For immediate release: March
8th, 2006
Iowa CCI statement on DNR
CAFO odor field study:
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’
attempt to conduct an “odor field study” was tragically
flawed. The study failed to take into account the gross limitations
of DNR field staff who conducted the study, including:
• Response time from when an odor
complaint was received and when the measurement occurred.
• Only taking measurements between
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – leaving out early mornings and evenings
when lower winds would’ve brought stronger odors.
• Only 17% of measurements were a
response to citizen complaints. The DNR has implied that they were
responding entirely to citizen complaints of odor. “We were
actually trying to monitor the worst-of-the-worst,” said Wayne
Gieselman from the DNR to Radio Iowa on Wednesday.
Failing to include this crucial piece of
information, especially when dealing with wind direction, compromised
the study.
The DNR’s weak attempt to conduct
a field study does not discount what thousands of rural Iowans have
been saying for over 12 years – that factory farms stink and
ruin people’s quality of life.
The conclusion that this study draws
is that factory farms don’t stink. That conclusion will have
absolutely no credibility with the thousands of everyday people
putting up with factory farm stench. In fact, this study will only
reconfirm the need for a serious attempt to address this issue –
strong and enforceable clean air standards to make factory farms
clean up their pollution.
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