HomeMy WebLinkAbout20040803.tiff ORIGINAL
FEMALE VOICE 1 : [testing and crosstalk]
MICHAEL MILLER: The request is a site-specific
development plan and special review permit for a business
permitted as a use by right or an accessory use in the
industrial zoning district . An Agricultural Truck
Terminal and Wash in the Ag zone district . Locations
north of and adjacent to State Highway 263, 1/4 Mile West
of 49. I would ask all the board remembers to recognize
that we do have a court reporter present on this case,
so, we need to speak one at a time so that she can get
all the, this on the record. All persons who are going
to speak to this case you need to give us your name,
address and spell your name please . Sherri .
SHERRI LOCKMAN: Good afternoon, Sherri Lockman,
Department of Planning Services, Hartland Reserve has
applied for a site-specific development plan, Special
Review Permit for business permitted as a use by right
for intent to use as a Commercial Zone District,
specifically an Agricultural Truck Terminal and Wash.
This item after the Planning Commission Hearing was spoke
to January 23, 2004 by Planning Staff. Site is located
north of and adjacent to Highway 263 1/4 Mile West of
County Line 49 . The City of Greeley and The Town of
Kersey are with-in the three mile referral area. Vacant
farm ground is directly adjacent to the site on the west .
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The Weld County Airport is within 1/2 mile. Vacant farm
ground is directly adjacent to the site on the north with
Griffin Holder Onion Produce facility within 1/2 mile. On
the south and east sides adjacent to the property is the
Murata onion storage facility. Beyond the Onion storage
facility on the east side is vacant farm ground. 1/4 mile
east of the site there lies a feedlot that is permitted
for 59, 000 head of cattle by SUP 163 and SUP 160.
Directly south of the site, there is one single-family
residence and Colorado Department of Transportation
Facility. Also over [background noise] [unintelligible] .
This is Murata Facility that is actually surrounded on
two sides. Much of the information we received is
regarding that [unintelligible]. To the top is another,
an historic [unintelligible] I believe it' s the Holder
[unintelligible] . This is along here is the 59, 000 head
feed lot.
MICHAEL MILLER: Sherri does that number encompass
both feedlots that are there?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: I believe one is for 35 and the
other is the remainder.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay.
SHERRI LOCKMAN: This is looking from the access to
the west.
MICHAEL MILLER: Could you flip those lights off
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there please, right behind you? Thank you.
SHERRI LOCKMAN: Thank you, I have this, this is
taken with a telescopic lens, it ' s not that close, this
is 1/2 mile away and the storage facility, which is the
Griffin-Holder. This is the C- [unintelligible] facility.
There is an existing home; you can' t see it from this .
This will give you an idea where they are located,
adjacent to the airport . We have received letters from
multiple [unintelligible] storage facilities and produce
facilities, there were letters from Lipp' s [phonetic]
Produce, this is the other truck was from Duggan' s . Mr.
Duggan owns that . Then Murata ' s and this is not one, but
there is the other storage facility and there ' s the
feedlot right there.
STEVEN MOKRAY: Sherri, when I went out there, does
that site include a building on it?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: For the chase hearing, no, no
there ' s not.
STEVEN MOKRAY: It ' s adjacent to the building.
SHERRI LOCKMAN: That ' s the Murata Onion Shed, which
is, let ' s see, completely surrounded, which is this one?
STEVEN MOKRAY: Yeah.
SHERRI LOCKMAN: That ' s the adjacent property.
STEVEN MOKRAY: Is there words to that?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: It kind of shows up there .
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STEVEN MOKRAY: The reason I asked that was because
there was no identification there. I knew I was in the
proximity, but I didn' t know where.
SHERRI LOCKMAN: Yeah, it is hard to tell out there.
15 referral agencies reviewed this case, ten responded
favorably or include conditions that have been addressed
in standards and conditions of approval . The Ridley-Well
Airport Authority voiced concerns regarding the possible
odors from the site and referral response from Dr. Howard
Schwartz, professor at Plant Pathology at Connor State
University. Dr. Schwartz stated concerns with the
increased humidity in the holding pods, increasing of
storage rot problems in the adjacent onion shed. He - also
stated concerns with the possibility of onions absorbing
airborne odors that could affect the quality of the
product. FEMA referrals suggest that the
[unintelligible] the manure specialist at Colorado State
University, Miss Davis indicates that there appears a
potential for reduction in quality of the onion storage
shed. We have received thirteen submittals from Sharing
Property Owners that have been supporting the denial or
requesting denial, there would be two others in support .
This has been a very difficult case for county staff to
review. Issues regarding the contamination of vegetables
have been discussed at length; however, we have been
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unable to locate anyone who is willing to say that they
are an expert in the case. Further, the referral
responses indicate that there is potential damage to
quality of stored items; they did not say that there
would be a health concern, but that it would absolutely
be a problem. County staff also questioned why if the
onion storage facilities in the area have such great
concern for manure an fecal dust smell, why did they put
the facilities within 1/4 to 1/2 mile to a 59, 000 head feed
lot. The Weld County Department of Planning Services is
recommending approval on Case 1441 . Now having said
that, I do want the planning commission to know that we
do have major concerns with the issues being brought up
by surrounding property owners . County staff as well as
the applicant and owners of the onion facilities have
been diligent in efforts to locate studies to ascertain
if their fears are justified. Little was discovered that
directly relate to this case . The commissions have been
handed copies of updated staff comments, changes in the
flow are bold and underlined. You have also been getting
additional letters that information that has been
received, along with the [unintelligible] some additional
Environmental Assessment Evaluation
and the gentleman' s resume. At this time, I believe Char
Davis of the Weld County Department of Public Health has
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some comments and then we would be happy to answer any
questions that you have.
MICHAEL MILLER: Char. Can you turn the light back
on please? We ' ll take questions, so hang in there .
CHAR DAVIS : Good afternoon, Char Davis, Weld County
Health Department . I 'd like to, this has been an
application that I 've looked in quite a bit, I 'd like to
just give you some insight into what I 've done .
Basically, my capacity as a public health specialist is,
I 'm assigned the task of sifting out the issues directly
raised with concerns to public health. After numerous
hours investing the compatibility of the livestock/truck
wash, operation and onion storage facility I found the
most relevant to this application was a concentrated
animal facility in close proximity to an edible crop
production. When the study was concluded, no known
evidence of food borne pathogenics or human illnesses
were definitely linked to the situation. Survival of
pathogens, with resulting contamination of stored onions
should be considered a concern, but is not a known fact .
Odor and insect infestations also are a possibility under
the right conditions . However, if the applicant follows
appropriate operating methods and conditions and
development standards are recommended, that are
recommended by staff, these issues should be curtailed.
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In closing, based n my educational background, studies
available in regards to this application, this is not, in
my opinion, considered a viable public health concern.
MICHAEL MILLER: Thank you. Any questions for
Sherri or Char, Steve?
STEVEN MOKRAY: Sherri, where was the storage for
'- the onions located at?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: This is the Murata and this one up
here, we also got letters from the Village Produce, which
is down, you can see where it, right there, right there
and over here.
STEVEN MOKRAY: Okay.
MICHAEL MILLER: Bryant.
BRYANT GIMLIN: Sherri . There was a, well, there ' s,
I have trouble trying to pin down exactly how intense the
usage would be because the application listed one number
of trucks, the staff comments other and then there was
some referral letters that listed others . From staff ' s
standpoint, have you been able to pin down what that
usage is going to be, how many trucks will be washed on a
daily basis, how many will be dispatched from there,
etc. ?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: Well, if approved as staff has
recommended, they are limited to washing ten trailers per
day and they can only park 50 trucks on the lot .
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BRYANT GIMLIN: Okay. So that ' s where staff is as
of today?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: Correct .
BRYANT GIMLIN: Thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: Jim.
JAMES ROHN: At least fifty trucks, these are
cleaned and ready to take animals away, or is that wrap
them, pack them and stack them until they can get them
cleaned the next day?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: Well, this is a truck terminal;
they' re not all there to be washed.
JAMES ROHN: Okay.
SHERRI LOCKMAN: So, I 'm sure it ' ll be in varying
degrees.
JAMES ROHN: All right, thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: John.
JOHN FOLSOM: Is there any liability to the county
if this scenario takes place, this case is approved, and
there is some proof that the operation of this truck wash
— will have a damaging effect on the onions?
LEE MORRISON: When the county acts in a regulatory
fashion then I would say no. This isn' t operated by the
county operations directed; it ' s just permitted, so under
those circumstances, I don' t think the liability, if any,
transfers to the permitting agency.
J-�
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MICHAEL MILLER: Any other questions? Sherri, going
s^N
through the application is appears that we have several
different applicants here . We have Farmland Reserve, we
have this other, we have L. W. Miller, we 've got this
other operation, that I guess is the parent company of
all this? Who is the applicant here, I 'm kind of
confused?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: I think I ' ll have the applicant
representative address how they' re all interrelated.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, any other questions? Seeing
none, will the applicant please come up and give us your
presentation.
LAUREN LIGHT : Good afternoon, Lauren Light with
Aragan Land Professionals, 4311 Highway 66, Longmont,
80504 . Name spelling L-A-U-R-E-N L-I-G-H-T . I 'm going
to address the basics of the land use of the parcel; Tom
Haren will address the waste handling system. We have
with us Janine Baratta, she ' s a certified agronomist, she
also holds a masters in soil science. We also have
Cheryl McCall who works for the Environmental Health
Services at Colorado State University. They' re here to
address the onion issue. You will hear from them later
in our presentation. We also handed out a report from
our PhD in Agricultural Engineering, Mike Venhuizen, he ' s
a specialist on Waste Management, Odor and Ventilation
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and he was previously a professor at Ohio State
University. First, I would like to give you some history
on how this request for a truck terminal and washout
facility has unfolded. Originally, the application was
submitted last July for the truck terminal only due to
the need to get the terminal up and running, we had a
hearing date set for October 7 . Due to the financial
outlay, that L. W. Miller Trucking is spending right now
at Greeley Washout they decided to pursue the truck wash
and terminal together and to continue the October 7
hearing. On November 25, an amendment to the application
to include the truck wash with the terminal was submitted
— to Weld County Planning. A hearing date was set for
February 3, 2004 . About a week before that hearing, we
received a copy of a letter from Murata Farms outlining
their concerns that the washout may have an effect on
their onion storage facility. We requested a continuance
at that time to allow us the opportunity to address their
concerns that was the first we had heard of any problem
between an onion storage facility and a truck washout.
There was also some concern in a letter in your packet
from Greeley Washout about who is actually the applicant
and this will address your question also. The ten acre
USR Site is located on the 56-acre parcel that ' s owned by
Farmland Reserve . Now there is a letter in the packet
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that authorizes this request for the USR from Farmland
Reserve. Our client is Hancock & Associates and Hancock
& Associates represents L. W. Miller Trucking. L. W.
Miller will be leasing the ten acres from Farmland
Reserve to build their facility, our application does
have the correct information and there is also letters in
'— there signed from both Farmland Reserve [unintelligible]
as well as from Hancock & Associates .
MICHAEL MILLER: So L. W. Miller is leasing from
Farmland Reserve .
LAUREN LIGHT: Correct .
MICHAEL MILLER: And whose the intermediary company,
is that the general contractor?
LAUREN LIGHT : Hancock & Associates is representing
— L. W. Miller and we were retained by Hancock &
Associates . This special use is being pursued so that L.
W. Miller Trucking will be able to own their own truck
terminal and washout terminal in Colorado. Economically
they need their own washout . Last year they paid
approximately $129, 000 for truck washing only to Greeley
Washout. Greeley Washout is the only commercial washout
within 115-mile radius of Greeley. Now L. W. Miller
Trucking, they haul nationwide, this is a nationwide
company, they annual haul over 275, 000 head of cattle.
Their headquarters is located in Utah that houses their
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national dispatch center. They also have a truck wash
there and I have a couple overheads here, you also have
pictures in your packets of their existing facility in
Utah. So this is a picture of their building in Utah and
it gives an idea of the type of facility that they run.
Landscaping, we have some landscaping indicated and we ' re
gonna have landscaping similar to what they have. This
gives you an idea of the actual washout facility, we also
have a video that we ' ll show you a little bit later that
will show you a truck actually being washed. It ' s
important to remember that only the inside of the
trailers will be washed outside of these truck bays . As
I stated earlier, Farmland Reserve owns this property,
well they also own and farm the land that ' s to the North
and the west of [unintelligible] facility. The property
to the east is the onion storage building. There is a
residence located south of State Highway 263; it was
purchased by the current owners approximately March of
2002 . The advantage of locating the truck terminal and
the washout on this parcel is that this property is in
the airport overlay zone that means that it should not be
used for residential development. I 'm sure you know that
there is a 20-year master plan for the airport and that
plan recommends against projects that might be
incompatible with the airport and it specifically states,
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such as housing developments . As you can see from the
overhead the property is also closely located to two
existing feed lots, which as was mentioned earlier
contain about 50, 000 head of cattle between the two
facilities . The access to this property is from State
Highway 263 that provides the transportation route
directly to State Highway 85 to the west and to the
ConAgra Plant in Greeley. Regarding referral agency
[unintelligible] there is a concern from the airport
about the potential for odor. The odor from this
facility will be minimal, as there are no animals on
site . The amount of materials is much less than a
livestock facility and there is a waste handling system.
