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Home My WebLink About972214.tiffTHE its DAILY SENTINEL Lor—sec TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1997 Aug w/ Neighbors hatch plant clean up GrandMesa Eggs By C. PATRICK CLEARY The Daiy Sentinel Oicy L yAmet nit fir, u ate' ,Itisattui 3v s t >0.1414-6e12- > 4, Leda Shoeneman MPS 8672 Roggen CO 80652 8J2Ad /7?owro /O- Dl — �7 Pte f/L; r Residents who surround Grand commissioners earlier this summa Mesa Eggs, 1133 Road 21, turned up but was told that because the 10 the heat enough Monday to hatch some help from the Mesa County Commissioners. _ "This group is not trying to close them down," 20 Road resident Millie Boling said. "We simply want Grand Mesa Eggs to clean up their act." The commissioners, in turn, agreed to help by saying they would send letters to both the Colorado De- partment of Health and the Mesa County Health Department to hold a formal hearing in Grand Junction. Such a hearing would determine who,has oVersight.of the 565.600 06:27 - laying chickens ana 420 tons of 'Ma- nure produced per week. The commissioners also will for- mally ask that ranch officials ap- pear before the county to explain what they are doing and detail plans to add another hen house to the operation. That is a meeting ranch manager Dan Hudgens readily accepts, but one where at least county health of- ficials say not much will happen. "Our hands are tied, unless there is a major change in the state Air Quality Control Act," said Steve De- Feyter, environmental health direc- tor for Mesa County. The ranch was permitted by Mesa County in 1986, with a lone stipula- tion that it must be in continuous operation for seven years before the ranch received title to the land. 'These people are looking for a loophole to apply odor standards," Defeyter said. That won't happen, "unless there is a major change in the state air quality act. (The egg ranch) has a right in rural areas to make a living." Boling was among 134 people who signed a petition asking the commis- sioners to look into Grand Mesa Eggs citing practices they say are unhealthy. The group approached the year -old operation is in an agricul tural zone the county does not have much say in the operation. Th, ranch was lured to the county bi economic -development officials dui ing hard times in the county afte the nil ehal bust avi are a o Road prf sented the commissioners with it formation dating back to 1988 abou complaints of odor, dead chicken and manure. Defeyter said a sewage probler was resolved by constructing a line lagoon. "To my knowledge there are n other violations of any local, count state or federal laws," Hudgens said State officials in 1996 cited th company in connection with violi tions of the Solid Wastes Dispose Sites and Facilities Act for dumpin without a certificate at 20.5 and N. roads. The company has never bee fined, however, for any violations. Hudgens said the company wa told by the state health departmer that a certificate was needed for us of a separate parcel of property. "What I see when I look at it is corporation with little respect fc the law and its neighbors and regi latory agencies that all too ofte look the other way," Cannarell said. PG /iv 7 /2/oqz 972214 Hello