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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (March 31, 2021)
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2021 | 3A The future site of a Foster Farm Chicken Ranch outside of Scio. BRIAN HAYES/STATESMAN JOURNAL Chickens Continued from Page 1A “And I totally understand that. I do totally understand that,” said Simon, who owns a similar ranch in Browns- ville. “They bought a place isolated and stuff. I understand. “I was telling Glenda, our nearest fans are going to be 1,200 feet away from her place. The fans we’re going to use most of the time are going to be another 600 feet away. I personally have a very nice place that’s 800 feet away from the fans. My daughter got married in our backyard this summer. It’s very livable to be around. It’s very clean.” Simon plans to start construction on the ranch in May or June, even though there has been no public process so far and neighbors didn't learn of it until weeks ago. Some of the neighbors are concerned about the lack of opportunity for public input, although the Oregon Department of Agriculture says there will be a future public comment period. Other people are concerned about the potential environmental impacts considering the proximity to the North Santiam River. “This whole general area is a bad idea,” Cassandra Schrunk said. “We got Thomas Creek. We’ve got the Santiam. We’re at the main base of the watershed. Let’s just fill that up with chicken farms. It doesn’t seem smart to me. There’s bet- ter places in the world than the Willam- ette Valley.” Neighboring fifth-generation farm In 1951, Harland Eastman purchased a farm between Scio and Jefferson along the banks of the North Santiam River. Harland and his son, Burl, cleared out trees with dynamite to expand the farm closer to the river. “They cleared this river bottom for farmland,” said Christina Eastman, one of four generations of Eastmans to still live on the family farm that borders the proposed chicken ranch. For five generations, the Eastman family has farmed the property. Grass seed is now the major crop produced there. But over the years, they’ve also lost large portions of the land as the North Santiam River has changed course and taken over, despite mitigation attempts including adding rip rap to the river bank. “One time we were down there, it took out a chunk of land the size of a corn truck. Just boom, into the water,” Eastman said. “We had seven fir trees that were going north to south, one by one in the river.” The North Santiam River, which is a habitat for environmentally-threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead and the source of drinking water for cities in- cluding Salem, Stayton and Jefferson, is about 1,400 feet from the proposed chicken ranch. A 2018 report published by the Envi- ronmental Integrity Project, a non-prof- it that advocates for enforcement of en- vironmental laws, found large-scale broiler chicken operations like the one Simon is proposing produce tons of am- monia per year. The Environmental Protection Agen- cy has found ammonia toxicity can lead to the death of aquatic animals in near- by water bodies. "Do you want to come and eat when you’re smelling chicken manure or smelling the ammonia? It’s not nice," said Teresa Anderson, a farmer from Stayton. And Eastman estimates that the river has shifted 3/4 mile southwest towards the property in her 56 years. “Eventually this chicken farm is go- ing to fall into the river,” said Nancy Hanna, who lives on a neighboring farm. “I’m not opposed to Foster Farms raising chickens, but surely there’s a place in eastern Oregon or way out where you’re not sitting on the North Santiam River.” Becoming a chicken rancher In 2000, Simon bought his first chick- en ranch in Brownsville and moved his young family into a house on the proper- ty. It had two barns that dated to the 1950s for poultry raising and he started contracting with Foster Farms to raise 40,000 chickens at a time. Over the years, he built new coops the size of the ones he’s proposing to build in Scio, expanded his operation and started a second business, Ideal Ag Supply, which provides equipment for climate control and ventilation for farm- ers like him. Raising broiler chickens requires constant work, from when they show up as day-old chicks and need 90-degree heat to survive until they are picked up by the processor 45 to 50 days later. In 2019, Oregon had 508 Confined Animal Feeding Operations, an agricul- tural enterprise where animals are raised in a confined situation, like the one Simon is proposing in Scio. Simon said Foster Farms has been losing farmers to retirement and adver- tising for new ranchers in recent years. “It’s very hard and very expensive,” Simon said. “Finally, last year, they kind of sweetened the pot a little more.” Last year, a customer came to Simon and was interested in building a chicken ranch. Simon instructed his children, who are Realtors, to find a location for him. They found the farm on Jefferson- Scio Road, but it didn’t meet his custom- er’s needs for a house and the customer passed. But the site had access to natu- ral gas, electricity and water rights, and it was too good for Simon to let go. “I couldn’t pass up that opportunity because that’s an opportunity for me, it’s an opportunity to display all the lat- est and greatest of what we do,” he said. “There will be stuff on that farm years past stuff we do here.” He closed on the property outside Scio in February, but had started the process of getting the necessary permits and approvals six months earlier. He received a permit from Linn County in February for the buildings. But there was no public process as part of that application because it's for agri- cultural use. “And part of it, too, Oregon law, agri- culture is agriculture and it’s exempt from having to go through the same processes,” said Kendra Kimbirauskas, a Scio farmer. A grass seed farmer had a two-year lease on the land with its previous own- er, but Simon said he negotiated with him so he could develop the land sooner. He said he intends to build a vegeta- tive barrier including trees and grass around the buildings to keep any dust and smell from going onto