Tom Haren will address this further in his part of the
presentation. Colorado Department of Transportation was
concerned with the number of trucks dispatched from the
site . Only 15 trucks a day, as stated in the
application, will actually enter and leave the site.
Some of the trucks are going to be parked at home or
dispatched from other facilities . The confusion isn' t
with the number of trucks, but it ' s the difference
between dispatching and the actually volume of trucks
actually utilizing the facility. Now it ' s also important
to remember there' s not going to be an increase in truck
traffic, because these trucks already are going to the
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Greeley Washout along highway 263 . So we ' re not
increasing the truck traffic, we ' re just moving the
traffic from the Greeley Washout to this site . This
overhead gives a site layout of the property. The main
terminal building is right there, that will be located on
the front of the property, the truck wash base is right
back there. There will be a wash located inside of the
shop. That ' s the shop, there ' s an internal wash bay.
The internal wash bay that ' s where the cabs and the
outside of the trailers are washed and that will go
through a screening system, that water will be filtered
through the waste management system, Tom Haren will
explain that in a little bit more detail . The shop is
located on the southern part of the building, that ' s
going to be self-contained. There ' s not going to be any
drains in there, any used material is going to be hauled
off by a company contracted to take the materials, such
as Safety Kleen [phonetic] will pick all of that up. As
I mentioned previously there is going to be landscaping
around the building in various locations . As you can
see, from your package, we have been in contact with
North Weld Water District and a tap is available. A
septic system will be constructed to the standards as
indicated by the health department. As far as
consistency with Section 23 . 220 of the Weld County Code,
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you can see from staff' s report as well as from our
application materials that this proposed land use does
[unintelligible] to the code . We agree with staff' s
evaluation of items Al through A7 as outlined in their
report . It appears that the main concern brought up by
the opposition regarding this proposal isn ' t the proposed
land use that ' s being requested, but the concern is the
impact the facility will have on the stored onions
located next to the corn. Now, we did contact Mr. Murata
by phone and offered to help mitigate some of his
concerns by buying the property, relocating the business
to another facility and some kind of filter system to the
existing building, adding a buffer or relocating the
pond. Now the pond was located next to Mr. Murata ' s
building so that it could be gravity fed into the
existing irrigation pond. If it would help ease some of
Mr. Murata ' s concerns, we ' re willing to move the pond to
the west of the irrigation pond and to amend our boundary
to reflect that change if it ' s determined by scientific
data that the current proposed location of the bond would
really affect his operation. We do have two letters in
the packets from farms, which have onion storage
'- facilities next to feedlots; they've not experienced any
problems with odors, pathogens or rot caused by manure or
the feedlots . I 'm certainly not an expert in that area,
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but we do have the two people I Mentioned previously here
today that have done research on the impact that a truck
wash would have on the onion storage facility. It ' s also
important to realize that the letter from Dr. Schwartz of
CSU states that he ' s not an expert in airborne odors .
Dr. Susmill [phonetic] from California states in his
letter that contamination of the onions is not a
certainty but should be addressed. Jessica Davis in her
letter states that she ' s not an expert in air quality.
Now we did provide you with a report from a PhD. That he
is an expert in air quality and you can see that from his
resume which is what he has in that also, you can see his
background. I also passed out a letter from Larry Miller
whose the president of L. W. Miller Trucking Company and
that explains some of the economics that are involved in
this . Mr. Tom Haren will address that letter as well as
explain the waste handling system and address information
provided regarding the onion issue. I ' ll turn over the
rest of the presentation to Mr. Haren at this time.
TOM HAREN: Good Afternoon, Tom Haren, H-A-R-E-N,
Ag. Professionals, 4311 166th Longmont. First thing I 'd
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like to talk about is the design and operation and
terminating of our waste management system. The way the
regulations work on a facility like this, if it was a
private truck wash located on a feedlot it would not fall
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under any of the commercial regulations of the state
Health Department . It would just be allowed to go into
their storm water containment system and be land applied.
But since this is not located on a feedlot, we have to go
through a process calling a Minimal Industrial Discharge
Application, for short, the state calls it a MINDI . But
basically, we actually have a design process, a lot of it
required by the state, a lot of it required for how we
plan to operate . But this is just a schematic. We ' re
gonna take the wash water from the truck wash and the
wash water from the truck wash inside the terminal; it
will go to a collection basin. From this collection
basin, it will go to a dual static stream separator.
We 've been using these separators for about four years on
many new dairy sites; they remove a bout 90+ percent of
suspended solids and about 50-55% of total solids, which
includes your dissolved fraction. This screen, because
of our climate in the winter in Colorado, it ' ll be in a
tin building, it ' ll be in a metal building. It ' ll be
elevated so that we can park a truck under it and the
solids will fall directly into the truck. Then the water
will go to an [unintelligible] separator and then we ' ll
have two options, to either go to the lined pond or go
back into our recycle system for water conservation.
Basically, so we can wash out the large solids with the
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truck and then come in and rinse it out with fresh water,
saving some water. But, then it goes into a lined pond.
Here ' s an existing irrigation pond that ' s been on this
site for a number of years and for our storm water
containment, for our wash water containment we have to
have a lined pond. It ' s gonna be a clay-lined pond that
meets state specifications . Because of the
configuration, location and riffraff that is already in
the irrigation pond, we decided not to retrofit that, but
it actually worked out better. We ' re gonna contain storm
water in this, or excuse me, contain wash water in this
new pond and then during irrigation season when that ' s
available we ' re going to gravity flow into the irrigation
pond, mix it and go out onto some pit. As Lauren stated,
— the pond is located, because it will gravity into the
existing pond and we only have one lift pump in the
system, but if it ' s an option more prevalent for us to
move that, given any scientific data to prove the
necessity to move that, that is not impossible, it just
involves one extra pump. But the MINDI application
doesn ' t regulate just how we designed it, it ' s concerned
about constituents other than manure, such as oil and
grease and that ' s the main component that they' re
concerned about . The, this is again conceptual, if these
are pits and pump systems and also the dual stream
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separator, the main thing that the MINDI application
takes care of is ground water. It ' s a minimal industrial
discharge toward that commuter service or ground water.
We plan to land apply this and that ' s permitted by the
state, but they required monitoring. The monitoring
system in the application is to do soil monitoring and to
sample the wash water every time it ' s applied and to also
monitor all of the wells that currently exist in the
area, all the existing wells that are on the farmland
property surrounding the site. So, it ' s currently not
there, but we plan to put in a low-pressure pivot
irrigation system at approximately these locations . And
that ' s the bulk of our environmental waste management
system. Two things I 'd like to point out, this is not a
lagoon, this is not what you think of with a dairy or
feedlot . We ' re gonna be using a lot of water, compared
to the amount of manure that ' s in the truck trailers, so
this is much more dilute than you may have experienced in
other applications with dairy and feed lots . Second,
with the availability of our land application system and
the fact that the water is more dilute, we plan to keep
the pond volume to a minimum. We are looking at, in our
design criteria, sponsored design to contain the
function. We want to maintain some biological, what ' s
called biological flora in the pond, because it aids in
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digestion and it also, we need to keep water in the pond
to keep the liner integrity so it doesn' t dry out and
crack. Beyond that we plan to keep, number one the pond
de-watered and number two the solids are going to be
collected in a building and they' re gonna go off site .
So, we don' t see that the wash water and the solids
accumulation being a significant issue . But there are
some significant issues I 'd like to talk about. It was a
little perplexing to us, about four days prior to the
hearing, to receive as much information as we have in the
file, not only about the onion storage but also about
competing truck wash. And in the file today you' re going
to hear about, there ' s not another truck wash in Greeley
that ' s needed, issues regarding too much traffic,
environmental contamination that will affect onions in
every way possible and that the impending serious public
health effects for this application. On the first issue
_ regarding the washout and whether it ' s needed or not.
There is the Greeley Washout; it ' s been there for quite
some time . Our client is leasing that facility; it ' s
leased it for a little over two years . Roughly, the same
size ten acres and it ' s got five bays and our application
has five bays . They operate 6 A.M. to 10 P.M. , 7 days a
week, 365 days a year, weather permitting. Now in the
applications and in the submittals from the opposition, a
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number of truck washes that were in a letter from a Mr.
Duggan who represents the Greeley truck wash. In 2002,
there were approximately 1400, in 2003 approximately 1975
trucks per day. In the letter, I believe, that you have
from our client, or trucks per year, which equates to 3 . 9
and 5 . 4 trucks per day respectively. In the letter from
our client, we ' re showing in 2003, 1988 on a six-day at
6. 5 trucks per day. Still well below what we propose,
but I don' t think there ' s any hocus pocus with the number
of trucks if you do the math right. The match I am
concerned about is our client is leasing the Greeley
._ truck wash; it started in 2001 for $3, 500 bucks a month.
$50 a truck. They leased it for five months in 2001 that
added up to $60, 000 to wash their trucks . In 2002, the
lease went up to $4, 000 a month; the truck wash went up
to $55 a month, $125, 600 in 2002 to wash their trucks .
2003, now albeit it the truck numbers have gone up --
[interposing]
MALE VOICE 1 : I just need to make a clarification.
MICHAEL MILLER: Sir, sir, you cannot speak from the
audience, so, you' ll have your chance .
MALE VOICE 1 : Oh.
TOM HAREN: 2003 the truck wash per truck went up to
$65, last year, Larry Miller spent $177, 000 at the
Greeley truck wash. Over 2 1/2 years that ' s $262, 000, the
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lease has increased 12 1/2%; the wash has increased 30% .
Their contract came up in 2002, it was to be renewable,
the Greeley truck wash has not renewed it and it is
currently month-to-month. Our client wants to own their
own facility, obviously because of cost . There has been
discussion about buying the Greeley wash out, but it ' s
the only wash out in town, our client feels that the
price is too high and the facility is outdated, that
facility has quite a history around, and it ' s located
within the town limits of Greeley. Now, from the Duggan
letter that ' s in your packet, representing Greeley wash
out there ' s some speculation about Farmland Reserve the
LDS Farms and non-profit and for profit and so on and so
forth. LDS is just leasing the property with an option
to buy, so we can get the property split off, we want to
get this truck wash on the drawing board and get it
permitted because we ' re spending $15, 000 a month. The
relationship, the LDS Property and this application for
profit, not for profit, whatever that is, I believe is
irrelevant . We ' re obviously doing it for profit or in
this case, we ' re doing it to reduce expenses . Right now
with the Greeley Washout, there ' s one washout 115 miles
away in Yuma and L. W. Miller does use it too. It ' s $45
a truck. That adds up to, if you took the numbers from
2003, that adds up to about a $47, 000 difference in
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prices from using the Yuma washout to the Greeley
Washout . We ' re kind of at the mercy of one truck wash in
Greeley and this hearing has been continued and there ' s a
lot of information in front of you. We are still
getting information at the last minute. We got a very
large packet from, I believe the Murata family last night
at close of business and we received another letter this
morning from Colorado State University that we asked to,
any continuance, including the one we had to weather when
the last bit of information came through cost our client
$15, 000 every month. All we' re asking for is to create a
situation where we ' re on a level playing field with an
existing facility. You know, if you want to clear up the
times of operation, those kinds of things, that have been
submitted in the application and the opposition, opposing
material, let ' s just make it even that we have the hours
of operation similar to the Greeley truck wash, 6 A.M. to
10 P.M. seven days a week, 365 days a year. And
demonstrating the need for the washout, I think I did
that with our financial analysis, that ' s an opinion of
perspective . Obviously, you can see from the letters on
January 27 from the Greeley Washout that the need we ' re
trying to demonstrate for washout in Greeley, another
one, is not as stated totally erroneous and in fact a
falsehood. And the other thing, about Highway 263 being
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inadequate, this is the same highway that the Greeley
truck wash is on. These are the same trucks that are on
the 263 right now, we ' re just moving the facility two
miles down the road. Whether the access is bad or not,
it ' s the same access that the Greeley truck wash has . I
might admit that the Greeley truck wash access is rather
poor. It ' s a single lane bridge across a ditch; the
truck has to take up all of 263 to turn into that
facility. I ' ll kind of leave it at that and move on to
the onion issue. When we look at this, we ' re still
scratching our heads because you've got Bliss Produce,
which is closest to Greeley Washout than our proposed
site . You've got Murata at another facility about 1/2 mile
to the north and then the 50,-000 head of cattle . On
Highways 263, the manure and cattle trucks have been for
years, 130 feet from the road, from the fence line of
those feed yards to the corner of that onion building,
adjacent to our client ' s site is 1300 feet. They' re 160
feet from a five-acre irrigation pond that has been there
historically and about 600 feet from the South Flat
River. So if, if the washout issues that are being
claimed are valid regarding humidity and odor and flies,
then those issues were valid when those onion facilities
were put in place. Truck traffic, flies, humidity with
the irrigation pond and the river, if these same issues
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are valid against this facility now, they were valid when
those onion storage facilities were put into play.
