To the editor:

Is there a hog confinement coming to your neighborhood? Don’t laugh, because there very well could be. If not the confinement itself, but the hog manure that will be spread on farm fields from these confinements.

With the construction of Prestige Farms Processing Facility south of Eagle Grove, these confinements are springing up all over our area, with at least 14 to 20 more in the plans for a seven-county radius of this facility.

Two of these proposed confinements are scheduled for construction just a stone’s throw from Duncombe, by Iowa Select Farms and Richard Stark.

These are not your Ma and Pa Kettle family farms with a handful of hogs; they are factory farms with between 5,000 to 8,000 head of hogs, or more, and that equates to the sewage output of a town around the size of Webster City or larger.

This manure will be spread out on fields in our area and others.

As a resident of Duncombe, I am enraged. Why don’t they construct these confinements near their own homes? Did any of us come into their minds when they planned these operations? I am sure their families would love to smell hog manure day and night and fight filthy flies nonstop. It poses a health hazard to our town and all its residents, especially those with allergies and breathing problems. We don’t live in a gated community that offers pampering and shields us from these threats.

Not only is our town going to suffer, there is a real concern with the future of Brushy Creek Lake and the real danger of any spillage polluting that.

We will be held captive in our homes, unable to open windows for fresh air, because there will be no fresh air, and we will be deprived of the enjoyment and use of our own property.

We need to open our eyes to the damage these confinements are doing. And if you think they don’t affect you or never will, think again.

Pat Nelson

Duncombe