Site Considerations for Animal Producers

Are you considering building a new or expanding an existing animal feeding facility? If so, have you thought everything through? What about the effects your new building site may have on the environment and/or your community? Perhaps you should take a look at the Siting Considerations for Production Facilities guidelines before you start your next building project. Remember location, location, location.

Siting Considerations were developed by The Ohio State University Extension in cooperation with Ohio’s Commodity groups, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Soil and Water Conservation, Ohio Department of Agriculture, Livestock Environmental Permitting Program, and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to provide guidelines for those involved in the building process with the objective of protecting water and air resources, maintain social responsibility, and ensure the economical viability of the business. It is a tool which aids in identifying important characteristics associated with a building site and identifies strengths and weaknesses of the proposed construction site. If a characteristic of the site is found to be outside recommended parameters the cost of implementing one or more Best Management Practices (BMP) or Best Available Technologies (BAT) to reduce the potential environmental impact should be compared with moving to an alternative site.

There are four major areas of this siting process which should be evaluated before construction and these are: Animal Housing Facilities, Manure Storage Structure, Manure Utilization, and Neighbors and Community Relations. Each section identifies specific characteristics important to maintaining air and water resources as well as social responsibility. For each characteristics a series of parameters and recommendations are presented. A Siting Considerations packet contains a binder with a worksheet for each area or category, a field card for easy reference on site, a brochure with a quick overview of the Siting Considerations, and a CD with full Siting Considerations material in electronic format. Over the coming issues each of these four areas will be discussed in detail starting with the Animal Housing Facility.

Siting Considerations Section 1- Animal Housing Facility

The Animal Housing Facility section looks at the physical features surrounding the building site and its potential impacts. The majority of siting characteristics associated with siting an animal production facility focus on minimizing water quality impacts. Distance to wells and drinking water protection areas from the production facility are among these. It is recommended that a building site be located 50 feet or more from a well. Locate an animal production facility within this separation distance has a higher potential of impacting this groundwater resource. In addition, animal production facilities should be sited outside public drinking water protection areas since these typically provide a significant portion of a community’s public drinking water.

Groundwater is also a concern and it is recommended building with a minimum of 15 vertical feet between the building and the aquifer. If this separation distance is less than 15 feet additional practices should be considered to protect groundwater resources.

For those unfamiliar with karst areas, they are landforms that have developed in or on limestone, dolomite or gypsum and cause sinkholes, underground drainage or caves. If a site is located within a karst area with actual karst features, consider moving sites or take additional precautions to minimize environmental impacts in these geological areas.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources has developed and made available DRASTIC maps for most of Ohio’s counties. The acronym stands for Depth to water, net Recharge, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of the vadose zone media and hydraulic Conductivity of the aquifer and is an indicator of groundwater vulnerability to contamination.  Drastic Index values less than 120 have characteristics which are more protective of groundwater than are higher scores. Building sites with DRASTIC scores of greater than 120 are expected to be more susceptible to impacting water resources and additional design and construction considerations may be applicable.

Make sure the quality and quantity of water available for the site is known. It is important to balance the quantity and quality of water available with the needs of the animal operation. If these parameters are unknown additional investigation is warranted prior to construction. If an operation’s daily water requirements are greater than or equal to the daily water availability, developing water conservation practices or identifying alternative supplies may be necessary to ensure the quantity and quality of water is sufficient for the facility.

Bio-security should be a concern for every producer and considered when evaluating a building site. Consider the proximity of the proposed site to other operations of the same species. There are no set rules for determining separation distances for production facilities as circumstances for each facility are determined by producer preferences. Another important consideration is traffic flow into, around and out of each site. Carefully consider orientation of buildings and movement of support vehicles and equipment when determining surface area needs.

Floodplains are easily forgotten during dry weather conditions but building in a 100-year floodplain can be problematic during periods of heavy rainfall. Siting production facilities outside a 100 year floodplain is recommended.

Site location is critical and may determine how well that facility will function. However, geologic aspects of a site are important to considerations as well. What lies below the soil surface may have as big an impact on the profitability of the operation as does the geographic location of the facility. Siting a facility is a critical decision that should be fully evaluated. These siting guidelines help identify specific characteristics that should be considered to ensure the identified location will fit the needs of the operation long-term. For more a comprehensive list of siting characteristics, definitions, charts, maps and reference materials visit oema.osu.edu/OEMAPublications.htm. The next Siting Considerations article will focus on siting manure storage structures.

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