There ' s two main issues regarding onions . The immediate
impact of the onion, of the truck washout on the onion
storage for rot and loss and then there ' s hordes of data
in the file regarding food safety and impending health
issues . I want to address the food safety issues first
and I ' ll make my point why I 'm doing that later. Most
all these reports in the file have been known for years,
it seems that there' s something new going on, but really
there ' s not. Food safety' s been an issue for raw
products and Ag. Products including beef and dairy for
decades . A lot of the information presented is 80s and
90s information and it seems like the case is being
presented to support denial is an- issue having hyper-
sensitized the food safety issue and it eludes that if
_ you support this, you' re gonna make people sick. When in
fact most of the reports that you've gotten, at least the
excerpts that you've gotten, there ' s a lot of excerpts in
this data that' s been left out, they focus on vegetables
like lettuce and hanging fruits not ones in the ground like
carrots, potatoes and onions . Then the selective
excerpts submitted, as late as last night, there was one
that' s the most pertinent. I think the latest one is the
most pertinent . It ' s one from this Trevor Suslow,
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r-.
[phonetic] PhD extension research specialist, food
service quality, University of California, on and on,
it ' s in the file, you can read it . I didn' t see where it
proved their point . It said this needs to be evaluated
carefully, there are a few published studies that
specifically relate to distance and pathogen transfers
and contamination of onions and survival of pathogens of
concern is not a certainty, but it is reasonable cause
for caution. A detailed analysis of the risks would seem
prudent. We ' re gonna show you that we think we've done
that . And if you boil all these reports down, it
basically says, in most of them, CSU supports this, if
you read between the lines . The [unintelligible]
cropping system scale of operation, all the environmental
influences and all the things that take place between
planting that seed, or planting that bulb, and getting it
to the market, this and many other production factors
defy any attempt to develop an encompassing assignment of
microbial risk to commodities or to crop management
practices.
The extent of potential illnesses from contaminated
Produce is more likely to be broad in locations where
large scale animal production is immediately adjacent to
edible crop production not storage facilities . No
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conclusive evidence of food borne pathogens, transfers
or human illness are available that definitively links
the on farm hazards and known outbreaks . All
the current guidance strongly states that raw manure
should not be applied directly to a field. Again, these
reports talk about manure being put right on the crops,
not a pond with dilute water 200 feet away with a
building in between the pond and the onions . But even
then, they say this is most critical when the produce is
typically eaten law, for example salad, leaf vegetables,
herbs, soft fruit and melons . They are in the field but
they are not talking about carrots, beets, potatoes and
onions . And then the final thing in there I think helps,
during production in some post-harvest situations Ag
water may be contaminated by pathogens containing manure
and compost . At this time, animal waste specialists
generally recommend 200 feet of separation. Again, we ' re
talking about stockpiles of manure adjacent to raw
products, where there being produced, not dilute water in
a pond 200 feet away from [unintelligible] building. So,
you know, and we ' re baiting the and selectively, I mean,
my bias is in reviewing this data and I believe you' re
taking that through the appropriate filters from the
components in the opposition. But in spite of that, we
felt that we needed to do something more important, so I
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want to set the food safety issue aside, because it is
not even relevant if we show that the potential impacts
for the pathogens or waste to even get there doesn ' t
exist . The food safety issues become irrelevant . So
what we did is, we went out and found somebody to do a
study, on-site air sampling, not only at the facility and
next to the feed yard, but we got access for them to go
to a private truck wash in Eaton, Colorado and take air
samples while the trucks were being washed. Her name ' s
Cheryl and I 'm gonna let her go through her report, you
do have a copy of it . I ' ll just let her talk for a few
minutes and then I ' ll get back up and finish.
MICHAEL MILLER: Please give us your names and
address and spell your name please .
CHERYL MCCALL: Cheryl McCall, C-H-E-R-Y-L M-C-C-A-
L-L, Colorado State University Environmental Health
Services Department, Room 154, General Services Building,
Fort Collins, CO 80523-6021 . A little bit about my
background. I 'm a
MICHAEL MILLER: Would you speak into the mic
please.
CHERYL MCCALL: Yes . I 'm a Registered Environmental
Health Specialist through the National Environmental
Health Association.
MICHAEL MILLER: Could you speak up.
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[laughter]
CHERYL MCCALL: [unintelligible]
MICHAEL MILLER: You' re real close.
CHERYL MCCALL: I 'm a Registered Environmental
Health Specialist through the National Environmental
Health Association. I 'm also a Certified Food Auditor
through National Food Producers Association, so I 'm a
certified auditor. I do audits of large food production
facilities and I 've been an Environmental Health
— Specialist and with CSU since 1995 . Previous to CSU I
worked for the State of Virginia, in their Health
Department . I was responsible for inspection of all
kinds of food facilities . I worked for the Anchorage
School District in Anchorage Alaska where I was
responsible for the food safety for a program that
produces 20, 000 school lunches a day, so, that ' s a little
bit about my background. I have a Bachelors Degree in
Microbiology. I have completed all the course work for a
Masters in [unintelligible] Microbiology and am part of a
research for that and I 'm working on completing that. I
want to give you a little bit of background information.
There are a variety of methods in which raw produce can
be contaminated with bacteria, viruses or parasites . The
most common mode of contamination is use of dirty water
for irrigation. Other common ways in which produce is
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contaminated by direct application of un-composted manure
from bird or rodent droppings, which might fall into
harvest bins, from contaminated cups or equipment, from
washing the produce with contaminated water, from farm
works with unwashed hands handling the produce. Most
food borne diseases associated with fresh produce involve
items that have undergone some type of minimal non-
thermal processing, following by time and temperature
conditions, which allowed the growth of and survival of
bacteria of pathogens . Normally the exterior of the
produce acts as a barrier to, a physical barrier, and
prevents bacteria from penetrating to the interior and
growing. This is the case with items such as onions and
potatoes . The skin of the onion serves as a physical
barrier. However if that surface barrier is broken,
through rough handling during harvest or if they are cut
in some way then, you know, once that happens then
there ' s a greater risk of bacterial penetration and
growth. But, however, you have to, I think you have to
considered the fact that any food crop grown in soil can
be considered contaminated and must be handled and
prepared for consumption with that in mind. I wanted to
talk a little bit about food borne illness cases
involving onions . At this time I 'm unaware, I 've, I 'm
unaware of any food borne illness outbreaks due to
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consumption of contaminated onions, other than an
outbreak in 2003 of hepatitis A which is a virus
involving contaminated green onions . Green onions are,
of course, different then yellow or white bulb onions in
that people consume both the tops and the bulbs, so. The
way to spot that these onions were contaminated were by
contact with Hepatitis A infected field workers or by
contact with Hepatitis A contaminated water during
irrigation, rinsing or processing. So there, I 'm not
_ aware of any outbreaks associated with yellow or white
onions and that ' s probably because they are handled with
the skins intact . Additionally, onion bulbs have anti-
fungal and anti-bacterial properties . They contains
sulfur compounds and I read and have researched quite a
few different items about onions and according to these
studies, harvest maturity ahs the greatest influence upon
the storability of onions . There is a close relationship
between harvesting and drying and the success of long-
-
term storage. Onion maturity is most important and post
harvest problems such as sprouting bacterial or fungal
rots appear to be related to harvest time, as in too
late, the temperature too high or drying time or too
long, rather than any kind of contamination. So the
condition of the onion at harvest time is critical in
relation to whether or not it ' s affected by disease and
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decay. As to any possible evidence that onions absorb
odor from anything, there ' s no evidence or studies that
have been done to suggestion that any outside odors
affect the flavor or development inside an onion, onion
flavor is dominated by compounds called organic sulfur
compounds . Intact dry bulb onions have little onion
flavor or aroma, as you 've probably noticed if you go to
the grocery store and pick up an onion, there ' s not much
aroma . So, these, the flavor and aroma develop only when
the onion is cut, this activates compounds which undergo
an enzymatic change and then that gives the onion it ' s
characteristic taste and aroma. The other thing that
affects onion flavor is plant genetics and the
environmental conditions under which the onions are
grown. The research that I did, I visited both the site
of the proposed truck wash facility and an existing truck
wash facility. I took samples with an instrument called
an NPBI Air Sampler. This instrument uses a motor and a
fan to draw in a measured amount of air by time and
volume. It pulls it through a sanitized metal plate with
holes and then bacterial or molds are captured on an
auger plate, which is put inside this instrument . Then
these are taken to the lab and incubated at appropriate
time and temperature depending on the media . I used
three different types of media . One was for coliforms,
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one for molds and one for just general types of bacteria.
The medias is all prepared at CSU Environmental Services
and the quality assurance records are available for
^ inspection, if needed. Basically, the results that I
found, there were no, at the site, there were no
coliforms detected, bacteria and mod counts were pretty
much, what you would determine as to be normal for an
agricultural area outside . Then I went to an existing
truck wash facility. I took the same type of air samples
r in several different locations . The first site was ten
feet from the truck wash during a wash, so actually I was
standing close enough to get wet in the spray. This
truck had just been, delivered a load of cattle to the
processing plant . So, they used a stream of high-
^ pressure water to wash it out . Ten feet away from the
truck, we did detect some coliforms and the bacteria
count was actually not much different than the normal
background count . However, thirty feet away fro the
truck wash, during the same wash down period, no
coliforms were detected and the bacteria count was
basically the same as the background count. And then I
did another sample, the same distance away, five minutes
after the end of the wash, so in other words they weren' t
spraying the truck, there were still no coliforms
detected and the bacteria counts were about the same,
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actually the mold count was down, it was a little bit
lower. Immediately afterwards I drove to the other site
and took the same kind of samples there and basically
there wasn't any difference . The only place where any
coliforms were detected was ten feet from the truck wash
during wash down. Like I said before, thirty feet away
there were none detected. In consideration that thirty
feet away from the truck was there were, the background,
the bacterial counts were similar to the background
counts at the onion storage building site, it ' s unlikely
that any bacterial aerosols produced through the wash
procedure will dissipate any further than that away from
the wash bays . In addition, on days when the wind is
blowing from the wash bays toward the onion storage
building, the possibility that any bacterial aerosols
created might be dispersed a farther distance will be
offset by the additional distance to the site, which is a
minimum of 213, and probably a lot farther than that . So
in my opinion, I don' t believe that any bacterial
aerosols from a livestock truck wash facility will reach
the vicinity of the onion storage building. As far as
odor, an odor problem currently exists at the site, even
though there is no truck wash there right now, probably
from the adjacent livestock feed yards . So, I don' t see
that as being a problem. Any questions?
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MICHAEL MILLER: Thank you, any questions? Steve .
STEVEN MOKRAY: In your opinion, while you were
measuring at the truck wash, do you think that ' s similar
to measuring the concentration that would appear in a
pond, in terms of odor and bacteria?
CHERYL MCCALL: Actually the pond would be less
because it is a large volume of water and a small volume
of manure, so it would be a greater dilution factor, so
it would be far less . In addition, normally on the
— surface of a pond there ' s not much of a, there ' s no spray
or aerosol created from that, so I wouldn' t see that as
being a problem at all .
STEVEN MOKRAY: Well, do you see this bacteria
breeding in terms of the heat, the sun outside?
CHERYL MCCALL: No, this type of bacteria is very
susceptible to UV light and drying, so, it has to have
moisture and the right temperature conditions to survive .
STEVEN MOKRAY: And you don't think the odors are
going to increase by being stagnant .
CHERYL MCCALL: No, I don' t believe so because it,
like I said it' s so diluted.
STEVEN MOKRAY: The reason I ask that is because in
my drive down 66, the reflecting ponds there really have
a terrific odor.
CHERYL MCCALL: Yeah, but as I understand those are
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quite a bit different than this pond will be. This pond
won' t have the solids in it, so it will be very dilute .
So it certainly won' t be the same as a pond on a, at a
livestock facility [unintelligible]
STEVEN MOKRAY: Okay.
MICHAEL MILLER: Bryant .
BRYANT GIMLIN: Show my ignorance here. What ' s the
significance of the coliform content, the amount of
coliforms?
CHERYL MCCALL: The coliform, coliform actually are
just a group of bacteria, it ' s an indicator organism.
The reason we test for coliform is because it ' s quick and
easy and cheap to test for them. As to coliform
themselves, not all coliform are cause disease, the ones
that you hear about that cause disease are e-coli,
0157H7, what you hear about in the beef recalls, the food
borne illness outbreaks and stuff like that . But as far
as coliform themselves, they are present in the
environment normally, in the soil, and is normally in the
environment. The only time the only other thing you
might have heard about coliform is of course in drinking
water, the standard for coliform is zero, but, you know,
does that explain?
