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HOMES needs your help NOW more than ever!
Please click the "Donate" button to contribute to our legal fund.

Your donation is tax deductible as we are a 501 C 3 tax exempt organization.

Or send your support check to:
HOMES, PO Box 674, Warren, IL 61087.
Your support is critical to helping us win a permanent injunction against this factory.

 
Some Points of Appeal from the Original Case:

  • Plaintiffs have standing to seek judicial review of the administrative act of Defendant Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Judge Ward refused to perform a judicial review of decision of the IDOA in granting the permit to construct, saying HOMES and the plaintiffs didn't have legal standing to contest it. Yet if your neighbor sought a permit to construct a building adjacent to your property, you have the right to show up at the zoning department to make sure the new construction doesn't cause damaged to your property. We are asking the appellate court to review this decision.

 

           

  • Refusal of the trial court to take allow, admit, consider, and take judicial notice of public records and reports of the Illinois State Geological Survey was in error.

Judge Ward ignored months of research performed by a team of experienced scientists from the Illinois State Geological Survey who warned that this facility could pollute the wells of surrounding residents. These public officials will not profit by allowing or denying this facility, yet their independent opinions were ignored in favor of the opinion of one highly paid consultant working for the dairy.  We are asking the appellate court to review this decision

 

           

  • Refusal to allow plaintiffs to read defendant A.J. Bos’ sworn answers to interrogatories in evidence as admissions was in error.

Bos, while under oath, gave a detailed description of what would be going on at his dairy; what waste would be produced, how much would be produced, how it would be stored, how long it would be stored, etc.  This description, taken in deposition, was not allowed to be read in court. We are asking the appellate court to review this decision.

 

      

  • Refusal to allow or consider plaintiffs’ rebuttal testimony and evidence was in error.

 

          

  •  Exclusion of plaintiffs’ expert medical testimony and evidence was in error.

Medical experts and researchers who have experience and knowledge about the diseases which affect people near large industrial livestock operations- and have written peer-reviewed articles in regard to this area- gave testimony for the court. Yet Judge Ward determined not to accept this testimony. We are asking the appellate court to review this decision.

 

           

  • Lay opinion testimony and evidence of the plaintiffs was erroneously not considered to be competent to contribute toward overcoming the burden of proof.

     

           

  • Refusal to admit, allow, and consider preliminary injunction testimony and exhibits was in error.

 

           

  • A private right of action under the Livestock Management Facilities Act may be implied; failure of the trial court to admit, allow and consider evidence of statutory and regulatory violations, as well as Plaintiffs’ Constitutional Right to a healthful environment, was in error. 

 The final judgment of the trial court was against the manifest weight of the evidence.

 

 

Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, and Prairie Rivers Network have all filed an “Amicus Brief” on the appeal. They have all expressed grave concerns about the potential for harm to the environment and public health from the proposed mega-dairy. We thank these organizations for their support in this appeal

 

Is this a Corruption issue? A Public Health Issue? An Environmental Issue? A Rural Communities Issue? A Family Farms Issue?  I just don’t know…  Mega-dairy in NW Illinois is a bad design and illegal!

 

Please Donate!

 

You can probably imagine the scope of the impending disaster when 43 acres of manure and refuse, leaking about 40,000 gallons/day (testified by engineers for the project!), is positioned a few feet above an aquifer that serves thousands; and literally on top of the spring-fed origin of a “Biologically Significant” stream.

Consider the following:

·         40,000 gallons of leakage each day, as testified by the engineers for the project, is a bad design to be positioned above an aquifer that serves thousands.

 

·         That same leakage, proposed to be placed on top of the origin of the Apple River, a “Biologically Significant” stream by the IDNR, would do irreparable harm.

 

·         Apple River Canyon State Park (and a Boy Scout Camp) is less than 5 miles downstream.

 

·         The waste from 5,500 cows is the same as if the manure of a city of 125,000 people were collected and stored in 43 acres of pits for a year- with no sewage treatment.

 

·         This one facility threatens to displace 50 or more smaller family dairies in the area.

 

·         According to the Appraisal Journal, this facility could depress surrounding home values “50 – 90%”.

