One industry that’s growing in Pennsylvania: hog farming. 2018 has been a record year for the number of hogs produced in the state. But for some communities that’s not good news. In one Pennsylvania town, residents are trying to keep a new hog farm out.
This article by Julie Grant appeared in The Allegheny Front, July 20th, 2018.
When Allen Houck retired last year, he moved back to his grandparents farm, in the hills of Todd Township, Huntingdon County.
“When I was a kid we had cattle here, and chickens and pigs,” Houck recalled, sitting on his porch. “We had a big garden, and we raised our food for wintertime here. It’s always been beautiful.”
Most farms around here are still small, 100, maybe 150 cows. But Houck’s neighbor has built a factory-sized turkey barn that houses thousands of birds. The manure gets piled up outside.
“Sometimes the smell will get so strong, it just grabs my throat. Makes it hard to breathe,” Houck said.
The turkey barn looks like a large supermarket in the fields. In this small valley of rolling fields, hiking trails and campgrounds, it is by far the biggest structure. But not for long. Construction is starting on another large new barn. This one will house 4,800 hogs at a time. It’s being built by Aaron Warner, the brother of the turkey farm owner. The hog manure will be spread on farm fields around the area.
Since Allen Houck moved back last year, he’s already had to replace his water well because of high bacteria counts and E. coli. Now, he has his tap water tested every few months.
But Houck worries that the new hog farm will create more problems for his water. There are less than a thousand people in this township, and many are concerned the manure will run off the fields, or soak into the soil, and contaminate their well water. The concern is not unfounded. MORE…