BRYANT GIMLIN: Yeah, when you measure that, how is
that done, is that done like in parts per million or
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billion or something?
CHERYL MCCALL: Actually the measurement with this
instrument is in colony forming units, which is a colony
on the auger plate, Then it ' s corrected for, there ' s a
correction factor through count for the possibility that
maybe two bacteria come in the same home on the face of
the instrument, they might land in the same place on the
plate. There is a correction factor for that and then a
multiplication factor because it ' s, this measurement is
per cubic meter of air sample, so. So it ' s a measured
time and volume of air, so, that measurement, you know
that ' s how that was done. So in other words, that ' s not,
it ' s not a very significant number to have, to put it
another way, that plate had one bacterial colony on it,
by the time I do the correction factor and the
multiplication factor it ' s ten per cubic meter of air.
That ' s ten feet away from the truck being washed. Thirty
feet away there were none .
BRYANT GIMLIN: That was my next question.
CHERYL MCCALL: Thirty feet away and possibly
closer, it ' s just that I took samples at those two
different distances, ten and thirty feet, so.
BRYANT GIMLIN: In following up to Steven ' s
question, then, as that water evaporated from the pond
would you expect to find an increased amount in that type
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of test?
CHERYL MCCALL: I don' t believe so because I don' t
believe they' ll survive very well, so.
BRYANT GIMLIN: So it would be very, very unusual,
if at all .
CHERYL MCCALL: I wouldn ' t expect, like I said,
that, the water in that pond is going to be very dilute,
the solids are going to be removed. So, without the
solids there to support that, I mean, the solids are what
contain most of the bacteria. Without the solids you' re
not gonna have the concentration of bacteria.
BRYANT GIMLIN: Is there a type of bacteria that
could survive in that pond.
CHERYL MCCALL: Oh yea, there ' s like.
BRYANT GIMLIN: That would be harmful to you, that
could potentially become airborne, put it that way.
CHERYL MCCALL: Oh yeah, but it wouldn' t be anything
different than the dust that ' s blowing around in this
part of the world. So, it ' s not harmful .
BRYANT GIMLIN: Okay, thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: Any other questions for Cheryl.
Okay, thank you, Tom.
TOM HAREN: All right. To finalize my comments, I
have one correction and then I 'd like to address Mr.
Mokray' s and Mr. Gimlin' s questions . But, earlier on I
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said that L. W. Miller is leasing the Greeley Washout,
he' s not leasing the Greeley Washout, he ' s only leasing a
terminal associated with that washout, so I wanted to
clarify that for the record. Second, two things on
Cheryl ' s report, Mr. Gimlin and Mr. Mokray, coliform are
an indicator of fecal contamination, we use them in
ground water wells and a lot of other areas because the
issue we ' re trying to show is whether or not we have a
potential to have manure contamination build. Second, as
far as bacteria and pathogens, they' re transported either
on dust particles or in aerosol, liquid aerosolization,
not evaporation. Do not confuse evaporation with
aerosol, they' re actually not gaseous form water
movement, there ' s not bacteria in them. But liquid
droplets and they can be micro droplets, but not
evaporation [unintelligible] . To address your questions
regarding the, I believe it would probably be dairy' s on
66, any information that was handed out . We 've got
another gentleman that I consult with regularly, this is
somebody who went out and dug up, just for this hearing,
named Mike Venhuizen [phonetic] . I really, instead of
debating all the data that ' s been pulled off the
internet, the stuff Char' s had to wade through and
instead of debating all that again, we went out and we
looked for empirical data . We had Cheryl do tests on the
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site, I called my friend Mike, sent him the file, had him
look at our design, he participated in consulting on this
project . More important than his report or as important
as his report is, you have a copy of his resume and if
you could find that I 'd really like to point out a couple
of things . He ' s got a Bachelors and Masters in Ag.
Engineering from Purdue, but a PhD from Iowa State, that
PhD is in indoor and outdoor air quality and control .
His undergraduates are all, his masters and undergrads
are in Ag. Waste Management Treatment and Control, but he
specializes in indoor and outdoor air quality,
ventilation systems, he ' s known nationwide for
ventilation systems both on hog confinements and all
kinds of agricultural buildings, poultry buildings . He
was on the USDA National Taskforce for Air Quality, but
then if you go on, Mike published five books, three of
them on ventilation. He ' s got 11 bulletins out there,
five on ventilation and manure safety, three journal
articles, 39 proceedings, all on measurements of air
quality and manure management, practical control of
livestock odor, solutions of livestock odors, odor
regulations, ventilation, proper odor management, nine
technical papers, nine design evaluations, several videos
and six awards for his publications . And the reason
that ' s important is all of our research and all of the
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records we 've been working through, there ' s nothing to
support the contention that onions are going to absorb
odor and that we ' re going to cause onions in this
facility to go bad. What we intend to prove to you is
that our impacts are not going to get there to begin
with, so those issues go away. But in Mike ' s assessment,
not only did he talk about the air emissions, he goes
over our waste management design and the loading rates,
which get to your point, Mr. Mokray. And how our
separation system is going to work and the
recommendations on the national standard on how you
design those for odor reduction. He goes through
calculations on humidity based on how much water is in
the pond and how much surface area is on the pond and
weather conditions in Colorado. He talks about the
aerosolization and pathogen transport and bacteria and
also about insect vectors and flies and in his
conclusions he states it ' s unlikely that livestock truck
washing will have significant impact or contribution of
odors or emissions to the local area and adjacent storage
building. It is unlikely that the livestock truck wash
will result in the transmission or transport of bacteria
or pathogens as a result of the truck wash operations for
the local area . It is unlikely that the land application
of the wash water from the truck wash storage pond will
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result in the transport of bacteria or pathogens to the
local area. It is unlikely that the location and
operation of the truck wash and storage pond will affect
the humidity of the air in and around the truck wash. It
is unlikely that the truck wash will negatively impact
ventilation and environmental control function of the
adjacent storage building. And it is unlikely that the
truck wash will result in any change in the potential
insect population in the area surrounding the truck wash
and adjacent building. Those aren ' t just statements,
he ' s got the expertise, but he goes through the
calculations to prove why he has made those statements .
And then we tried to get at the onion odor issue . And in
talking about staff, there ' s no data out there . Even the
CSU onion specialist said hey, there ' s issues with rot
and some things that could be potential . But, he said
he ' s not an onion expert and there ' s no data to support
it. We got with our agronomist on staff and we bought
some onions and you now in my business we also have
access to a considerable amount of manure, not all coming
out of my office, but
MICHAEL MILLER: Does it originate there?
TOM HAREN: There ' s not data out there, we said
what ' s gonna happen if we put onions beside a bucket of
raw, concentrated dairy manure. We did that and Janine
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Baratta, I ' ll let her talk about it real quick, I
actually brought some of the onions with us, and while
far from being research, we did conduct this test to try
to get site specific, relevant data and compared to what
the county health department. I 've seen of the record
and CSU' s experts are saying, this is good as there is
out there on onions being able to absorb odor, because
there is none.
MICHAEL MILLER: If you cold hold on for just a
second. I hate to do it but I need to take a break.
TOM HAREN: Okay.
MICHAEL MILLER: We ' ll take about a five-minute
recess .
— r
[BREAK IN TAPE]
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, we ' ll call this meeting back
to order. Go ahead Tom.
TOM HAREN: I ' ll wrap it up pretty quick since, we
already had to take a break. I left off talking about,
we tried to do our own study to get to this issue of odor
and onions and I ' ll turn it over to our agronomist,
certified crop advisor and [unintelligible] Janine
Baratta. We ' ll show you an appealing overhead.
MICHAEL MILLER: I don ' t know about that .
[laughter]
JANINE BARATTA: Janine Baratta, B-A-R-A-T-T-A, Ag
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Professionals, 4311 Highway 66, [unintelligible] Colorado
80525 . Let me ask, as Tom mentioned, in absence of any
real, good research we just did our own study, quick
study in our office . We conducted it February 24 through
March 1 . What we did was we placed 2 1/2 gallons on
concentrated dairy manure in a 5-gallon bucket,
MICHAEL MILLER: Before you go any further, I
believe, I question the validity of testing these around
sine we don' t have any chain of custody of any of the
stuff, we don' t ' know where they came from or if these
are actually the onions in the box or?
LEE MORRISON: I think I agree they need to
establish that. They are in the process, maybe we should
hold until they've completed their introduction of this .
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay. Go ahead then.
JANINE BARATTA: I can go ahead and describe what we
did with, these were placed inside of a storage unit,
that is adjacent to our office building, it is an
unheated storage area, it is 21 feet by 5 feet wide by 3
feet high. The temperature were monitored at
approximately 3 o' clock, which would be the maximum
temperature outside during the day and the temperatures
within the building varied from 55 degrees to 61 . 3
degrees Fahrenheit . We placed a white and yellow onion
in this open box two inches away form the manure bucket.
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Then we placed another onion about five feet directly
above the bucket to try and capture any volatile
compounds that might arise, some compounds rise, some
sink, so we placed onions in both locations, above and
adjacent to the manure slurry. We also placed three
onions in our office proper. So you ' ll see two boxes,
�- one is marked control and one is marked, adjacent to
manure so that you can compare the differences between
the onions and see . The control onions were placed in
our office, away from the manure and should not have been
affected by any odors and the temperature in the office
was 73 degrees Fahrenheit . That ' s what we did and then
we did a sniff test afterwards and we presented those
here to you, so that you can take a look at that and
judge for yourselves whether you can see a difference in
the onions and smells .
STEVEN MOKRAY: How long did you leave the onions
exposed?
JANINE BARATTA: From February 24 to March 1, so,
six days .
MICHAEL MILLER: John.
JOHN FOLSOM: Did you do a test taste also?
JANINE BARATTA: No, we haven't cut them open, one
of the reasons was, as Cheryl mentioned when you cut them
open you release a whole set of aromas from the onions
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and we were afraid that would mask any potential
difference between the two onions . But we can do that
now?
[laughter]
LEE MORRISON: Well, as long as it ' s relevant, if
you believe it ' s relevant you can put your own weight on
how important this is to your decision.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay,
LEE MORRISON: I ' ll pass this full box and the
second box is the one that was manure exposed.
MICHAEL MILLER: This group should be most qualified
at separating manure from non-manure.
[laughter]
TOM HERAN: Mr. Chairman:
MICHAEL MILLER: Go ahead, Tom.
TOM HERAN: We realize this is far from scientific,
given the [unintelligible] and chain of custody as has
been pointed out. Our intent is to show two things,
number one while this is speculative, this is all that
there is that ' s out there, there is no data on onions
absorbing manure odor. All the experts from CSU and UC
Davis have acknowledged that there ' s no information. So,
we don' t expect you to put the kind of weight on this,
had we done that we would have actually had more
information, scientific data, analysis and more than just
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to pass around the onions to make the point . With that
said, you've had a lot of information thrown at you, both
in the file and today. We apologize if this information
seems late, but continuances are a very important issue
to us. We received our data in the file from the
opposition group about four days prior to the last
hearing and we received some of this on odor, or some of
the additional onion information, as late as last night.
And a letter on that odor might happen although Jessica
Davis is not an expert, we received that this morning.
We felt it was important, both with Cheryl and both with
our onion test and Dr. Mike Venhuizen to try and get some
real information, because these people are experts, we
did it on site, we did it with actual data, we looked at
exactly what ' s going on, now trying to make something
fit. We ' ll just let you judge for yourself. What I 'd
like to point out is all you had to regulate on is what
will happen. You must regulate on what will happen, not
all these things that could happen or what might happen.
We ' re talking about land use, we ' re talking about a land
use that is almost identical to a land use that ' s down
the road. The city of Greeley that ' s been operating
there, the same size, under a lot of the similar
conditions, although it ' s older with older technology,
for years . Same road, same access, same trucks, we
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presented this empirical site-specific data and as the
guy from, consultant from California that was submitted
last night, from UC Davis talks about what' s reasonable
and prudent, we feel we 've done everything to respond
today, to show what is reasonable and prudent, prudent
efforts to address your concerns an the concerns that
were presented in file. So I 'd just like to end up that
our client, L. W. Miller has been in operation for a
number of years, you've seen pictures of his facility,
it' s first rate, it' s well -- kept, it' s well designed, he ' s
been a good neighbor, he' s in the area now, he ' s an
integral part of the business in the neighborhood and he
will continue to be a good neighbor, so, thanks .
._ ..� MICHAEL MILLER: Thank you, any questions for Tom?
John.
JOHN FOLSOM: Mr. Morrison might tell me this is an
inappropriate question, in your opinion will this area
support two truck wash establishments like this?
TOM HAREN: Well, let me answer that in t a
different way,
MICHAEL MILLER: Hold on Tom, let' s get Lee ' s answer
here.
LEE MORRISON: You can ask, but how is that tied to
the criteria?
