Jefferson supervisors approve master matrix application for proposed hog confinement

FAIRFIELD — The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a master matrix for a pair of hog confinements that are planned for Salina Road about 7 miles northeast of Fairfield.

Tom Adam and his son Jacob Adam plan to build two buildings that collectively will house about 3,700 hogs at 2704 Salina Road. The site is known as Hill View Swine Site 2. Hill View Swine Site is about three-quarters of a mile east of this proposed site, where Tom Adam lives.

The master matrix is a scoring system administered by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources that assesses the methods hog confinement owners use to mitigate possible harmful effects of a confinement on soil and water quality and the quality of life for neighbors. For instance, owners get points if they plant trees or leave trees in place around their confinements (as the Adams are doing) because this reduces the intensity of the odor that can be detected at neighboring properties. Owners get a certain number of points for various mitigation plans, which when added together, determine whether they have reached a “passing” score.

To achieve a passing score, owners must obtain 440 points, and the Adam family submitted an application showing they had surpassed that threshold with 500 points.

Representatives of the group Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors urged the supervisors to vote down the application.

“Even though the matrix had the points to pass, JFAN urged the supervisors to not approve the matrix and application in order to make a statement about how the Master Matrix and regulatory system needed to be overhauled. Many other county boards have done this,” the group posted on its Facebook account.

Supervisors Daryn Hamilton, Dee Sandquist and Susie Drish voted to approve the application. Hamilton and Sandquist agreed that regulations surrounding hog confinements needed to be updated, but they felt that was best done at the state level, since the state is the final authority on approving hog confinements. They did not feel it was their place as county supervisors voting against an application that had met and even surpassed the passing grade of the master matrix.

Hamilton said there is a danger in voting down applications that pass master matrix scoring. He said that if the county made a habit of disapproving such applications, the state would take away its right to have a master matrix at all, and that the siting of hog confinements would be even less regulated.

Counties are not required to have master matrix scoring to approve hog confinements, and for those that do, the matrix only applies to confinements with 2,500 or more hogs.

Sandquist said she’d like counties to have more control over hog confinements, which would mean updating the now 20-year-old master matrix law passed by the Iowa Legislature.

“The DNR has final approval [on the confinement],” Sandquist said. “In counties where their supervisors vote no, the DNR can still approve the application. I feel that, in fairness to the farmer, if they meet the criteria of the matrix, they meet the criteria, and I try to base my vote on the facts.”