Published 3:30 pm Tuesday, May 31, 2022
SCIO, Ore. — Oregon regulators have approved a large commercial chicken farm that will raise nearly 3.5 million birds annually in the Mid-Willamette Valley.
The state Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality issued a Confined Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO, permit for J-S Ranch near Scio, Ore., on May 26, allowing it to produce broiler chickens for the poultry company Foster Farms.
Opponents in the community have pushed back against the proposal, raising concerns ranging from the potential for air and water pollution to increased traffic on rural roads. They organized a group called Farmers Against Foster Farms last year, and vowed to continue fighting the project.
Eric Simon, of Brownsville, Ore., will run J-S Ranch. The farm will include 11 barns each measuring 39,120 square feet — or approximately 10 acres under roof — housing up to 580,000 chickens at a time. Six flocks will be raised per year.
No chickens will be slaughtered on site. Instead, Simon said the birds will be sent to Foster Farms’ processing plant in Kelso, Wash.
Simon is a longtime poultry farmer who has contracted to raise chickens for Foster Farms since 2000. He also owns Ideal Ag Supply, a local dairy and poultry equipment company.
Simon purchased the Scio property in July 2020 and submitted his application for a CAFO permit the following month. It was met with concerns from neighbors about the farm’s size, location and how it would handle an estimated 4,500 tons of manure annually.
After nearly two years of public review, Simon said he is happy to have the permit in hand.
“We’re kind of frustrated that it’s taken so long, but we’re pleased that it’s finally getting done,” he said.
The permit is contingent on meeting several conditions.
First, Simon must obtain a stormwater construction permit from DEQ, road access permit from Linn County and water supply plan signed by the Oregon Water Resources Department before breaking ground.
Second, before any chickens arrive the farm must complete a ground compaction study to ensure the poultry barn floors will not allow contaminants to seep into groundwater.
ODA and DEQ are requiring the farm to install and monitor two static wells to ensure that groundwater levels are at least 2 feet below the barn floors. Simon must also provide data from drinking water wells at the farm to ensure groundwater is healthful to drink.
Simon said he is frustrated the agencies crafted “personalized rules” for his ranch, but understands why they are in place.
”It’s something that we’re happy to comply with,” he said.
Farmers Against Foster Farms posted a statement on its Facebook page criticizing ODA for issuing the permit without considering factors such as public health, fire risk or air emissions.
“ODA has never met a CAFO or a CAFO site they didn’t like,” the group wrote. “The reality is J-S Ranch still does not have all of the appropriate permits in order to begin construction. Our community of farmers and ranchers will continue to fight this at every turn in order to protect our land and water from the negative impacts of industrial chicken factories.”
A virtual public hearing for J-S Ranch was held in October 2021. Over the course of the public comment period, ODA and DEQ received 130 written and oral comments, of which 114 were opposed. The scope of the review was limited to potential surface water and groundwater discharges.
Kendra Kimbirauskas, who raises pastured pork, grass-fed beef and goats in Scio, is one of the core organizers of Farmers Against Foster Farms.
She said they remain concerned about ammonia emissions at J-S Ranch, along with groundwater contamination during wet winter months that often leaves fields in the area flooded.
“We do not have a lot of faith that (the agencies’) conditions are going to mitigate pollution,” Kimbirauskas said. “There’s not going to be an impermeable barrier between the chicken litter and the ground.”
Farmers Against Foster Farms is objecting to both the stormwater construction and county road permit, Kimbirauskas said. Increasing semi-trailer traffic along Jefferson-Scio Drive could be “potentially treacherous, if not fatal,” she said.
J-S Ranch is not the only large chicken facility proposed in the area. The Evergreen Ranch in Scio would also raise 4.5 million broiler chickens each year near Thomas Creek, and Hiday Poultry Farms LLC is eyeing a site between Stayton and Aumsville, according to the group.
“Our laws are not set up to protect people from the impacts of these types of operations,” Kimbirauskas said.
Simon has submitted a 56-page Animal Waste Management Plan as part of the CAFO permit that details how the farm will handle manure.
The combination of solid manure and litter will be collected and kept in an 8,400-square-foot storage shed. From there, Simon said the material is sold to other farms as a source of nutrient-rich manure, high in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.
”We have a very good market for our manure,” he said. “With the current fertilizer shortage, our manure is a very hot commodity.”
In response to the controversy, Simon said he has had good relationships with neighbors around his farm in Brownsville and intends to do the same in Scio. He hopes to begin construction about July 1.
Simon emphasized the importance of producing chicken locally to help diversify food sources. Most chickens, he said, are raised in the “chicken belt” from eastern Texas to Delaware.
”Hardly any chicken is grown out here on the West Coast,” he said. “I think it’s important that we don’t rely on one part of the country, or certainly overseas, to produce all our food.”
