March 23, 2001

Pig farm proposal stirs controversy
Council hears concerns stemming from intensive farming bylaw

By Graeme McDonald
Centreville/For The Whig-Standard

ALGONQUIN AND LAKESHORE Catholic District School Board has retained legal counsel to investigate and collect information surrounding Mark Slack's proposal for an intensive pig farm in the village of Erinsville on the shores of Beaver Lake.

St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Erinsville, on the west side of Highway 41 backs onto the proposed farm site and is directly across the road from St. Patrick's elementary school, with approximately 50 pupils.

COMMUNICATION

Dr. Gregory Cosgrove, director of education for the separate school board, said that counsel has not been engaged to take any specific action other then to keep the school board in the "communication loop."

"Our interest is in gathering the information and analyzing it ... For the record, we are not taking a position at this time."

The municipal council of Stone Mills has been taking it on the chin over intensive farming for several months now. Backed into the ropes by concerned citizens on one front and factory farms on the other, the provincial government, as referee, has been nowhere to be seen since the first punch was thrown.

Council is in the unenviable position of trying to address the serious concerns of the community while protecting the right to farm in accordance with the intensive farming bylaw passed last year.

A community action group called Concerned Citizens for our Community Environments has been collecting information and holding meetings to pool resources and present council with an organized front in opposition to the factory hog farm with its designs on Erinsville.

DELEGATION

The group sent another delegation to council this week with a list of position statements and questions. Jill Smith and Robert Scott made a presentation to council touching on subjects ranging from specific technical questions concerning hydro-geological studies to property values and the area economy.

It was noted that many residents of the Erinsville area have listed properties for sale. According to the delegation several prospective buyers pulled out of negotiations after they caught wind of plans for a pig farm.

Several ways in which the economy of the region may be adversely affected were listed for council, such as lower property values and assessment that would generate lower tax revenue, and building projects put on hold, directly impacting on local trades and construction jobs.

Deputy reeve Doug Bearance exemplified council's exasperation with the situation in his response to the presentation: "{Slack}has rights  and if he covers everything in the bylaw, we have to do it."

"I think we are of one mind as to the location. I think it stinks."

The group announced that "as a community" it is prepared to secure legal counsel but it needs to know who is backing the farm before any law firm could be retained with certainty that there would be no conflict of interest with the people backing the Slack family.

Robert Scott provided council with an information package, including regional geology maps and information highlighting common terms of reference for a complete hydro-geological study.

Scott stated that the engineer responsible for drafting the hydro-geological study for Mark Slack stated that it was Slack who determined the study's parameters. He also confirmed that  rock coring had not been completed nor monitoring wells installed, even though he had recommended to Slack that these tests be part of the study.

BYLAW

To comply with the township's intensive farming bylaw, the applicant must own 40% on the total land required to spread the operator's manure. This 40 percent must be "tillable" land. Slack plans to use 40 hectares he owns in Tyendinaga Township to fulfil this requirement.

During her presentation to council, Smith questioned how tillable this land actually is. She cited anecdotal information that the Tyendinaga land is "grown up with brush and prickly ask and you could not drive a tractor there."