For immediate release: April 5, 2010
Contact: Dan Olson, 218-846-8108, toll-free 1-800-657-3864
Detroit Lakes, Minn. — The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is inviting public comment on an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) prepared for a proposed expansion of HighLevel Egg, an egg-laying feedlot in Clay County near Lake Park. The comment period ends May 5, 2010
The site currently has two barns. The proposed expansion would take place in two phases, with each barn receiving new cages with conveyor belts under each cage, and a continuous air-drying system to dry the manure as it moves on the conveyor belts. Each phase would also include construction of a 64 ft. by 200 ft. dry manure storage facility, each one capable of storing a year’s worth of dried manure from one barn and providing space for composting dead birds.
The first phase will involve the west barn and would start after completion of the environmental review process, likely sometime this year. The second phase is expected to take place in 2015. The changes would increase total capacity at the site to 464,640 laying hens, slightly less than double the current permitted capacity of 240,000 layer hens. Use of existing outdoor composting and temporary manure storage sites will be discontinued after completion of the second phase. Manure from the site will continue to be applied on cropland.
The EAW is a preliminary environmental review of how a proposed project could potentially affect the environment. The EAW also helps the MPCA determine if an Environmental Impact Statement, a more in-depth environmental review, is needed.
Comments on the HighLevel Egg EAW should be submitted in writing by 4:30 p.m., May 5, 2010, to Nancy Drach, MPCA, 520 Lafayette Road N., St. Paul, MN 55155-4194 or by fax to 651-297-2343.
Copies of the EAW are available for review on the Web at www.pca.state.mn.us/news/eaw/index.html, the MPCA Detroit Lakes office at 714 Lake Avenue, Suite 220 and the MPCA St. Paul office, 520 Lafayette Rd. North.
To request a copy of the EAW from the MPCA, call 651-757-2101. Other telephone inquiries related to this project should be directed to Nancy Drach at 651-757-2317 or toll-free at 1-800-657-3864.
Additional information on the environmental review process is available on the Web at www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/envr_p.html.
