Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee Report

[Oscar]

REPORT ON IMPACT OF INTENSIVE LIVESTOCK OPERATIONS PRESENTED TO PROVINCE

http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/releases/2 ... 1-964.html

Legislative Building - Regina, Canada S4S 0B3 - (306) 787-6281
News Release October 21, 2005 Agriculture and Food - 964

The Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee (SCWMC) today presented the province with the findings of a report that could garner greater public acceptance of intensive livestock operations in Saskatchewan.

The committee's interim report is based on five years of field sampling
surrounding a hog operation at Rama. The SCWMC, a seven-member group appointed by Deputy Premier and then-Agriculture Minister Clay Serby in 2000, consists of members of the public interested in the well-being of Good Spirit Lake and the Spirit Creek watershed environment.

"This committee has diligently reviewed and researched the impact of large hog barns constructed in the Rama area," Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said.

"The real value of this project is establishing science-based research and observation of intensive livestock production regarding air, water and soil in the local area of these operations."

The study included odour monitoring by local residents and two specialists trained to detect and rate the intensity of odours. All odour data will be analyzed and reported by the end of 2005.

The Vaccine and Infections Disease Organization (VIDO) from the University of Saskatchewan collected air samples surrounding the barns. Air quality results were similar 600 meters downwind and 2,400 meters upwind of the hog facilities.

The committee sampled area soils to establish benchmark nutrient values prior to manure application. There were slight increases in nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the soils following manure application, indicative of more fertile soils. These nutrients were not found to be leaching or leaving fields in run-off water.

Committee members also tested water sites, including wells, dugout sites,
reservoirs and run-off sites, before and after liquid hog manure was injected into the land. The monitoring of water has resulted in an increased awareness among area residents of the importance of the quality of their source water, and many have sought ways to improve their water supply.

"The committee's interim report shows that we are managing our resources with respect to intensive livestock operations in an environmentally responsible manner, and we look forward to the committee's final report and recommendations," Wartman said.

The SCWMC is the first committee of its kind in Canada and one of few groups to collect baseline data before an intensive livestock facility went into production. Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food, Saskatchewan Environment and Saskatchewan Watershed Authority provided resources for the SCWMC.

"Committee members appreciate the opportunity to address concerns regarding large-scale hog production as it relates to the Good Spirit Lake watershed," SCWMC chairperson Don Walters said. "We felt it was beneficial to have a monitoring committee to tell a truly balanced, researched, scientific story of intensive livestock development."

The committee will present a final report, complete with recommendations to help ensure the environmental sustainability of the watershed environment, to the Province in June 2006.

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For More Information, Contact:
Donna Rehirchuk
Agriculture and Food
Regina
Phone: (306) 787-2359

[Oscar]

Published in the Regina Leader-Post on October 26, 2005, in the Meadow Lake Progress on October 25, 2005, and in the Wadena News on Novembber 2, 2005

Letter to the Editor

Report has potential to mislead …

On October 21, 2005, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food released the Interim Report of the Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee (SCWMC) of the Rama and Hazel Dell area in east central Saskatchewan.

(See http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/docs/events/Sp ... _Final.pdf )


According to the Report, “The SCWMC (August 2000) is a totally independent and non-bias committee appointed by (Agriculture) Minister Clay Serby and re-appointed by Minister Mark Wartman to direct and communicate the monitoring of intensive hog development to ensure the sustainability of the environment in the Spirit Creek Watershed.”

This Committee, assisted by Dr. Huiqing Guo, Assistant Professor with the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Agriculture and Bioresource Engineering, who coordinated Odour Monitoring; by Keith Head, Agrologist with Head and Associates Ltd., who coordinated Soils Monitoring; and by two Nasal Rangers hired to take air emission measurements at pre-determined locations throughout the watershed, consisted of primarily volunteer area residents...and, Florian Possberg, CEO of Big Sky Farms Inc.

For the first 18 – 24 months, they tested wells, dugouts, and spring run-off, took soil samples, recorded air quality, and set up a new weather station in the area as they collected data for a baseline before the hogs arrived.

