To the editor,
In response to the Herald's editorial board view ("Hog facilities have rights, too"), I agree that the investors wanting to build hog facilities in Pelican Township in Ramsey County have rights.
Their rights, though, do not include environmentally damaging or even increasing the risk of environmental damage to Devils Lake. It takes little research to find many instances across the United States where hog confinement facilities have polluted water and/or fouled the air. I don't doubt the good intentions of the investors but there are many examples proving that even with the best management and engineering plans, accidents happen. The questionable proposed location of the hog facility elevates the risk of environmental damage if an accident does occur.
Odors from the facility (common at hog confinement facilities and worse if certain atmospheric conditions are present) will be moved by prevalent north/northwest/west winds toward Graham's Island State Park, 6 Mile Bay Campground, Bayview Resort, Woodland Resort, the city of Devils Lake, the homeowners and the hundreds of cabin owners that will lie in the path. Staying indoors with closed windows would be the only option to escape the smell of hog waste at certain times if this occurs.
If air pollution isn't bad enough, the increased risk of polluting the water of Devils Lake would be devastating on many levels. On the west side of the proposed location is Pelican Lake and on the east side is 6 Mile Bay. Water flows into the lake from the north end of the Devils Lake Basin through both Pelican Lake and 6 Mile Bay. In effect, they can be thought of as the aortas that give Devils Lake life. A liquid manure spill escaping into either Pelican Lake or 6 Mile Bay has the potential to cause unthinkable damage to aquatic life in Devils Lake.
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While hog facilities have rights, the rest of us also have the fundamental rights of clean water and clean air at Devils Lake. Along with those rights comes the responsibility to ensure that the water and the air at Devils Lake are kept clean. The proposed hog confinement facility in Pelican Lake Township does not support that responsibility.
Karry Kyllo
East Grand Forks
