THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410040115
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
A neighbor of a proposed hog operation has filed a bill of complaint in Isle of Wight Circuit Court against a hog farmer, challenging the farmer's land ownership at the proposed hog site.
Based on land ownership questions and concerns about pollution, the complaint, filed by Marvin Pulley, asks that the court nullify a pollution permit granted this summer by the Department of Environmental Quality to farmer Henry Pulley (Marvin Pulley's nephew).
The complaint is also against the Department of Environmental Quality, charging that after two written requests asking for a public hearing, the department refused to hear the residents, despite the question of land ownership and pollution.
The proposed hog site, 120 acres along the east side of Virginia Route 649, is one of two proposed contract hog operations in the county for Carroll Foods of Virginia Inc.
Two area farmers, Robert P. Taylor and Henry L. Pulley, have been granted pollution permits by the Department of Environmental Quality to build the county's first contract hog farms for Carroll Foods of Virginia Inc.
The second site, owned by farmer Robert P. Taylor, is located near historic St. Luke's Church on Virginia Route 10 in Isle of Wight. Taylor already runs a hog operation there, but he wants to upgrade that operation from 600 hogs to less than 2,000 hogs, he has said.
The complaint against Henry Pulley states that the Department of Environmental Quality sent a letter to him on March 18, telling him that if he couldn't establish ownership of the land where the facility was to be located, his application for a permit would have to be denied.
However, the complaint said: ``The department then extended to Henry Pulley a lengthy opportunity to create and record legal documents in an effort to belatedly convey land to himself.''
In June, Pulley submitted to the department a land gift deed granted to him from his father and mother.
According to the complaint filed by Marvin Pulley, the hog operation would ``present an unacceptable danger of pollution to the nearby swamps and streams and especially to the ground water table and also would create unacceptable pollution of the air in nearby residential areas.''
Marvin Pulley is one of about a dozen members of the newly formed Isle of Wight Defense League, a citizen's group opposing the building of the hog farms in Isle of Wight.
The issue of hog farms in Isle of Wight became a conflict a few months ago, when a group of concerned citizens, many of them owning land near the proposed sites, banded together to stop more hog farms from coming into the county.
Since then, the group has held weekly meetings on the hog dispute, said Stephen Merrill, the group's attorney.
``Our goal is to preserve the way of life here,'' Merrill has said, ``and that doesn't include a million hogs and millions and millions of gallons of animal waste spread across the countryside.''
Merrill has said the group fears the hog farms would devalue surrounding land, destroy the county water table and create an unbearable stench.
He plans to challenge the permits on environmental grounds, and in the case of Henry Pulley's application, the ownership of the land could be questioned in court, he said.
Merrill said Marvin Pulley does not want the hog farm built because it would devalue his $100,000 home.
Marvin Pulley has declined to comment on the issue.
A court date has not been set.
KEYWORDS: COMPLAINT POLLUTION PERMIT by CNB