a suggestion Id start at anumber that you can live with and then go from there.

Beck: some of the others mentioned that they did not go to a grow-out facility.

Keith: their facilities have to be clean, because theyre EPA approved and they have to bespotless.

Beck: an individual I talked to in Arkansas one of the things he talked about was that itwas getting cost-prohibitive to do 1-3 sheds.

Keith: went by both. Went to the city and talked to the sewer operator and she was verypositive about it.


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Resident: 30 years ago, Simplots was dumping raw sewage in our river. Simplots wasreversed. They had to start putting, and the same with Oreida and those other plants outthere. Today, you can walk up and down our rivers and theyre clean. You can waterskiin them, you can even go fishing in them. Whats it going to give us over 20, 30, 40, 50years. Schools, transportation. You put up with what you have to put up with for the

industry.

Resident: diversity. This is a commodity that has been proven.Commissioner: if we have sufficient evidence to make a motion, then we close thehearing. Close the hearing for taking of information to make the recommendations.

Administrator: you could testify before the county commissioners if you did the tour.

4 yes, 3 opposed to closing the hearing.

Beck: Give them 4.2 million in a biosecurity zone, but to help us keep a handle on this we

have an 8-mile biosecurity zone.

Four mile from outside biosecurity zone to outside biosecurity zone.

Beck: Ive probably been confused on how we determine these biosecurity zones.

Looking at the proposed chapter 10, page 3 (9-10-5): your proposal would be to changemaximum density size to 4.2 million. Page 4. Minimum biosecurity distance of 4 milebuffer zone extending from its external boundaries.

Motion to recommend to the county commissioners.

Documents

Cassia County Poultry Ordinance Comments 2