Controversial chicken ranch near Scio can go forward after state approval
A proposed mega chicken ranch between Jefferson and Scio that has been a lightning rod for controversy and received pushback from neighbors and fellow farmers has been given the go-ahead by the state.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture on Thursday gave its approval to J-S Ranch, an operation proposed by Eric Simon of Brownsville that plans to raise 580,000 chickens at a time for Foster Farms. It would be built on previously undeveloped farmland.
It’s been nearly two years since Simon applied to the state for the permits for the facility.
The state held a public hearing on the application in October and said it received more than 136 comments from the public. Nearly everyone who commented about it was against the proposal.
“I’m very pleased that we finally got it approved, but I’m frustrated that it took so long to get it approved,” Simon said on Friday. “But you know, everybody’s learned a lesson.
“There wasn’t a lot of people to learn from on this experience. We always felt like we had the law on our side. Obviously, I’ve invested a huge amount of money towards this project.”
The opponents have fought the proposal since they first learned of it.
Christina Eastman lives on a family farm that borders the property. Five generations of her family has lived on the farm since 1951.
“I’m devastated with the news,” said Christina Eastman, a neighbor of the project. “I want to live in a state where our state officials are looking after our pristine resources, our rivers, our creeks, our farmland. This is the most inappropriate place to put a industrial sized chicken factory … that there is.
“If they don’t respect our rivers and our farmland that we cannot replace, well then they shouldn’t be in those positions. They’re supposed to be leaders, leading to a better Oregon and to have respect for our state. And there are appropriate places for industry, and it is not 400 yards from the North Santiam River on Class A farmland.”
The ranch is one of three factory farms for chickens that are being planned in the area.
A Scio resident has applied to the state to build a similar facility for 750,000 chickens at a time between Scio and Lyons along Thomas Creek.
According to plans filed with Marion County, a third is being planned on Porter Road about a mile from Stayton, though the owner has not applied to the state for permits.
The application for the ranch between Scio and Jefferson was approved, but the state is requiring it to meet conditions including:
It needs a permit for road access, including a traffic study, from Linn County.
It must provide a water supply plan signed by the state’s Water Resources Department.
The barn floors must meet soil compaction standards to ensure manure is separated from groundwater before they can be occupied by chickens. They will have to be recertified every 10 years.
The ranch must conduct drinking well monitoring for nitrogen and sample each well on the property twice each year.
It must install groundwater monitoring wells, one in each direction of the barns, and report monitoring from it each month to the state.
And it is prohibited from discharging water to any surface waters in the area (the location is about 1,200 feet from the North Santiam River).
Simon said that he had been working on many of the conditions prior to the approval, including working with Linn County on the road as the site is about a half mile down a gravel road from Jefferson-Scio Road.
“I’m happy to comply with their conditions,” Simon said. “It feels a little bit frustrating that they’re making rules to comply with the public, but at the same time we’re happy to comply.”
Simon said there have been a few alterations from the original plans filed with the state in 2020 so it will meet with state regulations.
He said the current plan is to build 11 60-foot by 600-foot chicken barns – down from the original 12 – and they will be oriented north to south as opposed to the originally designed east to west orientation.
Simon currently has a similar, though smaller, operation at his home in Brownsville.
Foster Farms contracts with growers to raise its chickens.
They are hatched in Oregon City and trucked to the growers at a day old. Between 45 and 50 days later, the fully-grown chickens are trucked to a slaughterhouse in Kelso, Washington.
Simon said Foster Farms had three farmers in Oregon retire last year, as has been the trend in the industry.
“And so we have to build or we’re just not going to be viable here,” Simon said. “We’re not going to have enough to justify their infrastructure.”
The opponents formed an organization, Farmers Against Foster Farms, to oppose the grow-out operations.
"We’ve always assumed that ODA would issue a CAFO permit to JS Ranch. ODA has never met a CAFO or a CAFO site they didn’t like," the group said in a statement. "It’s unfortunate that ODA didn’t take public health, fire risk or air emissions into consideration when issuing this permit but it’s not surprising. The reality is JS Ranch still does not have all of the appropriate permits in order to begin construction. Our community of farmers and ranchers will continue to fight this at every turn in order to protect our land and water from the negative impacts of industrial chicken factories."
Simon also owns Ideal Ag Supply, which provides equipment for climate control and ventilation for chicken ranchers like him.
The state requires a permit for constrained animal feeding operations like the one being proposed.
Simon said he hopes to begin excavation at the site on July 1 and hopes to have the roofs on the buildings by the fall. He said the first chickens likely would arrive in the spring of 2023.
“We’ve been planning this for a long time,” Simon said. “I’ve been buying equipment and stuff to get going.”
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Controversial chicken ranch near Scio can go forward after state approval
