Cattle waste plan OK'd

The Red Willow County commissioners and planning commission have both approved Heartland Cattle Co.'s plan to dispose of waste water from its heifer development and feeder cattle operation southeast of McCook.

Commissioner Leigh Hoyt explained to fellow commissioners and to a neighbor of Heartland Cattle Co. during a commissioners' meeting Monday morning that Heartland will disperse of drinking water overflow and rain and snowmelt runoff by collecting it, piping it under a county road and spraying it onto farm land owned by Hilltop K Farms Inc. (Dennis Kisker).

Heartland was required to seek a conditional use permit for the plan because the county's zoning regulations allow for injection of liquid waste, and Heartland's plan calls for the water to be sprayed onto Kisker's land.

Hoyt said the liquid that will be sprayed is not liquid manure, but is water that overflows from cattle watering systems (which run continually in the winter to prevent freezing) and from rain and snowmelt runoff.

There is no odor to this water, Hoyt said. Paperwork submitted to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality indicates that this water contains no solids, as Heartland's waste control systems would filter any solids from the water prior to it entering the holding pond and pump/out area.

These two water sources run into and filter through three grassy waterways, Hoyt said, and drain into a lagoon/pumping area, from which the water has, in the past, been pumped onto land owned by a neighbor to the north.

The land has changed ownership and the new owner has switched the field from alfalfa to corn and no longer needs Heartland's waste water, Hoyt said, so the water will be pumped south to Kisker's land.

Heartland plans to pump about 135,000 gallons of water onto Kisker's land once a year in the spring, according to paperwork prepared by the county's zoning commissioner, Darc y Eckhardt.

No member of the public appeared to speak for or against Heartland's plan during a public hearing called to allow comments, although Dorwin Felker, who lives north of Heartland, asked about the smelliness of the water involved in the permit. Hoyt told Felker that the smell he sometimes smells with a wind out of the south most likely comes from another owner's operation in the same general vicinity ad Heartland. Hoyt said, "No one in the county runs a cleaner operation than Heartland and Patsy (Dr. Patsy Houghton, owner), as far as following all the rules and regulations."

Commissioners approved the conditional use permit.

In other action Monday morning, commissioners:

* Approved an agreement with Maximus Financial Services to provide the county with professional consulting services which will result in reimbursement costs incurred by the county to support and administer federal programs, which, in Red Willow County involves the county's back child support collection program. The consultant company's fee is a percentage of total collections, and will not exceed $6,100 during 2008-2009. The county's fee in 2007-2008 was $7,579.80.

* Approved the final pay request of $32,993.61 from Figgins Construction of Red Cloud for the county's summer armor coating projects completed Aug. 25.

* Received a notice of the start of construction Aug. 20 on the federal aid-assisted bridge project southwest of McCook over the Driftwood Creek.