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A coalition, which includes the JACL, has been fighting the feedlot. Now, the need is to raise money for the legal expenses.
By Leslie K. Tamura, P.C. Correspondent
Published July 3, 2009
Stepping outside his house at night and looking up at the sky, Dean Dimond says he feels like he can touch the stars.
"That's one of the neatest things about living out where I do," he said. "But if they come and build this big [Confined Animal Feeding Operation, CAFO] ... your attention won't go to the stars."
Dimond is a fourth-generation farmer. Since 1994, he has been working the land near the site of the former Minidoka War Relocation Center in Jerome County, Idaho, raising grain, barley, hay and corn.
"We love it out here," he said. "We're out here kind of by ourselves. We've got good neighbors. It's open country, fresh air."
Dimond and his neighbors — including the recently named Minidoka National Historic Site — are up in arms along with several other organizations, however, as a new neighbor threatens to move into the area: a 13,000-animal 160-acre dairy feedlot.
"I'm not anti-agriculture at all," Dimond said. "Everybody has a few cows, but they're talking 13,000 animals, and any time you take that many animals and shove it into that small a space, there's a lot of odors and flies and crap like that, that I don't want to live in it."
Litigation against the feedlot has been ongoing for three years. Currently attorneys are in the preliminary phase of settling the record of the case, collecting information about Jerome County's decision-making process in approving the construction of the proposed factory farm.
Although the County Board of Commissioners initially denied the permit application, it reversed its decision in 2008 approving the construction of the feedlot within 1.5 miles of the national historic site.
Dimond and others worry that the proposed CAFO will have environmental, public health, cultural and economic consequences, among others.
"Placing facilities like this is a critical decision," said Richard Carlson, legal counsel for the Idaho Rural Council and the Dimond family. "If they're going to put [the CAFO] somewhere, they should put it someplace where they're not going to impact the residents of the area, the visitors, or those who have some kind of important connection with the Minidoka historic site."
Litigating to Save History
Legal efforts began in December 2006 to try and block the development of this facility. Big Sky Farms had proposed the feedlot, advocating the significant economic benefits of a CAFO for the area. Although it did not receive its initial permit, after an appeal in July 2008, a judge ruled in favor of the CAFO.
When the decision returned to the Jerome County Commissioners, however, no testimony was allowed. Commissioners did not hear comments from the National Park Service (NPS) and other organizations regarding the health, environmental and safety hazards associated with a CAFO located next to a national historic site. Idaho state laws pertaining to CAFOs limits testimony about permit applications to residents within one mile of the proposed site; this factory farm is just outside of that one-mile marker.
In a 2-to-1 vote, the commissioners approved the CAFO permit.
Commissioner Charlie Howell's primary concerns when he approved the permit, he said, were the rules and regulations of Jerome County.
"I can't say there won't be an impact; I don't know," Howell said. But Howell did say he predicted that although there may be more traffic and pollution because of the feedlot, there'd also be more jobs and increased market value for the area.
In September 2008, a coalition of organizations protested the CAFO's proposed site. The coalition includes the Friends of Minidoka, Preservation Idaho, the JACL, Idaho Concerned Area Residents for the Environment, the Dimond family, the Idaho Rural Council, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Since then, attorneys for the various organizations have been trying to settle the record as coalition members have organized environmental impact studies, public information efforts and rallied members against the feedlot.
"We believe that there were some serious mistakes made by the Jerome County Board of Commissioners in the hearing process that they went through before reaching their decision," Carlson said. "We're trying to get the court to consider evidence of some of the serious mistakes that occurred in the process of making their decision."
The lawsuit, which challenges Jerome County's approval of the CAFO and the constitutionality of the county's zoning ordinance limiting those who can testify, will likely stall feedlot construction until 2011. Still, predicting the litigation timeline is "just about impossible," Carlson added.
At the end of June 2009, attorneys for the coalition will have filed a motion to supplement the record with agenda, meeting minutes and other correspondence discussing the deliberative process of approving the CAFO permit, according to Charlie Tebbutt, legal counsel for the Western Environmental Law Center.
"We hope that the commissioners will take a hard look at the overall impacts," Tebbutt said. "Placing a huge livestock facility near a national monument makes no sense; it shows disrespect to those interned, area residents, and other national historic sites."
"This isn't your normal farm," Dimond said of the CAFO factory farm. "These are big rich people who are just coming in, trying to get richer."
Forced out, sold and consolidated, many family farms are lost to larger CAFOs according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. As small farms shut down, local businesses suffer as factory farms choose to employ fewer people and purchase feed and supplies from outside sources.
"It's a business decision," Tebbutt added, "a poor business decision because of the [historic] interest of the particular area."
South View Dairy, the new owners of the permit for the Big Sky Farms feedlot has several options as to where it can build its CAFO, says Tebbutt, and there is "no particular reason" for constructing a feedlot so close to the Minidoka site and to other local farms other than "it's affordable land."
Remembering Minidoka
One of the largest internment camps during World War II, the Minidoka War Relocation Center was once the temporary home for about 13,000 Japanese Americans who hailed from Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska, according to the NPS.
"The Minidoka National Historic Site is an important place in our nation's history," Tebbutt said. "It's not a pleasant place in United States history for everyone, but it reminds us of our own frailties and prejudices."
Not much remains of the camp located in south central Idaho. Although it was designated a National Monument in 2001 and a National Historic Site in 2008, there are no visitor facilities or services currently available. There are some remnants of former internment camp buildings, however, such as an entry guard station and waiting room.
According to the site's general management plan, the NPS is working to restore some of the original barracks to the site so visitors can have a better understanding of the internment experience as well as the local history.
Threatened by the CAFO development and poor public policy, the Minidoka camp was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 11 Most Endangered National Historic Sites of 2007 list.
Within the coalition doing its part to get the CAFO permit reversed, the JACL is activating its members in opposition to the factory farm development, in an attempt to preserve the Minidoka National Historic Site.
"At this juncture, the most pressing need right now is to convey to our membership the need to raise money for the legal expenses to fight the CAFO," Karen Yoshitomi, PNW regional director, wrote in an e-mail.
Having lived and worked in Jerome County for about 20 years, Dimond says he appreciates the solitude, the quiet of the area.
"The monument is something that's going to be here forever," he said, "I'm hoping that if they want this [national] park to succeed, they need to shut this CAFO down."
On the Web:
www.jacl.org
www.minidoka.org
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