Des Moines Register
05-10-07
Yepsen: New agency chiefs taking a run at curbing hog odors
By DAVID YEPSEN
REGISTER POLITICAL COLUMNIST
The new director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the new Iowa
secretary of agriculture are meeting to craft fresh ways to curb hog-lot odors in
the state - without the Legislature enacting local-control laws.
Rich Leopold, who recently became Gov. Chet Culver's director of the
department, said he and agriculture secretary Bill Northey are planning to gather
the "best of the best" scientists and experts in the field to come up with options
for limiting hog stench.
Leopold made the comments this week during a meeting with Des Moines
Register opinion writers. It's welcome news.
Trying to limit hog odor while still promoting pork production has been an
emotional issue in Iowa. Resolution has been elusive, so it's good that new
policymakers are taking another crack at it.
"Air quality is a mess," Leopold said. "I'm not happy with the status quo, and we
need to go somewhere." By comparison, he said, the state's water-quality
problems are easier to solve, provided enough money is made available.
Regulators can see and measure water, something that's harder to do with odor.
"I've been meeting with Secretary Northey once every two weeks, and one of the
things we've talked about is cornering the best of the best and coming up with
something on odor. I personally have never made a run at it before. I want to try
to make a run at it with Secretary Northey and with industry to address this
problem."
Some have suggested giving authority to site hog lots to local officials as a way
to keep odors away from people. But it's not clear such "local control" would cure
existing problems, and the term means different things to different people.
When the Democrats took control of the Iowa House, Senate and governorship in
last year's elections, many farm activists believed a local-control bill would be
approved. They felt betrayed when it wasn't.
That means hog odors are still present and has prompted Leopold and Northey
to come up with other options. Leopold, who works for a new Democratic
governor, has a lot of credibility with the environmental community from his years
working in it. Northey is a moderate Republican who won office last November
with backing of the state's major farm groups.
It's encouraging to see them willing to take on such an emotional, complex topic
together.
Leopold said Iowa probably needs to spend more money on research at Iowa
State University. Tax breaks or subsidies to help producers pay for odor-control
technology is another option. He also said Iowa needs to look at what other
states and countries are doing.
For example, in Denmark, where many hogs are raised, producers blow exhaust
air through hay bales that have been saturated with bacteria that eat hydrogen
sulfide, one of the culprits in hog odors. It works, Leopold said.
"Can we do that?" he asked. "Shall we mandate it? Or should we make it
voluntary? Is it a certain size facility that has to do that? I'm pushing the industry.
"I'm telling pork producers, Farm Bureau and everybody else: 'You've got a
problem. Real or perceived, I'm not going to debate it. There is a problem out
there, and the status quo isn't working. Look at this last election cycle and how
ugly it got. In the next election, you could lose. Instead of working to make
something happen, something is going to be done to you.'"
He said he gives himself and Northey a year to come up with something. "If it
doesn't happen within the next calendar year, I will have played my hand out." He
was candid: "If, at the end of this run, I come up empty-handed like everybody
has, then I defer. I don't know what to do."
Thoughtful Iowans should wish them well - and be supportive of whatever
compromises and solutions they fashion.
There I Go Again: A quote in Tuesday's column calling last week's GOP debate
"ludicrous" was incorrectly attributed to Rudy Giuliani. It should have been
attributed to Newt Gingrich.
DAVID YEPSEN can be reached at dyepsen@dmreg.com or (515) 284-8545.