Springfield, IL - The Illinois Senate today approved new standards for the construction of hog waste pens, while the House adjourned for Easter break before they could debate their own hog farm bill.
The Senate bill would require all new hog waste storage facilities to be built to existing standards. Currently, only artificial lagoons to store waste must be built to these standards.
Under the proposal, if waste storage structures are being built in an environmentally senstive areas, the Illinois Department of Agriculture could deny the construction unless standards are met.
The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Laura Kent Donahue, R- Quincy, passed 57-0 and moves to the House, which will likely move its own hog farm legislation.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, will extend a deadline set to expire today for a hog farm measure he planned to gut as a way of pushing a compromise.
His bill would allow local veto power over hog farms, a concept the Illinois Pork Producers Association opposes.
They think the measure would hurt not only agricultural corporations but family farms that want to expand their own business.
To put a face on the issue, association president Rick Dean and other hog farmers had about 30 children of hog farmers say they would be affected by changes in state law.
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