New restrictions on Oregon’s Confined Animal Feeding Operations have become law but it’s uncertain how much they’ll impede planned poultry facilities at the center of the debate.

Large CAFOs will be subject to stricter land use requirements and groundwater limits under Senate Bill 85, which Gov. Tina Kotek recently signed into law.

Willamette Valley controversy

Opposition to several poultry CAFOs in the Willamette Valley helped mobilize support for the bill, though the specific impacts on pending proposals remain to be seen.

It’s too late for the legislation to affect the J-S Ranch near Scio, Ore., because the poultry facility was approved by state farm regulators last year.

The operation’s owner, Eric Simon, said it’s not necessarily a bad thing that county officials will be able to weigh in on CAFO siting under SB 85.

However, complying with the bill’s restrictions on groundwater withdrawal would have been onerous for J-S Ranch, and could still prove to be a burden.

“If I ever wanted to expand, it would affect that,” he said.

The state previously didn’t curb the amount of groundwater that could be pumped for livestock uses without a permit, but that “stockwater exemption” is now limited to 12,000 gallons per day under SB 85.

To put that in perspective, the maximum daily amount available for new CAFOs is 3,000 gallons less than for domestic households, Simon said.

“That’s a big effect — 12,000 gallons per day, that’s hard,” he said.

Simon said he has water rights available for the poultry operation, but they need to be transferred to a different parcel of land.

With the backlog of such transactions pending approval from state water regulators, the transfer could take three to five years, he said.

Such a long wait may be prohibitive for someone spending millions of dollars building a new CAFO, Simon said.

“It’s a huge problem,” he said.

Impact unclear

Whether the restrictions have influenced the decisions of applicants with pending poultry CAFOs isn’t immediately apparent.

Jason Peters, who’s seeking approval for Evergreen Ranch near Scio, Ore., said only that he’d have to see whether the operation can meet the new standards. Randy Hiday, who’s planning an operation near Aumsville, Ore., wasn’t available for comment.

Representatives of Foster Farms, for whom the Oregon facilities would produce chicken, did not respond to requests for comment on the bill.

Opponents of the poultry facilities cheered the passage of SB 85 but haven’t declared victory over the planned CAFOs.

Alice Morrison, co-director of the Friends of Family Farmers nonprofit, said the water and land use rules “may change the planned Foster Farms facilities and, depending on the circumstances, could mean they can’t go forward on the land they’ve chosen.”

However, the ultimate authority over those decisions rests with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, she said. “I don’t think we’ll have a clear understanding until the rule-making process is finished.”

The ODA has not determined whether SB 85’s requirements will preclude the approval of any pending CAFO applications in the pipeline, said Wym Matthews, the agency’s CAFO program manager.

The agency has paused the application process until it figures out how the proposals square with SB 85’s requirements, he said.

The Northwest Chicken Council is optimistic the legislation won’t stop the development of new poultry facilities in the region, which are meant to replace older ones that are shutting down, said Timothy Christopher, its executive director.

“My suspicion is once this shakes out, and the new permitting kicks in, it shouldn’t be a big problem,” he said.

The prospect of the final bill “negatively affecting agriculture in the long run” is unlikely, at least compared to initial proposals to suspend large CAFO permits entirely for years, Christopher said. “We’re just thankful we avoided a moratorium.”

Large chicken farms raise concerns in rural Oregon