JOHN FOLSOM: Well, I ' ll tell ya, what I 'm getting
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at and maybe this isn' t appropriate, but we do have a
situation, where people do apply to the county or USI,
etc. , which the possibility is, I 'm not saying it is in
this case, by just a negotiation, in other words, is it,
and obviously there is a lot of money and effort into
this application, but is it just a possibility that
you' ll negotiate with Greeley truck wash?
LEE MORRISON: I don't ' know that ' s relevant at
this, if it fits the criteria and it is ultimately
determined it should be permitted, I, you know, I don' t
think that whether they will a use a different facility
ultimately or not is really relevant to your decision, I
think you have to assume it ' s gonna exist. It is an
extensive proposition to go through the
MICHAEL MILLER: I don' t ' think we need to stick our
nose in what the economics of whether two sites can be
supported or not, if that ' s the case then we ' d have to
review ever subdivision application that came through to
determine if we have enough lots available in the county
and that . I think we ought to keep our nose out of that .
TOM HAREN: I have a different way of answering that
question. Whether this will support, whether the county
can support two commercial truck washes is not the issue,
we ' re not talking two commercial truck washes, our
client ' s facility is for his operations, his trucks, his
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terminal, his dispatching unit and washing out his own
trucks . The question of whose business plan, I agree,
that ' s up to the operator to determine their business
plan will eventually be successful or not . He ' s just
wanting a facility where he can have more than one
option, he ' s stuck right now. He wants his own, he wants
to control his own destiny, his own prices, he wants to,
he wants his own facility for his own trucks, it ' s not
commercial in the sense it ' s supporting two business
plans in a [unintelligible]
MICHAEL MILLER: Any other questions, go ahead.
DOUG OCHSNER: Tom, on the truck wash, will it be
using recycled water that it ' s collecting then reusing
and if so, could that affect the air tests that were done
on the Eaton wash?
TOM HAREN: That ' s a good question. And I ' ll answer
the first part and I ' ll say I 'm not qualified to answer
the second part . We do have it plumb, as you know water
is a precious commodity, we do have it plumbed to use
recycled water in the truck wash. To get out the initial
flush of brick solids, then we ' re gonna use clean water.
Now that ' s gonna be subject to availability of water and
land applying what ' s in the lagoon, we have, our design
includes operating levels in the pond to keep bacterial
flora there for odor control and biological control . So
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within limits of what goes out, yes we plan to recycle.
_ Second question is, using that water, will it increase,
I 'm not qualified to answer that, that would be a guess,
however, I ' ll present a couple of bits of information; in
our file, actually within the file that the opposition
presented, talking about setbacks of 200 feet, we 've got
those kind of setbacks . Cheryl ' s information talked
about, she is out of the water spray, she was in the
water spray at ten feet, she ' s out of the water spray at
thirty feet. Evaporation does not carry pathogens . It ' s
micro-droplets and aerosolization of water. So, how far
is water gonna spray from the truck, I would say however
far that is, you' re subject to in the coliform samples,
if you ' re collecting it where the water falls you might
find fecal contamination, but how far is that? Second
thing is, if you'd like to see a truck being washed, we
have a video of it, we ' re talking about just washing the
inside of the trucks . So, we didn' t show it because our
presentations run longer than expected, but if you would
like to make your own determination of how far that water
goes, we have about three minutes showing the inside of
the truck and then showing the outside of the truck,
showing the wash bay in Salt Lake City and I ' ll leave
that up to the board if they would like to see that.
JOHN FOLSOM: Has any consideration been given, or
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is it practical to have the washout inside a building
rather than out?
TOM HAREN: Yes and no. I 'd answer that in a
different way. We have set aside an area on the flat and
I believe there ' s a condition that goes along with that
regarding a buffer area for a break to be installed
between, on our flank side of the property line, between
the facility and the shed. That is something that we can
work with or have as a condition, I believe it ' s already
there, Sherri?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: I believe it ' s part of their odor
control plan, we ' re not asking them to put in at this
time, but should odor become a problem that is part of
the plan that they have proposed could be put in.
TOM HAREN: We would offer the same thing for the
other mitigating factors [unintelligible]
MICHAEL MILLER: Any other questions? Tom I got a
few for you. The numbers you gave for the number of
washouts that you used Greeley Washout for, you said you
washed out there last year, 1800 times or something like
that and Mr. Duggan' s letter said there were a total of
1900 washouts done there, it sounds like you' re the only
guys using that washout basically, is that accurate or
can you g back over those numbers for me?
TOM HAREN: The only numbers I have are the numbers
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of washouts that L. W. Miller did at the Greeley Washout,
I don ' t know how many washouts the Greeley Washout
facility did above and beyond that.
MICHAEL MILLER: You made the statement that you did
so many out of the total number that were done there.
TOM HAREN: Oh, the statement was, I apologize, if
that was unclear, the statement was, that there ' s a
letter in the file from Ed Duggan whose an attorney
representing the Greeley truck washout that used some
numbers from their operations to represents how many
trucks L. W. Miller had and then L. W. Miller submitted a
letter to the file saying how many trucks it had. They
were both talking about only L. W. Miller ' s trucks .
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay. You've applied for the
ability to park 50 trucks there, it ' s kind of, if I
understood correct, and maybe this number is wrong too,
but, you' re only talking about dispatching 15 a day, is
that correct? I 'm not a rocket scientist but that doesn' t
seem like very good economics to have 50 trucks parked
there and to only dispatch 15 a day and if you' re
dispatching 15 a day, and you' re only allowed to wash
ten, what ' s happening with the other five trucks?
TOM }IAREN: As trucks come in and go out, and I know
you' re familiar with trucking, but for those that aren' t,
on a facility, there is also a maintenance facility here,
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so those parking spaces are not just for semi ' s, trucks
and trailers, but also for trailers, the truck may go
out, but the next day make another haul, bring a trailer
back, that trailer could sit there. So there could be
more spaces or more trailers than actually correspond
with the number of tractors making trips in and out for
many reason, maintenance and washing aside, there may be
trailers that get dropped off, our tractors picks them
up, washes them, while the trucks are out doing something
else. And the other issue is when we have engineering
staff drawing, this did come out with stature view and we
didn' t feel that it was significant enough to change it,
because our concern is trucks in and out. Too many
parking spaces goes to an issue like Lee was talking
about, the amount of gravel, amount of pavement and that
sort of thing, how much L. W. wants to spend.
But we might have engineers getting a little over
zealous on how many lines the draw on our site maps, but
there are more than trucks coming in and out
because there will be just empty trailers sitting there.
Does that help?
MICHAEL MILLER: Well it answers part of it, not,
what about the other five trailers that you' re
dispatching that you can also wash ten a days, you ' re
dispatching fifteen, where are the other five dirty
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trailers going?
TOM HAREN: You' re right . Well, there ' s one
discrepancy in what the staff has versus what we have in
the application. The staff put in the conditions, ten
trailers, our application says approximately ten, so if
we ' re gonna cap that, and say exactly ten or no more than
ten, then what we said in our presentation
[unintelligible] to go from ten to fifteen.
MICHAEL MILLER: Sherri, are we putting a limit on
how many trucks are going to be dispatched out of here in
a day?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: We didn ' t say how many trucks
dispatching, we did say that they had to meet seed out
requirements for the amount of trucks going. We did put
a limit on trucks that are going to be able to be parked
there and we did put the limit on ten, they did say
approximately [unintelligible] to exactly ten for the
wash.
MICHAEL MILLER: So they could, within the terms of
the this permit dispatch 50 trucks a day?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: No, they will have to follow what
they put in their application. I think if you want to
grant them some more leeway you can,
MICHAEL MILLER: I don ' t think we have a limit now,
that ' s my point, we . . .
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SHERRI LOCKMAN: I think they put it directly in
their application that fifteen would be dispatched.
LEE MORRISON: You want to address the number of?
— MICHAEL MILLER: Well, we, they've said fifteen
trucks a day, to be dispatched, they've said ten trailers
to be washed out a day, but nowhere in the conditions of
approval or development standards do we say, a maximum of
fifteen trucks a day can be dispatched out of here.
We 've got 50 parking places there, it ' s possible they
could be dispatching 50 trucks a day out of there, I
think that ' s a point that needs to be clarified. That ' s
what I 'm getting at here, we 've got capacity for 50
trucks, why do we have capacity for 50 trucks if we ' re
only dispatching 15 a day?
LEE MORRISON: Yeah, and I, that is something you
could address, I think you may want to take testimony to
get to the end, or get down to the details of the permit
when you address that. I don' t think, it ' s a little bit
hard to enforce, but I don' t think it ' s inappropriate to
consider such a limit .
MICHAEL MILLER: Any of them are going to be tough
to enforce, I mean, how are we going to enforce ten
trailers being washed a day.
BRYANT GIMLIN: I think on the wash issue, you' re
not gonna wash a trailer every time it comes in and out
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of the yard. You know.
MICHAEL MILLER: You should, if it had cattle in it,
don' t you generally wash a trailer every time you carry a
load of cattle around?
TOM HAREN: Actually I had asked your client at the
break about trucks being parked on site and they are not
always, sometimes they will be left in the yard, they
might move them later or wash them on another day. I
think for how many trucks are being washed, we 've given
tow and a half years, both in the oppositions submittals
to the record and ours of what actually gets washed. So
I think that ' s a pretty good record. I 'd be willing, for
public testimony, to go into discussion, should you
approve this on the condition that you come up and draft
something that makes you feel comfortable . I 'd like to
get away from the term dispatch. I know you' re using
the, have some background in trucking, because the Utah
operations and some long haulers can actually have their
trucks at home, I mean, coordination is what I, which is
the dispatch that I think of, will go on for many trucks
all over the country. I want to talk about trucks
leaving the site, in and out, I think what the limiting
factor should be is if we tie into the discussions of
Gloria Idler [phonetic] of C-Dot and what she ' s put in
there as limits and trigger points . We 'd be very
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comfortable with that.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, the last question I have for
you, you'd referred to the new technology in this
application versus the technology in place at the other
truck wash. Unfortunately I had the experience of living
adjacent to that other truck wash and I hope you have
�- some new technology because that truck wash has some
moments of less than stellar performance. What new
technology do you have that ' s gonna make yours smell a
lot better than this place?
TOM HAREN: Well, if I remember right, I believe I,
the history of that facility aside, we ' ll talk about what
I know of the facility now and I am speaking a little out
of context .
MICHAEL MILLER: Speak into the mic a little more,
can barely hear you.
TOM HAREN: The technology that we ' re talking about,
first of all the cost-effectiveness of having a string
system available to this type of facility or any
agricultural facility that is this good didn't exist five
years ago. Second, in Mike Venhuizen ' s report, that ' s
what I was talking about how much water is left and what
the loading rates are, because things are actually sized,
believe it or not, on the total depth, the flow, the
whole lane application system is actually sized to
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maintain certain levels and I ' ll point out Page Three of
Mike Venhuizen' s report, "The natural resource
conservation has established design loading rates" and
this is some new information just in the last three years
I would say, three or four years, "based on the Ag. Waste
management field handbook the Biological Loading Rate of
approximately 4 . 75 pounds of volatile solids per thousand
cubic feet is recommended for adequate biological
treatment. The expected loading rate of the wash water
and treatment lagoon is about 2 . 15 pounds of volatile
solids per thousand feet, per thousand cubic feet . The
NRCS Ag. Waste Handbook designed recommendations for
loading rates both to control odor, these loading rates
should be reduced approximately 50% where odors must be
minimized" . The predicted loading rate for the wash
water pond is about 45% with a designed biological
treatment loading, that wasn' t a coincidence . We
designed it that way. I believe historically facilities,
and again I don' t know, because I haven't been on the
Duggan site or the Greeley Washout site, excuse me, but
older feed lots and dairies included, they dug a hold in
the ground and it didn' t hold all the water they needed
for the time that they needed so they dug another hole in
the ground or made the one they had bigger. This is
designed to do something to design, with recent
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technology for odor control management and we also have
equipment in place that wasn't available a few years ago,
so.
MICHAEL MILLER: Do these, does this collection pond
use aeration?
TOM HAREN: No, it does not and I 'd like to point
out, in Dr. Venhuizen' s report, it also goes to the issue
that Cheryl was pointing out on pathogen transport,
bacterial, that ' s Page Five, bacterial pathogen transport
around Ag. Production facilities is typically due to
either particulate aerosol transport . Any water droplets
or aerosols created by effective of wind current would be
carried, and that kind of thing, but, it goes on to talk
about, "in addition the handling of wash water in the
storage pond is not required" because of the way we
designed it . "does not require the surface to be stirred
or agitated, which could increase the potential for
aerosols to be generated. Therefore the risk of bacteria
and pathogen transport from the storage pond to the local
area is minimized by the treatment characteristics of the
storage pond, the planned handling, collection and
transfer activities that do not involve agitation of the
liquid surface" .
MICHAEL MILLER: So on the one hand at the Greeley
truck wash they' re using aeration to promote the
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bacterial growth to keep the smell down and you' re not
using aeration to accomplish the same thing.
