Thursday, February 17, 2000
Agency may revoke permit for chickens
Buckeye Egg wants another 800,000
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Environmental regulators want to reconsider a permit they granted that would allow Buckeye Egg Farm to add 800,000 chickens at its farm near Marseilles.
“We determined that we needed to do a more thorough review of air issues,” Heidi Griesmer, a spokeswoman with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said Wednesday.
The OEPA on Friday asked the Environmental Review Appeals Commission to send the permit back.
In a statement sent to the commission, Robert Hodanbosi, chief of the OEPA's air pollution control division, said the agency received new information about possible air pollution problems after the permit was issued.
Buckeye Egg now houses 2.5 million chickens at the farm about 55 miles north of Columbus.
A message seeking comment on the OEPA's request was left at the company.
The expansion permit was granted in October 1998 but was appealed by the group Concerned Citizens of Central Ohio.
The group's attorney, Richard Sahli, complained that residents raised questions about air pollution issues two years ago, before the permit was issued.
“If the state took public comment seriously, the issue should have been addressed way back then,” Mr. Sahli told the Columbus Dispatch.
A year ago, the OEPA agreed to reconsider a permit for expansion of a Buckeye Egg operation near Hartford. Buckeye Egg appealed, and that case is pending before the 10th Ohio District Court of Appeals.
Environmental activists who want more controls on factory farms said the OEPA's request to reconsider the permit at the Marseilles farm underscores the agency's failure to control pollution from livestock farms.
They noted that OEPA Director Christopher Jones just defended Ohio's regulations, in a letter to the U.S. EPA. The federal agency has criticized state controls.
“We find it ironic that the Ohio EPA is vigorously defending its program, when it appears to be crumbling all around,” said Susan Studer of the Ohio Environmental Council.
Ms. Griesmer said the issues involved are different. The U.S. EPA is talking about surface water issues, and the Buckeye Egg permit is about air pollution concerns, she said.
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