 

·         Numerous studies show that instead of creating jobs, poverty increases in surrounding areas. (Ikerd)

 

·         The Jo Daviess County Board voted against this facility in 2008, 11-5.

 

·         The PEW Commission, the Center for a Livable Future (Johns Hopkins University), the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the American Public Health Association are some of the many groups who have called for moratoriums or policy changes against this type of industrial agriculture.

 

·         Illinois Citizens are guaranteed a right to a healthful environment by the Illinois Constitution.

 

·         The law, “No new livestock management facility or new livestock waste-handling facility shall contain within its boundaries any stream or other surface waters except small temporary accumulations of water occurring as a direct result of precipitation.” is one of several laws being broken.  Even now, the mega-dairy project is asking the IEPA for permission to fill a portion of one of the streams on site. If they are asking for a permit, there must be a stream on-site.  (There are two: the unnamed tributary to the South Fork Apple River and Wolf Creek.)

 

Please contact Ken or Susan Turner for more information:  815-745-9013, or HOMES, PO Box 674, Warren, IL 61087

 

Office of the Governor                    312-814-2121, or 217-782-0244

IEPA  815-987-7760

Illinois Attorney General    

312-814-3000 or 217-782-1090

 

PLEASE DONATE!!!                

                 

                                                                   

Corporate Agriculture Defeats Local Residents in Court

Farm Bureau's Victory Comes at the Expense of Family Farms and the Environment

Warren, IL. On Tuesday, December 15th, Circuit Court Judge Kevin Ward ruled against HOMES and the environment, and for a California millionaire hoping to cover NW Illinois with industrial scale agricultural facilities.

"We'd like to see more family dairies in the state," said Jim Frances, traditional farmer and 30 year Farm Bureau member, "but if Farm Bureau gets their way, all of the family dairies will be replaced by these industrial facilities, the same way giant hog factories ran family operated hog farms into the ground."

Armed with four lawyers, and a host of expert witnesses, the California investor had the best defense money could buy, while HOMES members paid for their fight by cashing in retirement accounts and college funds.

"It isn't just HOMES that lost," said Kathy Hicks, 5th generation farmer, "it's the farmers and residents of Jo Daviess County that rely on the shallow aquifer for their drinking water."

Testifying in court were two Illinois State Geological Survey scientists, co-authors of the Illinois State Karst Map. They insisted that the shallow bedrock and the karst fractures found in every road cut and quarry in the area demonstrated the susceptibility of the aquifer to contamination.

"Just because we lost in court doesn't mean that the site is safe," said Matthew Alschuler, press agent for HOMES, "the experts testified that the site is underlain with karst fractures, and the 100 million gallons of manure produced yearly will put the drinking water of every resident in the area at risk."

HOMES is consulting with their attorneys and is considering an appeal.

"The facility has already made several discharges onto my property via a stream that runs onto my land," said neighboring farmer Steve Holesinger, "they spread leachate on both saturated and frozen ground and it frequently ran into a tributary that eventually feeds the Apple River."

HOMES was mentioned in the Humane Society of the United States blog by Wayne Pacelle.

Check the blog at HSUS here.

Some interesting "must read" recent news articles include:
Getting Real About the High Price
of Cheap Food...

TIME MAGAZINE
http://www.time.com/time/health/article...
Clean Water Act Violations: The Enforcement Record

THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/...
These 2 recent articles are definitely worth your time to read. They show the growing nationwide concern and awareness of what we are fighting here in Jo Daviess County.

HOMES 3, A.J. Bos 1
Federal Judge Remands HOMES Case:
Back to State Court
HOMES Scores a Third Major Legal Victory by Having Lawsuit Returned to State Court
Rockford, IL - On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, Judge Philip G. Reinhard, United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, remanded the case of HOMES vs. A.J. Bos back to the state court in Jo Daviess County, Illinois.

This move is the third major legal defeat suffered by millionaire California investor A.J. Bos in his attempt to build an industrial-scale dairy in Jo Daviess County. The final court case was originally set to start in Jo Daviess County in May, but on February 26, 2009, lawyers for the investor petitioned the federal court in Rockford for a change of venue because they were unhappy with their losses in state court.

