Des Moines Register
11-28-07
Program to fight livestock odors proposed
PERRY BEEMAN • REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Three of Iowa's top agriculture and environmental leaders announced an unusual
joint proposal for $22.8 million in incentives for livestock operations willing to fight
manure odors voluntarily.
The five-year, voluntary program was developed by Iowa State University
agriculture dean Wendy Wintersteen, state agriculture secretary Bill Northey
and Richard Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources at
the request of a legislative panel expected to formally make recommendations to
state lawmakers on the odor issue.
Livestock odors have been a central issue in more than a decade of bitter debate
over Iowa's move to larger livestock confinements, which store more manure in
fewer places. Iowa is the nation's top hog producer and a major supplier of eggs,
chickens, turkeys and cattle.
The new plan would use monitoring and cost-benefit analysis at several hundred
farms to check which techniques work best, and where, Northey said.
"That information is needed so farmers know what they can do to help," Northey
said.
Wintersteen added that individual farms' test results would be shielded from
public view to encourage several hundred farmers to participate.
The money also would help pay the cost of installing new equipment or changing
farm operations.
Iowa has approximately 5,000 large livestock farms, and more than 10,000 farms
with at least some livestock. The program would cover all livestock species.
The money would come from a legislative appropriation. Members of the
bipartisan legislative odor panel seemed generally supportive of the budget.
Still, Sen. Paul McKinley, a Chariton Republican said he wants to make sure the
spending would produce noticeable results when Iowans have varying levels of
sensitivity about the issue.
"We could spend $500 million and we'd still have complaints," McKinley said.
"Even by state standards, $23 million is a fair chunk of change"
Leopold said the original proposal was cut by 40 to 50 percent to make the plan
more cost-effective and politically palatable for lawmakers. It was important, he
said, to offer the staff needed to help farmers who agree to pursue the voluntary
projects get the practices in place.
The program would include cost-share money for already studied techniques
such as biofilters and changes in animals' diets that can reduce manure and
methane production, and for more experimental techniques such as ultraviolet
radiation treatment of wastes and the use of air-scrubbers.
Of the $22.7 million, $6.5 million would pay for employees, equipment and
maintenance. "I wanted to make sure we had boots on the ground," Leopold
said.
Iowa does not regulate odors from livestock operations, and this plan requires
nothing of farmers. A proposal by Iowa State and the University of Iowa several
years ago that the state consider odor regulations went nowhere, as did the
scientists' more pressing call that the state regulate toxic ammonia and hydrogen
sulfide emissions, which are part of the odor problems.
A 2006 Iowa Department of Natural Resources report detailed a multi-year odor
study in which 7 percent of 1,708 measurements verified odor problems.
Leopold said that as he rides his motorcycle around the state, he smells an odor
problem at perhaps 5 to 10 percent of livestock farms. Many farmers have
planted trees, picked sheltered sites, installed biofilters or taken other actions on
their own, he added.
"This has been a hot topic statewide for quite some time," Leopold sad. "There is
a problem. I get a communication about odors about once a week from salt-ofthe-earth Iowans...The perceived problem is much worse than the actual
problem. It is our professional and moral duty to do something."
Said Northey: "This is a long road. This is a tough issue. It will take strong
commitment from the Legislature."
Said Sen. Jack Kibbie, an Emmetsburg Democrat: "We've been shooting from
the hip on this issue for many years and not getting very far. We have problems
out there at existing sites that are tough to address."
Wintersteen, Leopold and Northey all praised the livestock industry and said it is
important to protect the 86,000 jobs it offers.