DaytonDailyNews.com

Megafarm has history of ignoring environmental laws

By Dale Dempsey and Laura A. Bischoff
Dayton Daily News

Robert Bear and his wife Rosella used to host the Bear family reunion each summer. But that was before the Buckeye Egg Farm cranked up its operation across the road from his Wyandot County farm in the mid-1990s.

"In 1998, I had to put plastic over all of the tables to keep the flies off," Rosella said. "We had it one more year, and then we had to quit."

Dan Perkins, 75, said he didn't get to watch his grandsons ride the tractors on his Licking County farm this year.

"They wouldn't come out anymore," said Perkins, whose property borders a Buckeye Egg farm. "This year, the flies were the worst they have ever been. I've put out all kinds of traps and fly strips, thinking I could stop them there, but they covered the garage."

Buckeye Egg, the state's largest egg-producing operation with 115 barns and 14 million chickens, has earned a national reputation — for environmental irresponsibility.

Since Germany native Anton Pohlmann bought 2,300 acres of central Ohio farmland in 1978, the giant egg business has angered neighbors, activists and state officials by repeatedly flouting the state's environmental laws.

Following an April fly outbreak of "Biblical proportions," Attorney General Betty Montgomery called the company "the most recalcitrant corporate polluter" her office has seen.

Litigation involving Buckeye Egg has been nearly nonstop since the state filed its first lawsuit against Pohlmann in 1983. The Croton-based company has been cited for contempt of court nine times for not living up to terms of lawsuits filed by the Ohio attorney general's office.

Yet Buckeye Egg continues to operate and draw nuisance complaints. In October, the U.S. EPA ordered Buckeye Egg to test for dust emissions at three of its egg production facilities. The EPA issued the order because of Buckeye Egg's alleged failure to comply with a January 2001 EPA request.

Susan Studer King of the Ohio Environmental Council said when she talks to environmental groups around Ohio, people assume Buckeye Egg Farm is out of business.

"They are surprised when they find out it's not," she said.

The regulatory noose appears to be tightening, however.

At a press conference in April, Montgomery announced she would seek a court order to jail Pohlmann and shut down his business, while Ohio EPA Director Christopher Jones said he would try to revoke the farms' operating permits.

State regulators won a partial victory in July, when Licking County Common Pleas Court Judge Greg Frost ordered Buckeye Egg to start closing one barn every other week beginning in August. But Frost rejected the state's request to jail Pohlmann, saying there was no proof he personally caused the problems. By that time, Pohlmann had returned to Germany and put his farm up for sale.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture took over regulation of megafarms in August. Environmentalists opposed the change, arguing the department was too close to the farmers it was now supposed to be policing.

But Fred Dailey, the agriculture department director, vowed to continue EPA's efforts to revoke Buckeye Egg's permits. Saying he had "crossed the Rubicon" with Buckeye Egg, Dailey issued a complaint outlining 87 permit violations.

The detailed list included spills, collapsing walls, fish kills, misapplying egg wash and manure to fields, failing to remove manure in a timely manner, piling up dead chickens outside a building, and failing to control manure moisture that created a breeding ground for flies.

In an interview with the Dayton Daily News, Dailey said, "I don't need another Anton Pohlmann. If I get somebody like that, I jeopardize this program."

But a Dailey comment to a National Public Radio interviewer in September caused critics to question the regulator's hard line on Buckeye Egg.

"We've had animal rights activists involved, and some environmental activists that simply want all of these facilities shut down," Dailey said. "My goal is not to shut down Buckeye Egg Farm. My goal is to have it managed responsibly."

The Ohio Environmental Council immediately wrote a letter to Gov. Taft, asking if his administration still planned on shutting down Buckeye Egg.

Dailey has since gone to great lengths to explain the comment, including writing letters to the editor to major newspapers around the state.

"I say it again: The careful due process of revoking Pohlmann's permits continues in our department's scheduling of a legal hearing on the matter," Dailey wrote on Nov. 3. "His farm is up for sale. If there is no buyer, we intend to shut the farm down."

The hearings to revoke and deny permits for Buckeye Egg began Nov. 25 and are scheduled to last through mid-December.

Buckeye Egg is currently being managed in compliance with state regulations, said David Armentrout of Compliance Consulting Association, the Middletown firm that took over the farm's management.

"We've made significant changes in all areas of environmental compliance since we took over in May 2002," he said.

Armentrout said that the company this year has spent in excess of $350,000 on environmental measures. A U.S. EPA order to conduct air samples at three facilities will cost another $500,000, he said.

Jones said he doubts anyone could step in and fix Buckeye Egg's problems.

"From my perspective, I don't see another buyer coming along and stepping into their shoes," he said.

Neighbors like Perkins blame state officials for letting problems go on this long.

"The government agencies just stood by and watched this happen," he said.

[From the Dayton Daily News: 12.04.2002]