Their petition relied on the right of a defendant living in a different state from the plaintiffs to ask their case to be heard in a federal court, subject to the laws of the state of Illinois. Once the State Judge, Kevin Ward, dismissed the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) from the case, lawyers for the investor believed they could easily move the case to federal court.

However, since the IDOA was removed involuntarily, federal judge Reinhard, citing case law, agreed with HOMES' attorneys David Albee, Charles Cronauer, and others, that this case should not have been transferred to federal court. Therefore, he remanded it back to the state court in Jo Daviess County.

For the full text of the Press Release, please click here (PDF format) For the full court ruling, please click here (PDF format)

Judge Orders No Bond Required from Plaintiffs in Mega Dairy Injunction.
On December 18, 2008, Judge Kevin Ward ruled that the plaintiffs opposed to the 5,500-head mega dairy being built near Nora, Illinois, do not have to post a bond for the preliminary injunction he issued on October 20, 2008. This ruling is the second major court victory for the plaintiffs, who include the non-profit group HOMES and about a dozen individual citizens living near the proposed facility, which would endanger their health by heavily polluting the surrounding air and water.

For the full text of the Press Release, please click here for the Press Release No Bond (PDF format)

Judge issues Preliminary Injunction!
On Monday, October 20, 2008, Judge Kevin J. Ward of Jo Daviess County signed a Preliminary Injunction Order restraining the operation of a proposed 6,850 animal unit concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) dairy less than a mile from the town of Nora, Illinois in eastern Jo Daviess County.

In the ruling Judge Ward said:
"Groundwater contamination from Defendant Bos' proposed livestock management facility would constitute a substantial future harm and the proposed facility presents a high probability of creating a public and private nuisance by creating an environment injurious to the health and welfare of surrounding neighbors and the public at large. "As such, Plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at law and irreparable harm is likely to result if a preliminary injunction is not granted."

For the full text of the Preliminary Injunction, please click here for the Prelim Injunction (PDF format)

Click here for a timetable of our fight.

Community Meeting
HOMES invites you to attend our community meetings. We meet every Tuesday night at 6:30 pm at Hixster's, right above the BP station in downtown Warren.

History
A wealthy California businessman wants to build a 13,000 head factory dairy in Jo Daviess County, right next to Nora. The waste from all of these cows will drain into several ponds with a total surface area of around 70 acres. According to this investor's engineer, these ponds will not be aerated, which will allow the waste to ferment, releasing methane and ammonia into the air. Eventually, hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated waste will be pumped onto 10,000 to 20,000 acres of adjacent farm land. Due to the rolling hills that make this unglaciated part of Illinois so beautiful, some of that waste will accumulate, run into drainage pipes laid beneath these fields, and get transported to rivers and streams where it can kill fish.

This unsustainable concentration of animals will pollute the air, water, and soil. The smell will drive down property values for miles around. The chemicals released can cause adverse health affects in people living nearby. The low paying jobs created will not help the local economy. The flood of cheap milk will further harm the endangered family owned dairies. And tourists who come to Jo Daviess County to spend money and to get away from the noise and smells of the city will be enveloped in a cloud of particulate matter and foul smelling air for miles around the plant. The profits will all go to California. The waste will all stay here.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Call the Governor. Thank him for his support of HOMES and forgiving us an Environmental Hero award. Kindly encourage him to take whatever action he can to protect the residents, family farmers, and the environment of Jo Daviess County from the mega dairy.

Governor Pat Quinn
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone: 217-782-0244 or 312-814-2121
TTY: 888-261-3336
Click here to send a message to Governor Quinn:
www.standingupforillinois.org/contactt/

Next, call YOUR elected state officials. Let them know that you don't want these industrial facilities anywhere in Illinois. Simply follow this link, click on the "address" or "zip +4" tab and type in the required information to find all of your state and federal officials.

Your elected official: Click here to find their address (http://www.elections.illinois.gov/DistrictLocator/...)

Finally, if you visit this area, let the hotels, restaurants, stores, etc. that you frequent know that you are upset about this. We need all of them to rally around and keep this economic and ecologic disaster from happening.

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© 2008-2009 All Rights ReservedH.O.M.E.S.P.O. Box 674Warren, IL 61087
815-818-1253 or 815-745-9013
  info@StopTheMegaDairy.org