Rural South Dakota residents frustrated with odors coming from nearby hog farm

Rural residents in Davison County, South Dakota (Wikipedia map) vented their frustrations on Tuesday to the county commission that little has been done to reduce unpleasant odors from a neighborhood hog farm, Evan Hendershot reports for the Grand Forks Herald.

"In June 2014, four of Jackrabbit Farms' neighbors came before the commission to discuss their concerns with the facility's exhaust system that allegedly pumps out a harsh smell," Hendershot writes. "Since that meeting, Jackrabbit Farms officials say it has spent $30,000 on biofilters meant to lessen the intensity of the odor and has applied microbes meant for odor reduction. But resident Marilyn Reimnitz said the odor has not subsided since then. Her husband Lyle Reimnitz told commissioners, "We shouldn't have to live in misery down here. Nobody should have to."

Neighbors, who claim Jackrabbit Farms' biofilter is not up to the standard needed to decrease the odor, brought in experts to back up that claim, Hendershot writes. "Laura Krebsbach, renewable harvest project director with the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, argued on behalf of Jackrabbit Farms' neighbors for the commission to force the facility located in Baker Township to improve its biofilter. Krebsbach claims Pipestone Systems does not want to invest the money needed for an improved biofilter."

"The farm, which was approved by the commission in 2012, houses 5,000 sows and produces about 3,000 piglets each week," Hendershot writes. Pipestone System, which manages the farm, "said it has done all it could to reduce the smell. But the microbe treatment Pipestone applied is expected to take a year to reduce the odor." (Read more)