Factory Hog Operation Ruining Quality of life in Massachusetts

Superintendant of
Wilmington Schools:
Kids refuse to to go out for recess
sometimes because of odor at North Intermediate School.

Lodging Complaints:
The Tewksbury and Wilmington Health Depts. need your input! Please call when you get odors.
Tewksbury: 978-640-4470 ext. 230
Wilmington: 978-658-4298

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It used to be just a farm. Now it is a factory hog facility operation we believe is threatening the environment and we know is severely damaging the quality of life of hundreds of families in a residential area.

According to Building Dept. records (submitted almost three years after the fact) a 1000-head finisher building was installed at Krochmal Farms, LLC without permits and apparently no one in the Town or neighborhood was notified. The construction of this factory hog facility coincides with a large increase of noxious odors and neighbor complaints. This finisher building's tank holds almost a half-million gallons of hog waste. It has numerous enormous fans that eject poisonous gases out of the building and into the air of neighborhood.

Photo of pigs courtesy Farm Sanctuary. It is of a similar
"Finisher Building" operation and is believed to be a fair representation.

On TV Krochmal Farm, LLC portrays itself as a pumpkin farm and petting zoo showing a mother pig suckling piglets in the petting zoo while not allowing a Ch. 5 camera crew to see the pigs in confinement, over a tank of their own waste, a few hundred feet away... Why not?^[2]

There have been some farm odors here for a long time. In general people didn't care or even embraced the occasional farm smells because it wasn't severe or frequent. The odor problems worsened about three years ago after the construction of a large pig confinement and waste storage structure which the Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources admits is "not prevalent in Massachusetts where pig farms are generally smaller". This building has large fans which force the gases that emanate from the pigs' waste into the air of a suburban residential neighborhood. This waste is kept directly below the pigs in a large, storage tank that can hold almost a HALF MILLION GALLONS OF WASTE near wetlands and only a matter of feet from homes. The fans keep the pigs from being asphyxiated and poisoned by these gases, and the neighbors pay the price. This building was constructed without building permits, without oversight from the Conservation Commission or Board of Health and without notifying abutters.

According to the Health Dept. the tank is apparently the primary source of odor for neighbors. Apparently the other source is the spreading or composting of the pig waste on the Wilmington portion of the farm. Particulates of pig waste become airborne and depending on the direction of the wind, neighbors inhale it and it gets all over your property, including the kid’s toys, your car, etc. The enormous amount of pig waste, whether composted, spread or used as fertilizer is a major environmental concern.

The severe odors from these operations are preventable and we don't know why the people of this area are forced to suffer when modern odor reduction measures exist. Many piggeries no longer smell; read about them here.

This website is here for the frustrated people Tewksbury, Wilmington and Andover.

What can be done about this?

You can support sustainable farming, the animals live better lives and neighbors don’t have significant odor problems. You can tell your elected officials to support State Laws that protect air quality and pollution from swine operations.

Our Goal:

We demand breathable air and clean water in our neighborhood.

We demand to have our constitutional property rights returned.

What Can You Do?

Please help us to get House Bill 3818 passed.

Please click here and urge legislators
to pass this reasonable bill.

House Bill 383 (formerly known as the Home Rule Petition and Article #1) is a reasonable measure that would allow only Tewksbury to merely regulate hog operations. Despite that the Farm Bureau is fighting hard against it and we need your help. (Please see below)

Farm Bureau Has It's Facts Wrong

According to the "Legislative White Paper", published by the Massachusetts Farm Bureau, the neighbors of this factory hog operation "have been unable to shut it down."

This is pure deception.

We haven't tried to shut down the farm. Regardless of the fact that we are always on the record saying that isn't our goal, the Farm Bureau seems to be resorting to this old tactic of repeating the mantras regarding poor farmers and yuppies who close them down. It's inaccurate and an insult to the longtime neighbors who once didn't fear living near a farm that is now a factory hog facility. It's an insult to good farms that appreciate the importance of co-existing with neighbors. The point of this bill is to resolve the problem without closures. Suing would be easier than writing and promoting our bill, but we want to co-exist with farms.

The Farm Bureau says our bill (the Home Rule Petition that passed overwhelmingly at Town Meeting) "is perhaps the largest threat facing agriculture statewide at the moment."

A bill that asks for reasonable regulation of an industrial operation is a threat? All other industries have regulations. Is it really unreasonable to regulate farms that:

...built a 1000-head Finisher Building - industrial hog facility - 590 feet from neighbors without any permits or notification?
...spread and compost millions of gallons of hog waste in a high water table area already impacted by toxic dump sites?
...have a long history of raising animals for human consumption next to THREE toxic waste areas. One a Superfund site yards from where pigs have been for decades, one a 21E site on the farm (that was in default for years) only yards from where cattle have been for years?
...allow runoff into wetlands?
...fill in wetlands without permits?
...make it unbearable for children at a School to have recess?

The Farm Bureau goes onto say "This is not a swine issue or a Tewksbury issue. This is an agricultural issue for the entire Commonwealth and must be defeated.

There are serious issues from swine operations that affect Tewksbury. The MDAR admits that the hog operation of this size is not prevalent in Massachusetts. Tewksbury has an extremely high water table and the affected areas are in the Shawsheen Valley. The area is particularly prone to the affects of severe odors and pollution.

Our Bill is reasonable and allows for co-existence.

We call on the Farm Bureau to promote Sustainable Farming and to open it's ears to neighbors of the few agricultural operations that cause extreme damage to quality of life.

Read the Farm Bureau's Legislative White Paper
HERE

From the Boston Globe:
Scott Soares, commissioner of agricultural resources, said: " Neighbors should have questioned whether the pig population would rise before moving there, he said.

Mr. Soares has refused to answer the following questions directly:

How would prospective buyers know there is a Hog Facility here in Tewksbury? Where does it say that aside from TewksburyOdor.org?
How did the DAR inspect Krochmal Farms and not know of two large unpermitted buildings and dozens of unpermitted cows?
(These cattle, for human consumption, are being raised adjacent to a 21E site where nearly 100 barrels of toxic waste was pulled from the land at Krochmal Farm a few years ago.)
How would anyone know a farm could change from a farm with free pigs to a confined operation with a 1000-head finisher building and huge amounts of stored waste, especially when done without permits or notification?
Should Wilmington have not built the school in North Wilmington where children refuse to out for recess (on the record)?

Putting Meat on the Table:
Industrial Farm Animal Production in America

A Report of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production