Pat's Note: The ripples from MRSA and pigs spread ever wider from
Britain's now infamous bent government vets.

I continue to be amazed that the British government does not step in
decisively. This is not going to go away. Things are getting worse,
much worse. A glance at today's British nationals tells us that.

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417965

Hog farm applies for water permit  
Posted: August 18, 2008 

by: Stephanie Woodard 
 
MARTY, S.D. - Concerns are mounting about effects on the water supply
of a large-scale hog farm being constructed on the Yankton Sioux
Reservation in defiance of a tribal court order. The contained animal
feeding operation, or CAFO, is about four miles from the reservation's
main village and two miles from its Head Start; it is also surrounded
by small agricultural operations. 

Long View Farms, the Hull, Iowa-based company building the hog farm,
applied for a water permit on March 17. Over the next three months, 23
protests were filed with the South Dakota Department of Environment
and Natural Resources, according to Garland Erbele, chief of the DENR
water rights program. Entities submitting documents by the June 23
deadline included the Yankton Sioux Tribe, the BIA, South Dakota Peace
& Justice Center, individual tribal members and non-Native residents
of neighboring towns in the southeastern part of the state. 

''This is not an Indian-vs.-white issue,'' said Frances Hart,
Ihanktowan Dakota, secretary of the tribe's Business and Claims
Committee, an elected group. ''It affects everyone living around
here.'' 

A major concern is the amount of water Long View Farms will take from
the 250-foot-deep Codell Aquifer in the process of producing 70,000
piglets a year. Some protest petitions noted that the closest
monitoring wells are more than 20 miles away. (A local monitoring well
constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ceased functioning 15
years ago.) 

''As trustee for the people, the DENR cannot appropriate water it does
not know is there,'' wrote one petitioner. 

Erbele countered this criticism by claiming that DENR has data from
enough wells along the entire length of the aquifer to show him that
it would support the hog farm's usage. ''We have extensive
information,'' he said. 

Those objecting to the permit also pointed to public health issues.
Since manure from the farm will be spread on local fields, including
land near the tribal Head Start, any contaminants present in the
effluent, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA
(methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), may affect water and
air quality. 

Manure spills, due to equipment failure or human error, could increase
exposures. ''The farm can store millions of gallons of waste on its
hilltop site above the Missouri River, which will supply water to
people in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota through the new Lewis and
Clark Pipeline,'' said local resident Joan Olive. ''Do all those
people really want their water supply endangered?'' 

Recent research appears to support these concerns. In 2007, the U.S.
Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention reported that in Europe, MRSA had crossed over
into the human population from hog farms, where such bacteria develop
as a result of the large amounts of antibiotics fed to the hogs. Also
in 2007, the international scientific journal Veterinary Microbiology
reported that MRSA is found at 45 percent of Canadian hog farms and in
20 percent of Canadian pig farmers, a higher infection rate than that
of the general population. 

Of additional concern is the fact that the CDC is investigating higher
incidences of community-acquired MRSA in Native populations. This form
of the disease appears in people without the usual risk factors, such
as a recent hospitalization. 

According to Jeanne Goodman, administrator of DENR's surface water
quality program, distances from manure applications to homes, farms
and schools are not set by the state of South Dakota but rather by
local commissions and/or zoning boards. 

Notably, Charles Mix County, where the Yankton Sioux Reservation is
located, has no such regulations. According to Olive, owners of
concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, appear to seek out
locales that do not have zoning that would constrain their activities.

''Typically, people don't realize what's going on until the CAFO
breaks ground,'' said Olive. ''That's what happened here. If you had
zoning, there'd be a public process; there'd be hearings. Local people
would have a voice.'' 

Charles Mix County's lack of zoning did make it a more attractive
location to Long View Farms, said the company's lawyer, Dave Nadolski,
of Sioux Falls. When asked whether a more remote location could have
been chosen, rather than one in the midst of the Yankton Sioux Tribe's
landholdings, he replied that none was available in the county. ''The
nearest community is four miles away,'' he said, referring to the
tribe's main village of Marty. ''Farms have been located four or five
miles away from regular communities as well.'' 

Long View Farms' water permit application will come before the water
management board at its next regular session in Pierre, the state
capital, Oct. 2 - 3. The board, which is appointed by the governor,
will issue a decision during the session, Erbele said. 

At the board's Dec. 2 - 3 session, it will sum up its decision-making
process by issuing findings of fact and conclusions of law, he said.
At that point, anyone who disagrees with the result has 30 days to
file an appeal in circuit court. 

''If that happens, all bets are off in terms of how long it may take
to resolve the situation.'' 

 
-- 
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/