A big stink over odors

In court testimony, 18 families in the Kennedys' county, who were plaintiffs in a 2000 odor lawsuit, described the smell as "a suffocating stench," a "sewage odor" that was "unbearable," according to local news accounts. Last summer, the state court of appeals agreed, upholding a lower-court ruling.

Now, the Kennedys and other farm families within a few miles of several industrial-style hog operations are trying to block yet another new hog facility planned for 25,000 animals. Kennedy fears the rising tide of hog scent could wipe out her hometown of Cedar Rapids, Neb., by driving businesses and people away. "We're not going to let our town suffocate," she says.

States often have odor laws - as well as countervailing statutes protecting farm operations from "nuisance-based" lawsuits. So odor battles often hinge on who and what was present first.

"If people build a half-million-dollar house downwind of an agricultural operation, that's their problem," says Dr. Elliott. "But if a farmer goes from 100 swine to 2,500, then there may be some legal standing for the homeowners."

The number of CAFOs was about 17,000 last year, the EPA reports. In Nebraska, hog production has remained roughly flat, while the number of hog-farming operations has been steadily dropping, observers say. That has meant fewer but far larger operations that often concentrate waste in pits and lagoons.

With a typical hog producing three to four times as much daily waste as a human, CAFOs with thousands of animals can excrete the same volume as a small city.

Meanwhile, researchers are hard at work on "odor management" strategies, including diet manipulation, feed additives, biofiltration, wetland treatment, windbreak walls, and anaerobic digestion, to name a few.

Some researchers, like Elliott, say the technology is already available to control, if not entirely eliminate, most agricultural odors. The problem is that for any one company to take the lead, the additional cost would put it at a competitive disadvantage, observers say.

Nevertheless, some operations are pushing ahead. Premium Standard Farms of Kansas City has a comprehensive waste-management system that involves covering waste lagoons with "biocaps" (permeable membranes that significantly reduce odor), combined with air dams to deflect and disperse the smell. But the crown jewel is soon to come. The company's new $9.6 million high-tech crystal peak fertilizer plant in Missouri is expected to begin operation this year. It will turn hog manure into small, dry fertilizer pellets.

Industry officials point out that tightening federal restrictions on air emissions of agricultural livestock operations will also lessen odor.

In January, the EPA announced a nationwide consent decree in which thousands of animal-feeding operations will each pay a fine of $200 to $100,000 for past violations of air-emissions regulations. Key provisions include requiring the farms to report releases of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter - all common emissions from livestock feed operations.

The National Pork Producers Council, an industry group, is encouraging hog producers to sign the agreement. If they don't, they would still be liable to prosecution for past emissions violations. "There's a number of things going on at various levels to address that [odor] issue," says Kara Flynn, an NPPC spokeswoman. "There's always been a willingness to embrace new technology."

But environmentalists aren't so sure.

"The problem is that technology hasn't given us an answer that the industry has been willing to incorporate," says Laura Krebsbach, a regional organizer for the Sierra Club in Nebraska. "These hog farms produce a huge amount of waste and should have waste-treatment facilities like you would for a city. The bottom line is that they are externalizing their production costs. If you live here [by hog farms], you pay for it. If you live in a city, you're not paying the cost of that pork chop."

"A lot of people are getting tired of these odors crossing boundary lines," says Daniel Eyde, president of GSA Resources, a Tucson, Ariz., firm specializing in odor remediation.

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