Walter Taylor,staff writer

ELIZABETHTOWN — Roast turkey on the table draws happy people together to feast and give thanks. A proposed turkey farm near Dublin drew more than 50 upset neighbors to the Bladen County Board of Health meeting on Tuesday. They were in no mood to celebrate.

Billy Harrelson plans to build four 25,000-square-foot turkey houses on 75 acres near Lyon Landing Road for about 30,000 birds. He did not attend the meeting.

To begin, Health Board Chairman Randy Harris introduced two state government representatives to brief the crowd on poultry farm regulations. Steve Guyton works for the Fayetteville office of the Division of Water Quality.

“In laymen’s terms, poultry farms are not regulated like swine operations,” he said. “We do not regulate them every year, but only as needed.”

Guyton said his division does not inspect new poultry farm sites, responding only to water quality violations. Operators with 30,000 birds or less must only file waste management plans; but they need permits to handle more birds.

Most poultry growers use droppings as fertilizer to grow feed or sell it to other farmers. They cannot apply the litter within 25 feet of streams and must store it at least 100 feet away. To prevent runoff to watersheds they cannot apply litter faster than the soil can absorb it. If stored more than 15 days, growers must cover the litter with a tarp or keep it in a shed. Truckers who haul more than 100 tons of litter a year need permits and are required to document where the cargo goes.

“My office does not get involved unless they violate a water quality standard,” Guyton said.

Smaller poultry farms get a break from state regulators. Don Burke of the Division of Air Quality said “There is very little we can do with poultry farms of under 30,000 birds.”

“Unless the General Assembly acts to firm up the rules, our hands are tied with poultry farms until they cross that 30,000 bird threshold,” he said.

Neighbors of poultry farms sometimes complain of fecal odor mixed with ammonia. In severe odor cases, he said a panel of three to five investigators will visit the site and attempt to judge the stench. He said North Carolina does not recognize results from electronic sniffing devices used by some other states. His division wants to work with farmers to reduce objectionable smells from industrial livestock operations.

“We are trying to find technology that farmers can afford, such as enzymes to break down wastes and charcoal scrubbers,” he said.

Neighbors

After the presentation Harris opened the floor. He offered each speaker three minutes to comment.

Babs Butler spoke first. She and husband Douglas live next door to the site.

“I live about 550 feet from the proposed turkey farm,” she said.

She expressed concerns about poor drainage on the property. She feared stormwater runoff laden with feces would contaminate a neighbor’s fishing pond.

“I walk on this land with my dog every day,” she said. “I have seen huge sink holes where the water does not drain properly. Now, I am not worried about the smell because I know we eat turkeys and must have them. What I worry about is the environment with waste going in the water and on the land.”

Ernest Taylor said he has lived in the area all his life. He dug the canals that drain the property and is keenly aware of soil conditions on the land.

“I am not against turkey farming,” he said. “Billy Harrelson and all of those people are good friends of mine, but I do not feel this situation will be environmentally safe. In my judgment this particular farm is a poor piece of land for this type of operation.”

Jimmy Freeman owns the farm across the road. The lower end of his property is part of the Reedy Meadow swamp which harbors an active beaver colony. Beaver dams inhibit drainage there.

“This land drains on my property,” he said.

He said heavy rains can overwhelm the drainage pattern and flood the highway with up to 10 inches of water. That happened four times during the last two years. He worries about floodwater tainted with turkey waste pouring across his property.

“My concern is that when they put the turkey feces out they have no control over the rain,” he said. “The health board really needs to help and protect us from this.”

Dennis Troy said he lived near the area. He is also worried about health risks.

“The board needs to listen to citizens before something happens,” he said. “We need your support.”

Can’t stop it

When Douglas Butler spoke, he told of calling the CEO of a major poultry operation. When asked, Butler would not name the individual because he feared being sued. According to Butler, this mystery man said ”he could put a poultry farm anywhere he wanted in Bladen County and nobody could stop him.”

“That is enough to make a man mad,” he said. “Nobody wants an ammonia cloud hanging over their house that could be a health risk.”

A new poultry farm would harm property values, he said, and could inhibit economic development.

“If this farm is allowed to go in a man would have to be a fool to buy a house in Bladen County,” he said. “I would like for a small chunk of the power that special interest groups have to be taken away and given back to the people of Bladen County.”

That remark sparked a round of applause and cheers from the room.

A farmer from Carvers Creek, Earl Miller, tried to add some balance to the discussion. He is an agricultural science teacher at the high school in Whiteville, who lived in Raleigh for more than 20 years before moving back to Bladen County. He spoke with concern about the growing human population in North Carolina and how it will affect agriculture in the state.

“We are losing farm land faster than any other state in the nation,” he said. “A farmer has a right to make a living. I own a farm myself, but we have to do it wisely. If a man has enough land to invest in a poultry operation, he should be able to buy enough land to not put it on top of people.”

Ron Taylor, who owns Lu Mil Vineyard, said he has friends on both sides of the turkey farm issue and it was important to him because of that association. Taylor tries to boost tourism in Bladen County. On May 17 he will host an agritourism meeting at the vineyard. Agritourism promotes the concept of making money by inviting tourists to farms for recreational activities such as strawberry picking, wine tasting, hunting or fishing.

“I think it (the turkey farm) will negatively affect my property,” he said. “I am trying to attract things to Bladen County that we can all be proud of. I do believe that right will prevail and my good friends will find another location for their poultry farm.”

Effect on children

Aaron Hester lives near the proposed farm. He returned to Bladen County after serving in the military and living in Fayetteville. Hester likes the country life, he said, and wants a healthy place to raise children. His voice cracked a bit as he spoke with anger.

“I have a 5-year-old little boy,” he said. “If he gets health problems then Billy Harrelson will have health problems and that is the Gospel. I am all for farmers, but farming today is not the same. I did not move back home just to smell turkey (expletive).”

Through it all, Randy Harris calmly listened and took notes until every person who wanted to speak did so.

“None of us would want something like that next to our house,” he said. “Our limitation is to look at health concerns. We need to be proactive and not reactive to this type of situation, so we will research this to find out exactly what we can and cannot do.”

Health Director Wayne Stewart said he will speak to departments in surrounding counties to find out how they handle poultry farms. He cautioned the crowd that state regulations would probably supersede any local ordinance from the board of health.

“We cannot single out a particular operation but have to look at everything in the county,” he said. “If there are genuine health concerns because of a situation, that is something we can deal with.”

After researching poultry farm issues, the Bladen County Board of Health will schedule another public meeting to share findings. This meeting will probably draw another crowd to talk turkey, but not in a festive way.