PAUL COWLEY
Red Deer Advocate
Approval of a large chicken operation near the Chain Lakes will be reviewed by the Natural Resources Conservation Board.
A one-day hearing will be held in Ponoka on March 24 to review the Jan. 7 approval of Zealand Farms Ltd.’s application to operate two poultry barns and a service building to house 95,000 broiler chickens on a site about 10 kilometres southeast of town.
Five parties judged to be directly affected by the proposed chicken operation requested reviews of the decision, including Ponoka County.
Much of the opposition to the operation centres on its proximity to Chain Lakes. Ponoka County council expressed its dismay that the board approved the chicken operation so close to an area that is expected to draw future residential development.
Allowing an intensive farm operation there only sets the stage for future conflicts between agricultural and residential interests, council believes.
The poultry operation falls within a 1.6-km watershed protection area around the lakes that was established by the county years ago.
The county’s municipal development plan requests that the NRCB not allow new or expanded confined feeding operations within 1.6 km of Chain Lakes.
“In the board’s view, a review is warranted as there is sufficient uncertainty as to the correctness of the approval officer’s interpretation of this provision,” says the decision allowing the review.
The board will decide whether Zealand Farm’s application is consistent with the Ponoka County Municipal Development Plan.
The board will also determine whether it should exercise its authority under the Agricultural Operation Practices Act that frees the board from being bound by the development plan.
Other landowners expressed concern that manure spreading from the operation would threaten the head waters of Chain Lakes, and that the farm would cause air and odour problems. The board says those issues were addressed by the approval officer.
Bernice Edwards of the Friends of the Chain Lakes was pleased to hear the review will happen and hopes the county’s protection area around the lakes will be supported. If this poultry operation is allowed to build in the 1.6-km zone, what is stopping others who want to establish a large farm operation near vulnerable water bodies, she asked.
The Friends of the Chain Lakes, which is in the process of becoming an official society, believes the province should create an Alberta-wide setback between confined feeding operations and important water bodies.
A one-day oral hearing is expected. Affected parties have until March 10 to make a written submission to the board.