neighboring properties. gets scary for the horses. I about got my butt dumped off in a stall with a FedEx truck that came through and just scared a colt I was on.” Simon said the property in question came with an easement on the road and that he has applied to Linn County to widen and improve it, including moving a drainage ditch. “They just said we can’t have trucks waiting on the road,” he said. He said there will be times with mul- tiple trucks per day when the chickens arrive as hatchlings and leave 45 to 50 days later fully grown, but the rest of the time there may be one truck per day bringing feed or people coming to buy manure. “The rest of the time will be a very, very small amount,” Simon said. Poultry company keeps up with demand Foster Farms was founded by Max and Verda Foster in 1939 near Modesto, California and remains in the family's ownership 80 years later. Over the years, the West Coast com- pany has grown through acquiring other poultry companies, such as when it ex- panded into the Northwest in 1987 by purchasing Fircrest Farms. Foster Farms spokesperson Ira Brill said the company owns almost all of its ranches in California – where the major- ity of its chickens are grown. In Oregon and Washington, the company con- tracts with growers like Simon. “It sort of was a historical legacy that we inherited when we bought the pro- ducer up there,” Brill said. Demand for chicken has grown over the years, and Foster Farms is one of the major suppliers to supermarkets like Fred Meyer and Safeway. Estimates are more than 90% of meat consumed in the United States is grown in large-scale farms like the ones in which Foster Farms chickens are raised. The chicks raised in northwest farms are hatched at a facility in Oregon City. The feed is processed and distributed from a facility in Aurora and the fully- grown chickens are slaughtered in Kel- so, Washington. “I think the other thing that’s impor- tant to really understand is that the ad- vantage of Foster Farms operating in the Pacific Northwest is the product we raise there, we sell there,” Brill said. Brill said Foster Farms currently has more than 30 contract growers like Si- mon in the Northwest. Brill said the company works closely with contract growers to ensure they are following all state and local regulations in building new operations and regular- ly inspects the facilities, as does a third party, the American Humane Associa- tion, a non-profit that ensures the well- being of animals. Oregon also inspects the operations on a yearly basis. Finally getting a say Ranches like the one Simon is pro- posing require a permit from the state. Oregon Department of Agriculture spokesperson Andrea Cantu-Schomus said Simon’s application will go through a public process, including the release of the draft application and permit to the public, a 35-day public comment pe- riod and a public hearing within 30 days of the notice. But none of that has been scheduled, she said. She said the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Envi- ronmental Quality can then issue a per- mit as proposed, make changes in re- sponse to comments received, or deny the permit. “Protection of water quality on the surface and in the ground is a critical el- ement of the CAFO program and an im- portant and necessary component of approval,” Cantu-Schomus said in an email. Simon estimates 4,500 tons of ma- nure will be produced each year, and he said it will be sold to organic farmers and trucked offsite. He said any manure and wastewater on the site will be con- tained at the property and not be in dan- ger of leaching into the groundwater or running into the North Santiam River. “Our manure is never going to be out- side. It won’t ever be exposed to rain," he said. "It’s either going to be inside the poultry houses or it’s going to go to the manure storage building that will have a concrete floor on it. When the trucks are loaded, they tarp them.” Thus far, the only outreach about the proposed chicken ranch to neighbors is when Simon had a conversation with Glenda and Monty Brooking after buy- ing the land. It didn't leave Glenda satisfied, and she plans to be among those who sub- mit comments to the state. “I’m not happy about the traffic that’s going to be on my road,” she said. “I’m not happy about the smell of the bird poop that goes right beside my house. I’m not happy about the smell, period, if it comes to my house. They’re going to truck truckloads of chicken poop right past my house. That’s a problem.” Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler. LOCAL ADVISORS Being a good neighbor Schrunk is the fourth generation to live on the Eastman family farm, and personifies the farm life. She babysits neighbors' chickens when they go on vacation and takes in bummer – rejected – lambs and raises them. During September’s wildfires, she drove to Lyons with her trailer, helped rescue horses out of burning fields and brought them to her farm. At one point, she had 15 horses at her home and it took weeks until she could figure out who owned which horses. “It pays it forward,” Schrunk said. She currently boards and trains hors- es on her property and has run busi- nesses including childcare out of her home. Her property borders the dirt road that would lead to the proposed facility. The narrow road needs constant maintenance, such as during February’s ice storm when the road was blocked with trees. When potholes form, she and the Brookings pitch in to fill them. “They fly down this road, Amazon does,” Schrunk said. “When they drive by my barn and I train out of that barn, it Salem Area Caitlin Davis CFP® Chip Hutchings www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-585-1464 Lancaster | 503-585-4689 Jeff Davis Tim Sparks FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR Mission | 503-363-0445 Commercial | 503-370-6159 Garry Falor CFP® Tyson Wooters FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-588-5426 South | 503-362-5439 Keizer Area Mario Montiel FINANCIAL ADVISOR Keizer | 503-393-8166 Surrounding Area Bridgette Justis Tim Yount FINANCIAL ADVISOR FINANCIAL ADVISOR Sublimity | 503-769-3180 Silverton | 503-873-2454 Kelly Denney FINANCIAL ADVISOR Dallas | 503-623-2146 OR-GCI0555203-01