People who live near a huge egg farm want the state to shut it down.
TURNER – They’re tired of the stench and they’re weary of swatting flies. Now, they’re asking the state – and soon the courts – to put an end to it.
People representing 14 households and businesses located within three miles of the sprawling DeCoster family of businesses are asking the state Department of Agriculture to rescind permits allowing the egg farms to operate.
They’ll press their case Wednesday. That’s when the department is slated to hear their appeal of its decision to issue paperwork allowing the livestock operations.
They also plan on filing a lawsuit asking the courts to end when they call “gross mismanagement of waste” at Anton DeCoster’s Turner facilities.
Katrina Morgan of General Turner Hill Road, a spokeswoman for the neighbors to Decoster’s holdings and subsidiaries, said some have been calling for improvement for more than a decade. They organized about three years ago, she added, and now have hired both a Boston-based lawyer and an animal waste expert from Delaware to bolster their case.
“We’ve had enough,” she said Sunday evening.
She claims Decoster and those working for operations that he owns or owned aren’t properly handling the barns of manure generated by millions of chickens each day. As a result, the stench of decaying manure can permeate the air, forcing some to close windows in warm weather. Worse, it serves as a breeding ground for millions of flies that go on to invade homes.
Morgan said the flies spread germs and threaten the health of people living in the area. They’ve also had a detrimental effect on the quality of life of the neighbors, she noted, ruining many outdoor activities such as barbecues.
The neighbors plan to gather at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday outside the Department of Agriculture’s Deering Building at the Augusta Mental Health Institute complex in Augusta where they’ll display enlarged photographs of Decoster facilities, including aerial views and photos of waste piles. They also intend to show photos of flies invading neighbors’ homes and yards.
Dr. Jack Martin, the animal waste management expert, will testify at the appeals hearing regarding the manure operations, Morgan said. Neighbors are also expected to share their problems in dealing with the odors and invading flies, she added.
No one at the farming operations could be reached Sunday night to discuss the appeal or pending lawsuit.
Decoster sold off many of his farm holdings to employees and others several years ago in an effort to avoid state legislation that would have increased pay for workers at the industrial farm. In February, he paid millions of dollars to settle legal actions brought by Mexico that challenged the way he treated Mexican workers and their living conditions at the Turner farm’s housing facilities.
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