WINNIPEG (Staff) — Proposed new environmental regulations in Manitoba are about to complicate the process of establishing a hog operation.
But the province’s hog marketing board supports the changes, which Manitoba environment minister Glen Cummings has promised to have in place before spring.
“We want the government to implement them as quickly as possible so there is a standard,” said Gerry Friesen, a board member with Manitoba Pork Est.
Friesen said the new guidelines will help stop pollution problems because developers will know the environmental requirements before they begin construction. And when they do start to build, their risk of harassment is reduced.
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A committee with representatives from several government departments, the hog industry and municipalities, has developed “reasonable and practical” guidelines for hog barns.
Guidelines not binding
Guidelines cover issues such as the optimum weather conditions for spreading manure and what is considered an adequate distance from other properties. While these are not binding on producers, they would be used by the provincial committee hearing complaints under Manitoba’s Farm Practices Protection and Consequential Amendments Act.
That legislation, which has recently been enacted, protects existing farmers from lawsuits if they are following generally accepted farm practices.
The government is also developing a permit, which would be issued after an environmental assessment of manure storage for operations producing 400 or more animal units.
And there will be a regulation setting minimum standards for the storage and handling of manure and disposal of dead animals for all livestock operations.
Provide assurance for the public
Cummings said the proposals are a departure from the unregulated environment that agriculture has operated within in the past. But they do provide assurance for an increasingly concerned public.
“The agricultural community is coming under increasing scrutiny,” Cummings said. “People in the public are asking for more clarity and more predictability in the process.”
Projects meeting the environmental regulations will not automatically be allowed to proceed. Municipalities with development plans in place often require a large-scale operation to receive a conditional use permit.
“Lots of times ‘agricultural conditional’ was put on a piece of property simply because (municipal planners) wanted to have some input into the nature of the operation that went there,” said Cummings.
“Now when some of the intensive livestock operations come forward and apply for exemptions, they are not being fought on the grounds that people even believe that they’re environmentally unsound — but they use environmental arguments to say ‘not in my back yard.’ “
The proposed environmental permit should help diffuse bogus environmental arguments, allowing the municipality to make legitimate land use and planning decisions.
Rural Environmental Watch president Debbie Nissen said the changes do nothing to resolve her group’s concerns.
The proposed regulations offer no venue for a concerned public to be heard. It also condones practices her group finds unacceptable.
“People who live next to these operations are entitled to a guarantee,” she said. “If you can’t produce a guarantee … then get out of the environment until these questions can be answered.”
