Farmer says he's done with hog farm

The farmer who was partnering with Hormel to bring a hog farm to eastern Yuma County has decided not to continue pursuing the regulatory process for the stalled project.

Jerry Cullison said Friday he is tired of fighting state bureaucracy and decided to abandon plans to continue developing the hog farm on his land in eastern Yuma County after investing $3 million in the partially completed project.

Cullison said he does not intend to file more paperwork with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) in an effort to obtain the additional permits the agency says he needs to proceed with the project. That goes for the Arizona State Land Department as well, he added.

"It's just one deal or another with the bureaucrats," he said. "I'm not going to do anything. I'm through spending money."

Mark Shaffer, ADEQ spokesman, expressed surprise that Cullison was abandoning the project after spending $3 million on it. "We are more than willing to work with him through the process."

Hormel officials declined to comment Friday on Cullison's decision.

Cullison had an agreement with Hormel to develop the hog farm with 12 large hog barns on his private land to house a total of 52,800 hogs. The site is off Spot Road just south of Interstate 8. In addition, Cullison had leased state land to farm, with plans to use the hog waste as fertilizer to dispose of the manure.

In turn, Hormel had agreed to pay Cullison a certain amount per pig once the farm became operational. The pigs were to be raised from 13-pound piglets to market weight, then shipped to Los Angeles for processing into Farmer John brand pork products.

Cullison had obtained required permits from the ADEQ in December 2006 and construction had begun, drawing on a $9 million line of credit Cullison obtained to fund the project.

He estimates he has spent about $3 million so far, including laying concrete for the floors and footings for the 12 barns, with the floor of each barn "30 percent larger than an average football field." In addition, one barn was built and another started.

Cullison also had paid for excavating the pits for the manure storage, had wells drilled and a hay barn built.

Then, last spring the project came under attack by area residents who feared the hog farm would contaminate the environment and use too much of the groundwater the area is dependent on for its water source.

In March, ADEQ notified Cullison that the agency determined he needed to obtain a more restrictive Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for disposal of the hog waste than the one he had been issued earlier. The state land department also issued a cease-and-desist order of development activity on the state land Cullison had leased, saying he hadn't completed the authorization process to use it.

On May 2, Hormel suspended construction activity until the new state permitting requirements could be satisfied, spokesman Steve Duchesne said at the time.

The deadline has since come and gone for Cullison to apply for the new ADEQ permit. Furthermore, according to a letter ADEQ sent Cullison in December, his original permit was automatically terminated Nov. 21 and Cullison Farms LLC no longer has permit coverage to operate the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO).

Cullison expressed frustration that ADEQ had "changed the rules" after issuing his original permit.

Shaffer said ADEQ decided the more restrictive permit was needed "upon further review and after hearing concerns of area residents," explaining that the stricter permit would involve a more transparent process.

Another issue, he said, was concern that Cullison wouldn't have enough acres to properly dispose of the large volume of hog waste the farm was expected to generate.

While Cullison is left with acres of concrete on his land and a $3 million loan to repay, he believes eastern Yuma County is the big loser, losing out on the jobs and economic boost the hog farm would have brought to the area.

"It would have been great for east county."

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853