Four new measures proposed in the Illinois legislature would tighten the state’s environmental protections on hog confinements and give local citizens more input in the permitting process as well as standing to challenge the massive facilities in court.

 

Critics say pork producers sometimes exploit weak laws to build and expand large hog confinements across rural Illinois, some of which hold thousands of pigs and produce millions of gallons of manure each year, the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/2oiD2Iz) reported.

 

Farmers and others who live near the massive facilities say their rights have been trampled while waste poisons local streams and sickening gases ruin families’ lives and property values.

 

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