Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

For immediate release: Feb. 27, 2007 Contact: Nancy Miller, 507-280-3590 Rochester, Minn. - The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) seeks comments on an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) prepared for Watopa Swine in Watopa Township. Watopa Swine proposes to expand an existing swine breeding, gestation and farrowing facility in Watopa Township, Wabasha County. The proposed expansion would include construction of three new buildings and demolition of four buildings currently on the site. The three new buildings include a 41-foot by 121-foot total confinement barn, a 162-foot by 573-foot gestation barn and a 159-foot by 405-foot farrowing barn. Manure would be removed twice per year from lined concrete pits beneath the barns and injected at agronomic rates into nearby cropland as fertilizer. After the expansion, the facility would have capacity for 5,628 sows and 816 nursery pigs (the number of animal units would increase from 1,280 to 2,270). The EAW provides basic information about how a proposed project could potentially affect the environment, and helps determine whether an Environmental Impact Statement, a more comprehensive environmental review, is needed. Interested parties may comment on the EAW during the public notice period, which begins Monday, Feb. 26. Written comments must be received at the MPCA St. Paul office by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 28. Copies of the Watopa Swine EAW are available at:
· MPCA St. Paul office, 520 Lafayette Road N.
· MPCA Rochester office, 18 Wood Lake Drive S.E.
· Wabasha Public Library, 168 Alleghany Avenue
· Plainview Public Library, 345 1st Avenue N.W.
· MPCA Web site at www.pca.state.mn.us
Send questions and comments on the Watopa Swine EAW to Kevin Kain, Environmental Review and Operations, MPCA, 520 Lafayette Road N., St. Paul, MN 55155. Kain can also be reached by phone at 651-296-7432, fax at 651-297-2343 or by e-mail at kevin.kain@pca.state.mn.us.