TOM HAREN: And I 'd like to point out, we 've been
through this aeration issue on feedlots and dairies . You
don ' t see it a lot because to do it right, to actually
get enough aeration, like in use at a Wastewater
Treatment Plant, it costs a whole lot of money in energy
costs . You see aeration sometimes being used to help
with a problem, but if it ' s not enough aeration to
actually facilitate treatment of the structure, then all
you ' re doing is volatizing odors . So if the Greeley
Washout facility wasn ' t purposely designed and for
aeration those ponds have to be constructed to a certain
depth, a certain width. A lot of ponds, or a lot of
aeration chambers in the municipal wastewater treatment
plants are circular. If it wasn ' t designed for that and
the loading rate wasn' t included in the calculations to
figure out the aerated volume, most aerators that I
review and get involve with, older systems are inadequate
in volatizing odors .
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, Jim.
JAMES ROHN: I 'm gonna go back to the truck dispatch
thing. Now when you say 15 trucks are being dispatched
out of there a day, that means that they leave go pick up
one load of cattle, take it whatever and come back at the
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end of the day, am I misunderstanding that calculation?
TOM HAREN: Yes, there are trucks that may be
dispatched and not come back for a week. There are
trucks that may have not left that facility that day,
there may be two or three trucks that have been gone for
quite some time that come back on the same day. That ' s
part of the reason why, when you ' re dealing with local
and long haul, getting your hand around, that ' s why I 'm
concerned about the term dispatch, trucks that are called
in and out, aren' t one for one on every single day.
JAMES ROHN: Now, just to make, myself, to make it
clear. The wash part is just a privately owned business,
a private thing for your trucks, my question is, do you
have any idea what the amount of trucks that use the
Greeley Washout are, what kind of use, what percentage
your company uses it?
TOM HAREN: Now I have no idea what the total use of
Greeley Washout is, or what percentage L. W. Miller uses
of the Greeley Washout .
JAMES ROHN: Thank you.
TOM HAREN: I have no idea.
MICHAEL MILLER: Any other questions? Okay, thanks
Tom. At this time we ' ll open this hearing up for public
comment . If you would like to speak either for or
against this application please come up and give us your
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name and address and spell your name please. I would ask
that if there are a lot of you gonna speak that you try
not to be repetitive or we ' ll be here till breakfast .
Come on up. Not everybody at once.
JESUS : Hi Everybody, my name Jesus Perez, J-E-S-U-S
P-E-R-E-Z and I got a property down there 23426 Highway
263 and I never was notified about this truck wash and
finally I hear from somebody else that I was going to
come to the hearing and I said yes . The piece of
property, I got down there, there used to be a truck wash
back in 1990-something, I don' t remember, the health
department shut it down for some reason and I thought
— that this was properly after it was shut down. My
question is, what ' s the difference between back then and
'— today to open the truck wash back there.
MICHAEL MILLER: Well, we don' t have the information
as to why that truck wash was shut down, I do know some
of the history of it, it was not a very well run
operation and it didn ' t meet the standards, so, they were
unable to continue to operate it. The difference would
be that this, if this was approved it would be approved
with standards, they would be required to meet and
maintain or it would be shut down also.
JESUS PEREZ : Okay, that ' s all I had to say.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, any questions .
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JESUS PEREZ : Thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: Thank you.
ELBA JOAN LAUCK: My name is Elba Joan Lauck, Elba
[unintelligible] , middle name Joan, J-O-A-N, last name
Lauck L-A-U-C-K. I reside at 23700 Highway 263, which is
directly to the south of the Murata ' s warehouse. In May
of 2000 a permit request was placed at the county to run
a multi-use septic, that was all complied with and was
signed off with a final inspection and certificate of
occupancy in September of 2001 .
MICHAEL MILLER: Could I get you to speak real loud
for me please?
ELBA JOAN LAUCK: We purchased the land in March of
2002 . We purchased the land to live out there on four
acres and to have solid peace and quiet, we knew there
were feed lots that wasn ' t an issue, but I am concerned
about the number of trucks we ' re talking about, I too
have been acquainted with the Greeley Truck Wash, I used
to work at Bertis [phonetic] Company and I know some of
the issues, but those issues are now affecting my home,
not just the business . You had some questions earlier
about the onion warehouse, there was a question raised
regarding Greeley Truck Wash, can the county support it
[unintelligible] support those two businesses? One
gentlemen said that ' s not a concern, it has well thought
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out planning and zoning. Everybody has a right to live,
everybody has a right to have their business . So, one
incoming business can affect existing business and I
think you need to have a little stronger looking at this,
thank you.
JAMES COULSON: My name is James Coulson, I reside
at 829 E . 3rd Street, Florence, Colorado. I have land at
Weld County Road 62 .
MICHAEL MILLER: Could you spell your name for us
please?
JAMES COULSON: C-O-U-L-S-O-N and I have property at
County Road 62, 222785 is the address . We have, I have a
concern because there ' s a sprinkler system that ' s to the
south east of my property and again I didn' t have any
notice of this hearing, but I think I might be impacted
by it, and the fact that material from the pond would be
putting through the sprinkling system and I have a real
concern with it going through the sprinkling system with
the airborne pathogens . We 've talked about aeration,
that ' s rally aeration when you put that pond water
through a sprinkler. That ' s a major concern for me,
thank you.
MOLLY MURATA: My name is Molly Murata, Murata Farms
LLC, our onion storage warehouse is at 223691 Highway 263
in Greeley.
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MICHAEL MILLER: Can you speak up please? Can you
spell your name please?
MOLLY MURATA: Molly Murata, M-U-R-A-T-A. We at
Murata Farms LLC and the residential houses directly
south and east of the proposed truck terminal washout are
the present residents that will be immediately affected
by the proposal to share highway entrance and adjacent
property with the Murata Farms Onion Warehouse on Highway
263 . The USSR 1441 application, for tractor-trailer
trucks that haul pigs and cattle to include a 5-bay
washout area and wastewater storage lagoon. When the
lagoon is full, the owners plan to use the nearby
irrigation sprinkler to spray the farmland that surrounds
the onion shed on three sides . The exposed sides of the
onion shed include the four large bay doors where we load
and unload the onions, as well as the ventilation window
that opens to let air, to help control humidity and the
heat of onion piles . Murata Farms LLC ' s primarily
concerns are three fold. Onions in storage cannot be
insured. Curing and storing of onion bulbs rely upon
Murata Farms ability to manipulate the temperature and
humidity with the onions and sheds so that conditions do
not favor contamination by or growth of storage rot
organisms, which is bacteria, or fungus that could affect
the marketability and storagabilty of the bulbs . Dr.
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Howard F. Schwartz, professor of plant pathology for CSU
has 20 years of experience working with the onion
industry. He believes that the proposed truck washout
lagoon could increase the average humidity level of the
outside air, thereby impacting the Murata Farms ability
to bring in dry air at critical times to mix with the
more humid area generated by the perspiring onions in the
shed. More humid conditions or condensation of water
from the shed roof onto the onion pile could enhance
storage rot problems . Murata Farms LLC cannot sell
rotten onions . Number two, Dr. Schwartz also contends
that the onion bulb is a live plant organ that absorbs
air and possibly airborne odors that could in tern affect
the quality, flavor, smell, taste of the product, which
in tern could affect the value and acceptability in the
marketplace. Now, the tests that they did, these onions
are stored from September to February, approximately five
months, in an enclosed and heated warehouse, so the
accumulation of the smell will hold inside there.
Murata Farms LLC cannot sell onions that smell like
manure. Number three, according to Dr. Trevor Suslow,
University of California, Vegetable Research and
— Information Center on Post-Harvest Quality and Safety,
speed to shelf, said that there are several published
reports that confirm that plant organisms can absorb air
1^
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and possible airborne pathogens transferred by flies,
blowing manure dust and micro-droplets from wastewater
used in the sprinkler system. Dr. Al Jones from the
University of Arizona, Department of Veterinary Science
and Microbiology and I have his phone number, he said I 'm
a molecular biologist, but based on your description of
the situation it clearly sounds like potential fecal
contamination of the onions is possible if the spray
reaches your facility. Flies, of course, can bring fecal
contamination into an area from a distance and the number
of flies will surely increase once spring starts . There
should be some state regulations concerning how close
fecal waste material/matter can be sprayed next to an
Agricultural Storage Facility. Dr. Al Fields also agrees
with Dr. Suslow, they have communicated by phone and that
Colorado State University has the ability to take the 1-
2% sample of possibly contaminated onions, washed and
tested after contamination. Murata Farms LLC cannot sell
onions that expose the consumers to human pathogens .
Now, according to the Greeley Tribune, Weld County
Consumers are concerned about their food safety and with
good reason. The CDC division of Bacterial and Mitotic
[phonetic] Disease and the National Federal Food Safety
Conference released state, excuse me, that new, more
viral pathogens as well as old pathogens are finding
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their way into immune foods and that we need our
respective strengths, resources and people power, working
together to create the feel of safety for consumers . Now
new technology allows us to get, to test pathogens
[unintelligible] more easily than before . In response to
this threat the US Government created Force G a team of
federal and state food safety experts to respond to
outbreaks quickly. The USDA encourages producers to
adopt voluntarily on farm practices that promote food
safety. The US Food and Drug Administration provides a
booklet that is an evaluation and analysis of preventive
control measures for the control and reduction of micro
biohazards on fresh and fresh cut produce . I gave that
23-page pamphlet to the planning, the planners . This
pamphlet states that it ' s purpose is to identify
production practices that may influence the risk of
degeneration and exposure to the consumer by human
pathogens . These risks apply to the proposed truck
terminal washout if located adjacent to the Murata Farms
onion warehouse. The packet states and I quote "clearly
the risk associated with the purposeful introduction of
pathogen contaminated input, such as inadequately aged
manures, inadequately treated wastewater, inadvertent
contamination such as adjacent land use have been long
recognized. A potential hazards exists for persistent
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pathogen population to be transferred to harvest crops
indirectly through contaminated water, either by direct
cross-contamination by proximity to inadequately
composted animal manure and bio-solids . Those will be
coming in from the trucks that will be entering adjacent
to our onion warehouse. Not the pond, but entering
trucks . Animal manure is often contaminated with human
pathogens . This waste management issue is believed to be
a key contributor to an intimately related potential
source of produce contamination" . That was the EPA that
said this in 2000 . A large number of factors influence
the probability of human pathogens being established on
produce and that scientific evidence suggests that human
pathogens may be transferred to existing adjacent crops
by a variety of physical risks, such as wind, wastewater,
contaminated dust, vermin and insects [unintelligible]
fecal matter. The risk of water pollution and
contamination from waste spills, runoffs, seasonal
flooding and lagoon unintelligible] is increased. Top
officials at a recent national food safety meeting
disclosed preliminary data, which demonstrated the food
borne illness associated with fresh produce in the United
States is related to dominantly, the pathogens of animal
origin. It has long been known that the improper use of
manure can transfer pathogens onto crops resulting in
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human disease. According to the US Food and Drug
Administration, bad bug booklet, c- [unintelligible] is
the leading cause of diarrhea illness in the United
States . The effective dose is small . The bacterial are
—
often carried by health cattle and by flies . Non-
chlorinated water sources such as ponds may also be
sources of the infection. E-coli and salmonella are also
found in that manure . According to the key points of
control management of microbial food safety, I have the
address on the list, outbreaks linked to fresh produce
have occurred and have impacted large numbers of
individuals according many states . Once contaminated,
removing or killing pathogens on produce is very
difficult. Prevention of microbial contamination at all
steps from production to distribution is strongly favored
over treatment to eliminate contamination that may have
occurred. With all vegetables, especially those that may
be consumed without cooking steps, the beset approach to
maintain the wholesome nature for safe consumption and
edible produce is to be aware of the potential risk and
to systematically identify and established practices to
minimize the change of external contamination. In
— summary, Murata Farms LLC cannot sell rotten onions .
Murata Farms LLC cannot sell onions that smell like
manure . Murata Farms LLC cannot sell that have been
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contaminated by human pathogens . According to the Weld
County site specific development plan packet, this
review, special review is designed to protect and promote
the health, safety, convenience and general welfare of
the present and future residents of Weld County. The
proposed truck terminal washout should be denied.
MICHAEL MILLER: Thank you. Hold on a second,
Molly. Jim do you have a question?
JAMES ROHN: No, I have one for Sherri . We are
_ concerned about the temperature and humidity towards
these onions . I was just reviewing a development
standards, there are no conditions regarding the
requirement that the temperature cannot be any higher
than 5% of, five degrees I mean, when anything leaves
that property, do they have anything like that?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: The temperature?
JAMES ROHN: Yeah, or humidity?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: There ' s nothing in there .
MICHAEL MILLER: I don' t think that ' s something we
~ could control .
DOUG OCHSNER: Miss Murata, if you could help me
understand, with all the possible contamination here, the
difference that you see in this truck wash versus all the
possible contamination that could happen by this feed lot
that is very nearby and is driving by with truckloads of
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manure all the time.
