In the on-going effort to prevent a hog confinement from coming to Kingdom City, 36 letters of concern and a petition with more than 1,458 signatures has prompted the Department of Natural Resources to meet with the public.
Representatives from the Department of Natural Resources will be at Hatton-McCredie Elementary School at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6.
The first public meeting at the school took place on June 10 after residents living within 3,000-feet of Horstmeier Farms, the site of the more than proposed 10,000-hog facility, received a letter that Eichelberger Farms Inc. wanted to move into the area. The company is a part of Triumph Foods, the second largest U.S. Sow producer in 2013, according to Successful Farming Magazine. Eichelberger was the smallest sow contributor to Triumph of its five companies with 30,000.
Eichelberger created Callaway Farrowing, LLC, which submitted an operating permit to DNR in August.
Jeff Jones, spokesperson for the opposing citizen-group Friends of Responsible Agriculture, said he's hoping to supply the public with more information, answering lingering questions. He also said he wants DNR to "realize the tremendous amount of concern" surrounding the hog facility.
Jones believes there are flaws in the application that will help his cause.
He said the application states fertilizer will be applied where another company is already using manure as fertilizer, creating twice the amount that should be on the land.
"That just can't be," Jones said.
Based on Friends' research, which Jones said concluded in negative results, he hopes the DNR ultimately denies Callaway Farrowing's application.
If there is any benefit to people living in the area, Jones said he wants proof.
"I'm from Missouri, so I have to be shown how this is going to be," Jones said.
Of the 36 letters sent to the DNR, Jones, a cattle farmer, accounts for three.
In his first letter (dated Aug. 29), Jones describes how his cattle drink from a ditch created between his property and Horstmeier Farms, and that if sow manure is knifed into Horstmeier's land, his cattle could suffer.
"My cattle drink from this draw and it dumps into Richland Creek," Jones' letter states. "As waste from the swine facility is applied it will drain onto my land and into Richland Creek. I am concerned with the polluting of the water, in creeks, ponds, lakes, streams, deep wells and ground water."
Dale and Sandra Fischer of Fulton live within half of a mile from the proposed site and also wrote to the DNR about their worries. Their letter states they've lived next to the Horstmeier's current hog farm for more than 20 years and "have endured horrible odors from spraying, drilling into the land and burning hogs."
Then, they brought up a document signed by Gary Horstmeier, owner and operator of Horstmeier Farms, and neighbors 15 years ago. This agreement states that operators, defined as Gary Horstmeier, will "not construct, operate, expand or in any way participate in the operation of any concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) or animal processing facility (APF) located within 5 miles of the existing Callaway County facility.
"They falsified this by burning hogs and selling to a CAFO," the Fischer's letter reads.