7/16/2008 2:51:00 PM
Megadairy hearing
Will judge halt ongoing construction?
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GALENA-A judge in Galena will hear arguments Friday, July 18 at 1 p.m., in a lawsuit seeking to halt construction of Tradition Dairies, the so-called megadairy.
Opponents are asking Judge Kevin J. Ward to issue a preliminary injunction which would order the facility's developer, A. J. Bos, of Bakersfield, Calif., to cease work on the facility while the court considers opponents' claims that odors, water pollution and other effects would constitute a nuisance to the surrounding communities.
Contractors for Bos began work on the site about a mile west of Nora shortly after the Illinois Department of Agriculture issued a permit to Bos May 30. Opponents will tell Ward that the permit should not have been issued for a site that is too close to the homes of several thousand persons and will potentially leak millions of gallons of manure into their wells and the area's picturesque waterways.
The department of agriculture issued the permit to Bos on the same day Ward ordered the department to surrender permit application documents to the opponents under the state's Freedom of Information law.
The judge has since ordered the department to pay the neighbors' group, known as Helping Others Maintain Environmental Standards (HOMES), $3,000 in attorney's fees for its unlawful denial of access to the permit drawings.
Bos submitted early in June plans for such a device in a new Notice of Intent to Construct (NOITC). HOMES regards the filing as an attempt to confuse the court by undercutting the group's contention that the facility's fumes will endanger neighbors' health.
In court Friday, opponents will also argue that, in filing the NOITC, Bos has voided his permit by making a significant change to his facility plans. Over the protests of HOMES, the department of agriculture denied that the new NOITC constituted a substantial amendment to the permitted facility, a circumstance that would void the May 30 permit under the state's livestock regulations.
The Jo Daviess County Board voted last week that the Illinois Department of Agriculture should hold a hearing about the digester. "The board will essentially be blackmailed into approving the methane digester, since not to approve it would condemn the citizens to the greater hell of more odors," said David Albee, attorney for HOMES. "Bos and the department of agriculture will then have gotten the county board to appear to endorse the whole project."
HOMES has submitted new Freedom of Information requests to the state for information on possible grants of taxpayer money to Bos for the facility, including assistance in building a methane digester.
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