At the same time, Big Sky Farms Inc. began building: the 6,000-sow breeder/farrowing barn, four nursery barns (capacity 19,200 animals), and the finisher barn (capacity 12,000 animals), located at three sites across this watershed, each with its own government-approved “earthen manure storage” – a 7-acre hole in the ground – and completed by December 2000.

In February 2001, the first sows arrived, followed in August by the feeders. According to the Report, this project produces 116,000 piglets per year (2,300 per week), as well as an estimated 20.5 million gallons of manure per year. This waste, using approximately 50 million gallon of our drinking water, is flushed out of the barns into the waiting cesspools before being spread, toxic and untreated, across the surrounding countryside.

The first “full scale manure spreading” at the Breeder and Nursery barns was carried out in the Fall of 2002 and at the Finisher barn in the Spring of 2003. The collection of well and dugout water samples in a 2 to 3-mile radius of each barn began in the Fall of 2002, the collection of odour emission samples began in early 2003, and the collection of post manure-spreading soil samples was done in 2003 and 2004.

Now, just over THREE years into Big Sky’s full operation, the Interim Report has been released, with the Full Report to follow shortly.

Wait a minute! In the case of water pollution, it could take several years for possible bacteria, salts, heavy metals, antibiotic-resistant pathogens, etc. in the manure to move into our sources of drinking water and make people sick, or worse. Yet, the study is over!

What’s the rush?

Could it be an attempt to dismiss Robert Kennedy’s recent remarks against corporate hog farms, calling them a "criminal enterprise"? Or, in response to the Auditor General’s 2005 Report on the impacts of hog farming which indicates that the federal Departments of Agriculture and of Environment do not know if their programs and activities are reducing the impacts of hog farming on the environment.”

(See the 2005 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, released on September 29, 2005, Chapter 8 at:

http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports ... 908ce.html )

Unfortunately, any conclusions drawn from this Report - this early in the operation of these mega hog barns - must be considered premature, misleading and, potentially dangerous. To be credible and truly address our concerns about the environment and our health, we need an ‘independent’ study which would continue for at least another five years – then, give us an ‘independent’ Report!

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Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK

[Oscar]

SPIRIT CREEK WATERSHED MONITORING COMMITTEE PRESENTS REPORT TO PROVINCE

http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/releases/2 ... 8-753.html

Legislative Building - Regina, Canada S4S 0B3 - (306) 787-6281
News Release October 18, 2006 Agriculture and Food - 753

The Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee (SCWMC) today presented the Province with the findings of its five-year report on the environmental impacts of intensive livestock operations in the Good Spirit Lake and Spirit Creek watershed areas.

"The work done by the Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee provides quantifiable proof of the effectiveness of our livestock development environmental regulations and the stewardship of our livestock producers," Agriculture and Food Minister Mark Wartman said. "Our livestock producers are good stewards of the environment and the report confirms this fact. Growing Saskatchewan's livestock industry is key to stimulating the province's rural economy. We are committed to ensuring that the development of rural Saskatchewan be done in a way that protects our environment and makes life better for all Saskatchewan families."

The study included odour monitoring by local residents and two specialists trained to detect and rate the intensity of odours. During two years of monitoring, local residents reported odour free conditions 98 per cent of the time. The committee sampled area soils to establish benchmark nutrient values prior to manure application. Soil testing indicated a general improvement in soil fertility and no evidence of increased risks to the environment. Water sites, including wells, dugout sites, reservoirs and run-off sites, were tested before and after liquid hog manure was injected into the land. Tests show no apparent additional stress on the quality of water within the Spirit Creek watershed.

The committee has also made recommendations to help ensure the environmental sustainability of the watershed environment. Upon further review of the report, government will consider the recommendations. Soil monitoring in the Spirit Creek area will continue, as recommended by the committee.

"This report's conclusions echo those of the interim report – namely that intensive livestock operations do not have to have a negative impact on the local environment," SCWMC chairperson Don Walters said. "Committee members appreciate the opportunity to address concerns regarding large scale hog production as it relates to the Good Spirit Lake watershed."

The SCWMC was established in 2000. It includes members of the public interested in the well-being of Good Spirit Lake and the Spirit Creek watershed environment. The SCWMC is the first committee of its kind in Canada and one of few groups to collect baseline data before an intensive livestock facility went into production. Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food, Saskatchewan Environment and Saskatchewan Watershed Authority provided resources for the SCWMC.