MOLLY MURATA: Well, the trucks that are entering
our storage unit, they' re entering right, directly by the
storage unit. Whereas the trucks that are down by the
cattle, going in, that ' s on Road 49, so it doesn' t come
nearby our bay doors, it doesn' t expose the ventilation
windows like the entering trucks will and the spray will .
We are surrounded by three sides, by the spray.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, thank you.
MOLLY MURATA: Thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: Does anyone else care to speak?
BRIAN MURATA: My name is Brian Murata . We have an
onion shed at 23691 Highway 263 in Greeley and --
-
[interposing]
MICHAEL MILLER: Can you spell your name Brian?
BRIAN MURATA: B-R-I-A-N M-U-R-A-T-A.
MICHAEL MILLER: Thank you.
BRIAN MURATA: The prevention of microbial
contamination is, as everybody stated is pretty new
science, it ' s something that, in the food production,
with the new safety standard they want to go from farm to
table and they want you to be more diligent upon what you
do as far as keeping your product safe for the general
public. With technology they weren't able to find some
things that they could find today, over the last couple
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of years . E-coli is very easily detected. The problem
with the feedlots that are existing and when that
building was put in those problems were not thought to be
a problem, at that time. As time warrants, as time goes
on that situation probably won' t be there anymore. You
know, but what we ' re asking is, where we don' t want to
add to the problem. When we put, I did a little study
over the last fifteen years, the high prices of onions
are not even the maximum, but, you know, I took a pretty
good price of onions, over the last 15 years and with the
volume that' s in that shed, I can get somewhere near
about 34, 000 hundredweight per side. And, taking into
consideration about a 10% shrink, 31, 000 hundredweight,
at the price, a pretty high price over the next 15 years,
that comes out to about $1 .2 Million Dollars per side,
which is, at that point that ' s a substantial investment
for me . On average it costs me approximately $12-1400 an
.. acre to raise them and get them to that point, into the
shed. Now that ' s a liability which, I guess, you know,
if approved I will have to stand, if, with the new
sciences, I have to be held accountable to actually prove
it and the ability to actually prove something as
opposed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, or be, or just a
preponderance of what ' s gonna happen, you know, what
you' re asking me to do is, I 've been an established
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business there, but you' re letting somebody potentially
come in next to me and I have to prove that they' re gonna
harm me, as opposed to them proving that they' re not
gonna harm me whatsoever. I understand that technology
and the scare of the E-coli and some other pathogens, you
know, it ' s a difficult situation. It ' s a difficult
situation for you and for me both. I just hope that you
will consider who was there first and deny the proposed
truck-washing terminal .
._ MICHAEL MILLER: Thank you, can I ask you a
question, I, you've been there for how long, storing
onions?
BRIAN MURATA: We built that building approximately
1994-ish.
MICHAEL MILLER: You ' re pretty close to 50, 000 head
of cattle there, has the, has anyone at any time ever
said to you, your onions smell like manure?
BRIAN MURATA: Well, we have a unique situation
there, we have not received that, but I understand
there ' s a produce house north of us that we send our
onions to has had some indication of that, we tried to
get some verification but they backed off on that, the
buyer. But, being a little bit higher than the feedlots
and the river being right there, it generally tends to
flow towards the river and it flows a little bit farther
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north. It doesn ' t creep up the hill as much. Now, at
this point, I haven ' t received any complaints . Now, I, I
do realize that shoulda, coulda woulda, but if we ' re
adding to the situation, I have feed lots on the east and
the, slightly to the north of me, a truck wash very close
to the north and the sprinkler to the west of me, the
situation there seems like it ' s almost a no-win
situation . That building can ' t be used for the purpose
it was intended for .
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, thank you, Steve, hold on a
second Bryant .
STEVEN MOKRAY: Have you ever considered the
possibility of putting in some kind of filtration and
probably de-ionizing or something to that effect to
control your investment?
BRIAN MURATA: We do have ionizers, they ' re called
ozonators . We do have those in our buildings right now.
I did talk to our ventilization specialist, they said we
can try to, the only way that you could filter out that,
into the ventilation system is to build a building
surrounding it that the vents, that would have enough
volume and surface area, because, you know, when the fans
start on, it ' s gonna collect and it has to be fine
enough, screened fine enough to keep out flies,
particles, etc. , but yet once that thing, with the air
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pressure on it, you know, somebody' s gonna have to be out
there cleaning, there ' s gonna have to be a way to clean
that and the surface area needed would almost, would be
so great that, you know, without some kind of a
maintenance to clean that thing continually.
STEVEN MOKRAY: What are you saying, it ' s not
practical?
BRIAN MURATA: That ' s basically what they told me,
it wasn ' t practical or may be even feasible would be
better.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, thank you. Does anyone else
care to speak? Come on up.
ED DUGGAN: I 'm Ed Duggan, D-U-G-G-A-N with Greeley
Washout. My address is box 340 Windsor [unintelligible]
and I have listened to this and he was talking about the
money spent. He doesn' t talk about the terminal money,
he talks about washout money that made me think you
thought all that money went to the washout . $4, 000 a
month went to acreage in town where the terminal is .
MICHAEL MILLER: Speak up a little bit, Ed.
ED DUGGAN: $4, 000 a month of that goes to the rent
on the terminal in town, at 1645 First Avenue. So it is
not, he ' s not spending near as much money on the washout
alone. Plus, $15 of every washout, his drivers hire a
washer, they don' t work for me, they' re self-employed.
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They have to pay cash to them and they' re counting that
as truck wash too which is not right . And an other
thing, why do you need 5 bays for 10 trucks . The one in
Utah has two bays . This could be a commercial washout,
because it says in the application, being owned, or
leased or dispatched trucks, his operation, which I sold
part of it to him, he might be running trucks out of
California, out of Texas on his, they' re hauling for him,
so he could send them out to the washout. You've gotta
have a washout in this part of the area or you' ll have
your streets full of manure, but you don' t ' need 5 bays
to do 10 trucks a day. Whose gonna keep track, the
trucks going in and out, like you say, 50 in parking
spots in and out, I own the Greeley Truck Line, since x85
and we ran as high as 25 trucks there, those trucks come
in and out all day long. Even Whitaker, my dispatcher
over there, [unintelligible] how many times . I don' t
really know because I have my dispatch office in Windsor.
Any questions anybody?
MICHAEL MILLER: Any questions for Ed? No, thank
you.
ED DUGGAN: Thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: Does anyone else care to speak?
Okay, seeing none we ' ll close the public portion of this
hearing. Tom do you care to come up and respond to
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anything that you 've heard?
TOM HAREN: I guess it ' s easier for me to start with
the last bit of public testimony and then work towards
the first, since [unintelligible] . Regarding the money,
whether it ' s spent on the terminal or whether it ' s spent
on the truck wash, money is still spent renting or
leasing and if you've ever rented or leased, versus
owning your own business, or owning your own house,
you' re still paying that money to somebody else . My
client has the capability of having his own facility,
having his own truck wash, that is $48, 000 a year that
he ' s not having to pay for rent . That also goes to
whether or not $15 goes to a washer or not, we ' re talking
about a facility with L. W. Miller' s employees, L. W.
Miller ' s trucks, L. W. Miller ' s washers . He can control
those expenses and better manager his business . I 'm a
little at a loss in what we 've tried to present to you
today. We talked with Brian and Brian' s a very nice guy
and you know what he ' s got to say is important. About
the ability to prove what is and isn ' t gonna happen
versus a preponderance of what could happen. You know,
we 've got a lot of information that was submitted to the
file from internet searches and data sources that
included, you know, huge spectrums of vegetables, huge
spectrums of pathogens and [unintelligible] things like
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that. What was tried to present to you today was proof,
not, Brian has to prove we ' re not going to harm him, or
he ' s gotta prove that we are, we felt that is our
obligation. We hired environmental health specialists,
we conducted on-site tests . We 've designed our system to
show that we ' re not going to have an impact . But, we ' re
flexible, we 've told you early on and we 've told Brian on
the phone that we ' re willing, the pond is located where
it is so we don ' t have to have an extra pump, but we ' re
flexible . If it gives him a comfort level to relocate
the pond we ' re willing to talk about it . We ' re willing
to look at those things as long as it does not slow down
the pace of these proceedings, granting continuances or
us getting to the county commissioners, because as I
said, this is a financial issue to our client. But we
recognize that Brian has concerns for his business and
family as well . So we ' re willing to look at that as long
as it doesn' t impact the schedule, I think we can work
out some reasonable things there. And finally, with
regard to Mr. Duggan' s final comments about what if and
trucks from wherever and, this whole broad picture thing,
I come back to, you gotta regulate on what ' s in that
truck, you regulate on what ' s in that plow you gotta
regulate on what ' s gonna happen, not on what could
happen. Because if we change something, we gotta come
r-.
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81
a.
here for an amended USA, that ' s all there is to it.
That ' s the only comments that I have. Thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: thank you, does anybody have any
questions? John.
JOHN FOLSOM: Just something I thought of, is there
any way that the water in the pond could be treated to
destroy pathogens? Now I know that you 've said that they
are not going to be transmitted to the onion sheds, but,
just in case?
TOM HAREN: Well, what usually happens with the
wastewater treatment systems are two things, chemical
treatment or physical treatment, either ozonation/UV
exposure or chlorination or ph adjustment . For this type
of operations, any of the physical treatments, ozonation
or UV is not practical . Chemical adjustment, the system
isn ' t designed to take that into account, it ' s a whole
land application process and everything would be affected
by the addition of chemicals for that . So that long, all
along I 've talked about maintaining a bacterial flora in
the pond for odor control, but that ' s also a good
bacteria that ' s in the pond, it is going through
digesting and degradation. Also the pond is being
exposed to UV Rays from sun. What I would throw out more
to looking at that, is, I had some notes passed to me, by
Cheryl, on the, looking at some of the food issues and
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82
pathogen issues and even the odor issues and she had some
comments that considering the odor is present now, the
ozone is effective in removing odors, that ' s what they
use in buildings that have been on fire, if you've ever
been around buildings that caught on fire and the carpets
and drapes and everything smells, they bring in ozone .
The other thing is, I believe some filtration and
charcoal filtration goes to the odor issue, but I think
in combination with some flexibility, we 've expressed
that we ' re willing to do, we 've proved that setback
distances and lack of aerosolization and some other
things with locating that we ' re willing to do in working
with Murata ' s, I, you know, I don ' t think chemical
treatment is practical, but we ' re willing to do some
other things and I think we ' ll achieve the same effect.
MICHAEL MILLER: Tom, you said you' re not aerating
the pond, yet you ' re gonna be running this through
sprinklers?
TOM HAREN: Correct.
MICHAEL MILLER: Which is essentially aerosolizing
the water from the pond, so, I don' t think you' re
completely getting away from putting the stuff as
airborne.
TOM HAREN: Well, I would agree to a point .
Aeration and aerosolization are two different things .
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Aeration can create aerosolization but, aeration but, we
would be trying to facilitate a process in the pond.
Albeit, aerosolization can occur in the sprinkler system
we 've accounted for the types of sprinkler we have, and
the drops that we have and the nozzles that we have in
our plan design as far as low pressure and drops . The
other things that we didn ' t get into such as 200 feet,
which is submitted by Mrs . Murata, the location of these
sprinklers within our own property or property controlled
by farmland is situated in such a way that there will be
that 200 feet of setback around our [unintelligible] .
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay, Doug.
DOUG OCHSNER: I guess, so are you saying that the
minimum, or actually, the minimum distance from the
sprinkler to their doors or where they are loading onions
and everything would be around 200 feet.
TOM HAREM: Oh, the minimum distance from the
sprinkler to where they are loading is more than that .
Now, while this is not an exact survey of where things
are going to go, I don' t ' have another, their facility,
my pen won ' t write on this, they are in the middle of
this property right here, this is our side, we 've got the
whole width of our side right here alone from this big
unit there and again, I think, and the 200 feet weren't
out numbers, that was from the researchers or the guy
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from UC Davis who presented in Miss Murata ' s file . Our
information, and what Cheryl presented, she ' s talking
about 30 feet, 50 feet and again the 30 feet on the truck
washout, we ' re standing inside these trucks, albeit we ' re
only washing inside, we ' re also using a high pressure
wash, we ' re talking about sprinkler system. Now, if
you' re thinking about traditional sprinklers systems with
N-guns [phonetic] and we 've all driven down the county
road and been blow out of the wind storms and that ' s not
what we ' re talking about, we ' re not talking about N-guns
and putting this stuff up in the air. So, I think, 200
feet is in their information and our tests that we 've
done actually talk about 30 and 50 feet, I think we ' re
well over 200 and okay at those levels .
MICHAEL MILLER: Steve.
STEVEN MOKRAY: Tom, I think the optimum would be to
put a cover over that pond, I 'm not sure that ' s
practical . One suggestion, I would offer in lieu of that
is that I 've been exposed to Greeley' s waste management
problem that they had down at their disposal plant and
what they've done is they've put up some sprayers around
the perimeter of their disposal area to saturate the air
and kill off the odors . That might be a solution to the
problem and it would help these people.
