THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090330
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
The Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend to the Board of Supervisors a zoning ordinance that would restrict large hog farms in residential and some business districts.
But the ordinance not affect operations in areas zoned agricultural. Nor would it comply with a request Norfolk made Tuesday.
Commissioners said they voted before they were aware of the letter from the city of Norfolk, which urged Isle of Wight to act only after it had considered possible contamination of water supplies to more than 700,000 Hampton Roads residents.
Norfolk's letter said the city is concerned that more large-scale hog-farming in Isle of Wight could threaten much of South Hampton Roads' drinking water.
The city is worried about cryptosporidiosis, the same type of bacteria that contaminated Milwaukee's water supply in April 1993. That outbreak made 400,000 people ill and caused more than 100 deaths.
``The organism is extremely difficult to kill using current disinfection technology,'' the Norfolk letter said, ``and, therefore, conventional water treatment processes may not provide fail-safe protection.
``The contamination of the water supply in Milwaukee is believed to have originated via stormwater runoff from livestock operations.''
Norfolk has large reservoirs on the Western Branch of the Nansemond River, near Isle of Wight's borders. The city also gets some of its water from the Blackwater River, which runs through the southern end of the county.
Norfolk officials requested in their letter that the county work with Norfolk, the Virginia Health Department and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to define ``an acceptable setback distance and bring it back to the commission within three months from today for approval.''
But Planning Commission members interviewed after the meeting said they were unaware of the letter until after the vote was taken.
``No, we didn't know about it,'' commissioner Bobby Bowser said. ``I understand it came too late.''
Others agreed. Vice Chairman Phyllis Bloxom, who had to leave the meeting temporarily because of illness, said that the letter was not presented to the commission and that it was not read.
Still, several commissioners said Tuesday evening that they did not favor voting on the ordinance again, preferring to leave the matter to the Board of Supervisors, which will meet Nov. 17.
It was not clear why Norfolk's letter did not come up at the meeting. The letter was faxed from Norfolk at 12:33 p.m. to the county courthouse. The commission began meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday, its regular time.
The recommended ordinance came after several months of battling over the hog farm issue. Isle of Wight historically has been an agricultural area, and two large packing plants in Smithfield, in the northern end of the county, are major contributors to the county's economy.
Hog-farm supporters say it makes sense to raise the hogs near the packing plants to bring down production costs. Opponents say they fear water and soil contamination, and they don't like the odor created by large numbers of hogs.
The ordinance that now will be considered by the Board of Supervisors would require 80-foot setbacks from all public rights of way and at least 1,000-foot setbacks from property zoned residential and B1, which includes schools, churches and day-care centers. by CNB