The SCWMC Five-Year Report is available at http://spiritcreek.ca/.

-30-

For More Information, Contact:

Donna Rehirchuk
Agriculture and Food
Regina
Phone: (306) 787-2359

Don Walters
Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee
Yorkton
Phone: (306) 783-4828

[Oscar]

November 6, 2006

Dear Editor:

…me thinks they protest too loudly!

Re: “Five-year hog barn study offers interesting revelation” (Wadena News, Nov.1)

The only remotely “interesting” aspect of this study, carried out by Minister Serby’s hand-picked committee (members are from the government AND the hog industry), is watching the mileage that these folks are trying to squeeze out of its results through the endless newspaper articles…

This so-called ‘independent’ report remains a misleading document.
(See: http://spiritcreek.ca/fiveyear.html)

Apparently, starting in 2000, a baseline of the area’s water quality was established. Then, on page 14, the Report states that, “Manure (from Big Sky’s three barn complex) was first applied to (surrounding) farmland in the spring of 2002”. Testing or monitoring could only begin after that, limited at best, as it takes several months to fill all of the barns in an operation.

The question remains: how, in such a short time (three years, NOT five as the Report claims), could any study possibly address, in any meaningful way, the multitude of environmental and health hazards presented by this industry?

Water carries with it whatever we put into it. And, for the most part, surface water is always moving, sometimes slowly, often quickly, but always to the ocean. Underground water moves also, usually slowly, and sometimes, in unpredictable and unknown directions. This law of nature has not changed.

Unfortunately, nothing in the hog industry has changed either.

The hog industry continues to expand, with another new operation near Pelly, SK, with others on the drawing board!

And, the government continues to allow these ‘pig factories’ to empty the cess pools from their barns in the same archaic and dangerous fashion: by spreading millions of gallons of raw, untreated toxic and carcinogenic hog manure onto surrounding land which is already saturated from recent heavy rains and snowfall, to be carried, uncontrollably, far and wide and deep by wildlife, runoff and seepage

So, until expansion of the exploitation of our water, land, people, and animals in this unspeakable way of making money(?) is halted, we can expect NO CHANGE in the ever-increasing threat to our health.

…me thinks they protest too loudly!


Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK

[Oscar]

Published in the Wadena News on November 15, 3006

Dear Editor:

Re: “Five-year hog barn study offers interesting revelation” (Wadena News, Nov.1)

The only remotely “interesting” aspect of this study, carried out by Minister Serby’s hand-picked committee (members are from the government AND the hog industry), is watching the mileage that these folks are trying to squeeze out of its results through the endless newspaper articles…

This so-called ‘independent’ report remains a misleading document.

(See: http://spiritcreek.ca/fiveyear.html)

Apparently, starting in 2000, a baseline of the area’s water quality was established. Then, on page 14, the Report states that, “Manure (from Big Sky’s three barn complex) was first applied to (surrounding) farmland in the spring of 2002”. Testing or monitoring could only begin after that, limited at best, as it takes several months to fill all of the barns in an operation.

The question remains: how, in such a short time (three years, NOT five as the Report claims), could any study possibly address, in any meaningful way, the multitude of environmental and health hazards presented by this industry?

Water carries with it whatever we put into it. And, for the most part, surface water is always moving, sometimes slowly, often quickly, but always to the ocean. Underground water moves also, usually slowly, and sometimes, in unpredictable and unknown directions. This law of nature has not changed.

Unfortunately, nothing in the hog industry has changed either.

The hog industry continues to expand, with another new operation near Pelly, SK, with others on the drawing board!

And, the government continues to allow these ‘pig factories’ to empty the cess pools from their barns in the same archaic and dangerous fashion: by spreading millions of gallons of raw, untreated toxic and carcinogenic hog manure onto surrounding land which is already saturated from recent heavy rains and snowfall, to be carried, uncontrollably, far and wide and deep by wildlife, runoff and seepage

So, until expansion of the exploitation of our water, land, people, and animals in this unspeakable way of making money(?) is halted, we can expect NO CHANGE in the ever-increasing threat to our health.

…me thinks they protest too loudly!

Elaine Hughes
Archerwill, SK