TOM HAREN: Like I said, we are willing to look at
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some issues and I think there are some things that get to
your concern, short of that type of system or definitely
a cover.
STEVEN MOKRAY: We ' re looking for something to
mitigate this problem.
TOM HAREN: Right . I stated earlier, we ' re wiling
to talk about relocation of the pond and moving some
things around the site to give a broader separation
distance, because, again we ' re talking, we ' re not talking
about dairy sites, we ' re not talking about metro waste
water, and I know Mike you expressed you had some
experiences with, adjacent to truck washes, but I have no
claim to what the design of those facilities were . Mr.
Mokray, other than the amount of water we need to keep in
the bottom of the pond to keep biological activity going
and keep the liner saturated, our intent is to keep this
pond de-watered. We have so much more land application
area than we 're gonna have water, this pond is going to
be not emptied because that dries out the liner, but this
pond is going to be in a de-watered state in all
circumstances except for two. In our state application
we ' re not allowed to land apply on frozen or saturated
ground. Other than that, we can apply at any time, which
our intent if the concentrations are low we ' re not
worried about the agronomics content and [unintelligible]
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content of the water. We plan, there ' s not gonna be
hardly any water in that pond to begin with. I don' t
know if I made that perfect clear in my opening comments
about our waste management system.
STEVEN MOKRAY: I guess my concern is that we ' re
trying to protect another person' s investment and how do
we do that in a practical way.
MICHAEL MILLER: John.
JOHN FOLSOM: Tom can you give us an estimate on
each washout of an individual trailer, the gallonage of
water and the duration of the wash time?
TOM HAREN: The gallonage of water that we plan in
our design is about 3, 000 gallons and the duration of
wash is about 1 hour.
MICHAEL MILLER: Jim.
JAMES ROHN: Can we get a little bit of a detail on
how you came to choose this site as your proposed washout
and dispatch center?
TOM HAREN: I don ' t ' know that I 'm the most
qualified person to tell you about the site selection in
and among itself. One of the people involved in L. W.
Miller ' s business was involved with the Par
[unintelligible] when Mike Serta [phonetic] . He also
leases all of the farmland property. When L. W. Miller
and Mike were talking about doing a facility they
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approached the church about buying property. Because of
situations with recorded exemptions and timelines there
wasn' t a piece of property identified that could be split
off, in addition the church identified property and said
look, you've got good productive farm ground, we 've got
some waste ground, there ' s areas where we can let go and
it won' t have nay impact on the farming operations . This
was one they identified. We ' re leasing it because we
can' t split it off in the current timeline without going
through a TUD to do a recorded exemption, but because of
Murata ' s property with Lot A and an RA off of that farm,
as soon as those timelines go by we plan to do a recorded
exemption and split this off, that ' s another reason that
it ' s adjacent in a corner to a previous Lot A.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay.
JAMES ROHN: Thank you.
MICHAEL MILLER: Any other questions? Okay, thanks
Tom. Sherri do you have anything to add to this, Sherri?
John. Sherri, there was reference in here, I believe a
letter from Gloria Hy Sidler regarding a request for a
traffic study, do you have any idea where that ' s gone or
is that still a requirement?
SHERRI LOCKMAN: I don' t think a study is being
asked for at this point in time, because she did e-mail
me after this .
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MICHAEL MILLER: There was some concern about a
discrepancy between
SHERRI LOCKMAN: Right, and we are asking them to go
r get a permit and meet whatever requirements C-dot does
ask for.
MICHAEL MILLER: Okay.
SHERRI LOCKMAN: But I did have an e-mail beyond
that . I 'm not sure where it is, but it is a condition of
approval that they meet C-dots requirements .
MICHAEL MILLER: Any discussion or, anybody care to
offer their opinion on this, John?
JOHN MOKRAY: I thought we had to address, as far as
the number of, discrepancy between the 10 and the 15, as
far as the number washed and the number of trucks that
were going in and out.
TOM HAREN: I guess it ' s up to us if we want to
place a limit on how many trips in and out, now is the
• time to do that.
JOHN MOKRAY: I wouldn' t have that, would I?
TOM HAREN: Are you? Well, hey -- [interposing]
MICHAEL MILLER: - feeling about it?
[crosstalk]
MICHAEL MILLER: It ' s gonna be a tough thing to
enforce.
JAMES ROHN: Well, a lot of things we do are tough
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things to enforce, but we should be .
MICHAEL MILLER: I think based on the historical
numbers, they' re well below what the limits are right
now, if they were to do 15 a day, so I don' t know that
it ' s really necessary. Jim.
JAMES ROHN: My concern would be that a business
that ' s like this and they are probably going to grow,
would seem to limit the amount of use they could have to
this and restricted greatly.
MICHAEL MILLER: You want to restrict them?
JAMES ROHN: No.
MICHAEL MILLER: Is that what you' re saying?
JAMES ROHN: No, what I 'm saying is, what they've
asked for seems to be restrictive for what a company
their size could be using.
MICHAEL MILLER: Right, I agree . I think there ' s
more concern in limiting the number of washes probably
than there is the number of trips in and out of there per
day.
BRYANT GIMLIN: Ken' s already.
MICHAEL MILLER: The number of trips is number one
is probably an unenforceable, but if you could, right,
— they might have 20 one day andfive the next, I mean,
that ' s the nature of the beast . But I think the, at
least as far as the discussion has gone today, the
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control probably needs to being the number of washes
because that is what goes to the amount of water that is
generated and all the way through the process, whether
it ' s in the pond or it is being land applicated and that
kind of things, so probably.
BRYANT GIMLIN: That ten washes is 30, 000 gallons
over ten hours of washing.
MICHAEL MILLER: Right . Yeah, I think we ' re pretty
well regulated out on that. I don' t think we need to go
any farther if nobody else feels we do. If no other
discussion I will prefer a motion? Actually I guess I
need Tom, have you had an opportunity to review these
development standards and traditions of approval and are
you in agreement with them?
TOM HAREN: Yes sir I am.
[crosstalk]
MICHAEL MILLER: No further discussions or motions,
John.
JOHN MOKRAY: I ' ll move that US1441 be forwarded to
the board of county commissioners, along with the
conditions, developments and our recommendation is for
approval .
MICHAEL MILLER: Do I have a second?
DOUG OCHSNER: I ' ll second.
MICHAEL MILLER: So moved by John, seconded by Doug,
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USR 1441 together with the development standards and
conditions of approval to the county commissioner with
our recommendation for approval, please poll the board.
FEMALE VOICE 1 : Ochsner?
DOUG OCHSNER: I think it ' s a very difficult case, I
mean, I do understand the Murata ' s and their investment
that they have. But I guess I do feel that it ' s been
proven that it won' t affect their business and so I ' ll
vote yes .
FEMALE VOICE 1 : Folsom?
JOHN FOLSOM: Yes .
FEMALE VOICE 1 : Rohn?
JAMES ROHN: Well, I 've been sitting here debating
about this, I look at it and I hate to see anybody lose
money or have to worry about their family income in a
situation like this . I believe that with two feedlots to
the east probably were [unintelligible] a greater harm,
I 'm very reluctant to and would vote no in a minute, but
I 'm gonna have to say yes .
FEMALE VOICE 1 : MOKRAY:
STEVEN MOKRAY: I 'm also concerned about the onion
storage . I 'm not sure we ' re taking all the precautions
that we could to prevent it and therefore I 'm gonna vote
no.
FEMALE VOICE 1 : Gimlin?
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BRYANT GIMLIN: Yes, I think the applicant
demonstrated, at least to my satisfaction that the, were
there is now significant chance of harm to the onion
shed, so yes .
FEMALE VOICE 1 : Miller?
MICHAEL MILLER: Yes with comment. I would
encourage the applicants to, prior to the, taking this to
the county commissioners to have an alternative location
for that pond prepared and ready to present, I 'm not sure
they'd be able to at that point, but I don' t feel it ' s
going to be a significant threat to the onion storage
shed. But, it is a concern, there doesn' t seem to be any
exact science to show either one way or the other. But,
I think the case has been made that there ' s a minimal
- possibility of that . Motion carries . We ' ll take a 5-
minute recess, let everybody get reset.
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CERTIFICATE
I, Terri L. Soboloski certify that the foregoing
transcript of proceedings in the Farmland Reserve
Hearings was prepared using standard electronic
transcription equipment and is a true and accurate
record of the proceedings .
Tape #s : 1-4
Counter #s: 00 . 00 to 47 . 01
00 . 00 to 46 . 55
00 . 00 to 46 .46
00 . 00 to 14 . 30
Signature: (-151A) ,: SI` .
S �
Date: 3/10/04
AGRENnBLANDO COURT REPORTING & VIDEO
DENVER (303) 296-0017 n BOULDER (303) 443-0433 n
COLORADO SPRINGS (719) 635-8328
4311 Highway 66, Suite 4
Longmont, CO 80504
Office (970) 535-9318
Fax: (970) 535-9854
AGPROfessionals, LLC
March 22, 2004
Dear Ms. Sheri Lockman:
In regards to condition l.A of USR-1441 I have attached a drawing of the proposed
signage. The sign will be located on the southeast corner of the property,
approximately 30 feet from State Highway 263 and 15 feet from the edge of the
entrance road.
This information should satisfy condition 1.A so that the case can be scheduled
before the Board of County Commissioners. Please call me if you have any
questions. Thank you.
Sincerely,
jeekt\--Q.An O
Lauren Light
Planner
I 4a
a Pow
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BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' SIGN POSTING
CERTIFICATE
THE LAST DAY TO POST THE SIGN IS MAY 2, 2004 THE SIGN SHALL BE POSTED
ADJACENT TO AND VISIBLE FROM A PUBLICALLY MAINTAINED ROAD RIGHT-OF-WAY.
IN THE EVENT THE PROPERTY BEING CONSIDERED FOR A SPECIAL REVIEW IS NOT
ADJACENT TO A PUBLICALLY MAINTAINED ROAD RIGHT-OF-WAY, THE DEPARTMENT
OF PLANNING SERVICES SHALL POST ONE SIGN IN THE MOST PROMINENT PLACE ON
THE PROPERTY AND POST A SECOND SIGN AT THE POINT AT WHICH THE DRIVEWAY
(ACCESS DRIVE) INTERSECTS A PUBLICALLY MAINTAINED ROAD RIGHT-OF-WAY.
I, SHERI LOCKMAN, HEREBY CERTIFY UNDER PENALTIES OF PERJURY THAT THE SIGN
WAS POSTED ON THE PROPERTY AT LEAST TEN DAYS BEFORE THE BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS HEARING FOR USR-1441 IN THE AGRICULTURAL ZONE DISTRICT.
t•,.;
m
VONEEN MACKLIN ra
Name of Person Posting Sign '
1
Signature of Person Posting Sign
STATE OF COLORADO
) ss.
COUNTY OF WELD 7
The foregoing instrument was subscribed and sworn to me thlaa)`f� day o / , 2004.
WITNESS my hand and official seal.
L� (AAL ) 7(Cil �J
Notary Pubic
,
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BRIAN MURATA
Murata Farms,LLC
22000 W. C.R 62
Greeley, CO 80631
Phone 970-396-8700
Fax 970-353-5715
April 28, 2004
RE: USR-1441 Truck Terminal Washout
Commissioners:
My brother,Gene Murata,and I have gone on record as opposing the truck terminal and washout
proposed adjacent to our property at 23691 Highway 263. Our position was based on the impact this
facility would have on our onion curing and storage operation adjacent to the proposed facility. Since
then we have come to a purchase agreement of our property with L. W. Miller,LLC. We will retract our
objection if L. W.Miller,LLC purchases our property without any contingencies on or before May 21,
2004.
Sincerely,
Brian Murata
b�GrA
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05/10/2004 02: 13 9705359854 AGPRO:LANDPRO PAGE 02/02
4311 Highway 66, Suite 4
Longmont, CO 80504
Office (970) 535-9318
Metro (303) 485-7838
Fax: (970) 535-9854
LANDPROfessionals, LLC
May 10, 2004
To: Weld County Department of Planning Services:
Regarding USR-1441, Hancock and Associates(truck terminal and trailer washout
facility), we have a few items we would like to request As we have to amend the
permit to include the newly purchased 4.68 acre onion storage parcel we would like
to request waiver of submittal fees and to submit only a new site plan and legal
description for an amendment as the land use will not change. As notification has
already been sent to landowners within 500 feet of the existing USR boundary and
the new property is 489 feet in width,there will not be any new property owners to
notify of the land use.
We would also like to request to pre-advertise for the Board of County
Commissioners hearing as well as early release of building permits for the trailer
washout bays, trailer washout office and remodel of the existing building.
This project has been in process for approximately one year and the support of a
streamlined USR amendment and early release of building permits would enable our
clients to start construction without further delays. The purchase of the onion
storage parcel and building has addressed the major concern from adjoining property
owners as well as Weld County and is the reason the USR amendment is required.
Thank you for your help and please call me with any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Lauren Light
Planner
'Were
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