Judge says permits to Western Kentucky hog farms need to be made stricter

Environmental permits issued for as many as nine Western Kentucky hog farms during the previous governor's administration are invalid, a circuit judge in the state capital of Frankfort ruled yesterday. Several of the farms are already operating under the permits issued during Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration, James Bruggers of the The Courier-Journal reports. Judge Phillip Shepherd's ruling does not force any of the farms to shut down.

Shepherd, who was secretary of the cabinet in 1992-95, wrote that the permits failed to protect waterways and the public from excessive nutrients and pathogens and should have considered toxic air emissions. The judge also ruled the owner of the hogs, Tennessee-based Tosh Farms, must share liability with the farmers. A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear's Energy and Environment Cabinet declined to comment to Bruggers, saying officials were reviewing the ruling.

The permits estimated that the nine farms operating at full capacity of 45,000 hogs would produce as much as 16 million gallons of liquid waste a year that they could then sell as fertilizer. Shepherd said the permits didn't contain specific pathogen controls, despite evidence that pathogens are in hog manure, Bruggers reports. Hank Graddy Jr. one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, told Bruggers that as many as 10 other farms that had been issued similar permits could also be affected by the ruling. (Read more)