Iowa House sends AG nuisance bill to governor

DES MOINES - Legislation that backers say will protect farmers - large and small - from nuisance lawsuits is on its way to the governor.

By a 60-39 vote, the Iowa House on Wednesday approved Senate File 447 to allow for an affirmative defense to be raised in certain cases in which an animal feeding operation is alleged to be a public or private nuisance or to otherwise interfere with a person's comfortable use and enjoyment of life or property, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, explained.

'We raise pigs in Iowa,” he said. 'That's what we do.”

'We also raise a stink as a result of these operations,” Rep. Jerry Kearns, D-Keokuk, responded.

Critics said the bill would reduce local control, provide confined animal livestock operations favorable legal protection and erode the legal rights of rural residents by capping special damages at one-and-a-half times other damages.

However, Baltimore argued the bill would encourage livestock operators 'to act in a responsible manner especially when we are talking about things like water quality.”

Rep. Kristi Hager, R-Waukon, the owner of a rural Allamakee County campground, said SF 447 would protect livestock operations that were there before others moved into rural areas that previously were zoned for agriculture.

'I get that you respect who was there first,” said Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt, D-Cedar Rapids. 'Small Iowa farmers, in their homes, were there first.”

Not all confined livestock operations are 'bad players, but some are,” Running-Marquardt said. 'I'm going to be voting against this bill and for those small farmers.”

The bill will protect those small farmers, said Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, a farmer and environmental consultant. It will protect the '22-year-old who graduated from Iowa State and wants to join the family operation.”

Borrowing $1 million to put up a livestock confinement building is a way for a young farmer to get established, he said.

'They need some protection,” Sexton said.

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