County Officials Approve Permit for Livestock Confinements Near Forest City

The Hancock Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved the construction permit for hog confinements southeast of Forest City. Summit Pork plans to build two buildings, each of which will house just under 5,000 head of hogs. Kent Krause, a consultant for Summit, told supervisors the facilities would be about six-tenths of a mile from the water in Torkelson Pits Wildlife Area.

Manure will be stored in pits underneath the buildings. Krause indicates the operation is expected to produce about 1.6 million gallons of manure annually and it will be applied on fields that could handle about twice that amount of manure.

The facility will be just over half a mile from the property line of Torkelson Pits, a 97-acre county park with wetlands and forested areas for hunting and fishing. Hancock County Supervisors held a public hearing on the hog confinement project before approving the permit. The only comment came in writing, an objection from Bob Kern of Garner. Kern said Summit, which is also developing a carbon pipeline in the area, has deceived and divided neighbors against one another.