LINCOLN, Neb. — A proposed revision to Nebraska’s “proper to farm” regulation, promoted as growing protections for farmers, is being condemned by environmentalists as a solution to remove practically all nuisance lawsuits.
Beneath Legislative Invoice 662, launched Wednesday by State Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln, solely landowners who stay inside a half-mile of agricultural operation, and solely these close by landowners who’ve a majority curiosity of their land, may file nuisance lawsuits towards an ag operation.
As well as, such lawsuits must be filed inside one 12 months, quite than inside two years as within the present regulation. Lawsuits can be disallowed if an operation was using “generally accepted” practices and was in “materials compliance” with relevant legal guidelines and laws.
The Nebraska invoice is considerably much like a proposal in South Dakota, the place Home Invoice 1090 would require {that a} landowner stay inside one mile of an agricultural operation to file a nuisance lawsuit. The South Dakota model would additionally restrict payouts in profitable ag-related nuisance lawsuits to property worth losses.
‘Eviscerates’ nuisance legal guidelines
The Nebraska proposal “eviscerates having nuisance legal guidelines,” in response to Jonathan Leo, an environmental lawyer who lives in Omaha.
“The invoice successfully shuts down virtually all private and non-private nuisance lawsuits towards ‘agricultural operations,’ ” Leo mentioned.
Ballard, who was appointed to his submit in December, disagrees.
“We respect the agricultural producers in our state and wish to shield them to the perfect of our means,” the senator mentioned.
Ballard mentioned the invoice was impressed by issues raised by large-scale rooster farms in his district, which extends into rural Lancaster County north and northwest of Lincoln.
Barns for Costco chickens
Dozens of recent chicken-barn complexes have been constructed in recent times to supply broilers for Costco, that are processed by a plant in Fremont. It has offered an financial enhance to some farmers and created new jobs, but it surely has additionally raised issues about disposal of manure and useless chickens, and runoff into streams.
In 2021, a court docket ruling put a halt to plans to assemble an eight-barn rooster farm holding as much as 380,000 chickens close to Raymond Central Junior-Senior Excessive Faculty over issues about elevated visitors and insufficient groundwater.
Final 12 months, residents close to David Metropolis complained concerning the foul odors and well being issues generated by rows of composted useless chickens, situated inside that metropolis’s wellhead safety space for its consuming water wells.
Air pollution issues
In December, a report instructed that a rise in phosphorous and nitrogen in japanese Nebraska streams may be linked to the brand new rooster farms.
Ballard, nevertheless, mentioned there needs to be extra limits on who can file lawsuits.
“It needs to be solely Nebraskans and neighbors who can file complaints,” he mentioned.
However Leo, a number one critic of Nebraska’s regulation of large-scale livestock operations, mentioned LB 662 would rule out renters or farmers who don’t have a majority stake of their operation from submitting a nuisance lawsuit towards a rooster farm, hog farm or cattle feedlot down the street.
Proper to take pleasure in property
“The entire function of nuisance regulation is to supply aid to property occupiers,” Leo mentioned. “They’ve a proper to the use and quiet enjoyment of their property.”
Leo additionally objected to the clause that barred lawsuits if an operation was materially complying with laws. Operations could be a nuisance, he mentioned, even when they’re assembly authorities requirements.
Edison McDonald of GC Resolve, which helps regenerative agriculture, mentioned the invoice may additionally rule out any native laws towards odor or runoff from ag amenities.
Contamination of waterways, he mentioned, can prolong greater than a half mile, and it may take years earlier than nitrate contamination of groundwater is detected.
In 2019, the same effort to increase protections for farmers and the proper to farm was supported by a number of farm teams. Officers with the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Alliance for the Way forward for Agriculture in Nebraska (AFAN) didn’t return messages left looking for touch upon LB 662 on Friday afternoon.
