SCIO, Ore. — Opponents of a commercial chicken farm slated for the Mid-Willamette Valley are asking Oregon regulators to re-evaluate the facility’s permit, and either add new requirements to better protect water quality or revoke their approval altogether.

The state Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality issued a Confined Animal Feeding Operation, or CAFO, permit for J-S Ranch in Scio, Ore., on May 26.

A coalition of groups petitioned the agencies on June 9 to reconsider the operation, citing potential risks to surface and ground water.

J-S Ranch will raise about 3.5 million broiler chickens annually for Foster Farms. Kendra Kimbirauskas, who raises beef, hogs and goats on 70 acres in Scio, said the permit issued “does not adequately protect our water and wells from the inevitable pollution from this mega-poultry operation.”

“Instead, ODA must protect our community, farms and water from this incursion of massive Foster Farms chicken operations,” she said.

Kimbirauskas is an organizer of Farmers Against Foster Farms, which formed last year to protest several proposed poultry CAFOs in Marion and Linn counties, including J-S Ranch.

In addition to Farmers Against Foster Farms, petitioners include Willamette Riverkeeper, Friends of Family Farmers, Humane Voters Oregon, Food & Water Watch, the Center for Food Safety, Animal Legal Defense Fund and Center for Biological Diversity.

Bill Mattos, president of the Northwest Chicken Council, said the permit for J-S Ranch was approved following extensive review and examination by ODA and other agencies.

“This ranch, which will feed 140,000 people each year, meets all the water quality and air quality requirements in Oregon,” Mattos said. “It also will maintain American Humane certification requirements, and the building process will be reviewed and approved as it goes forward.”

Mattos added the facility will be “one of the finest in Oregon and the Northwest.”

Eric Simon, a longtime poultry farmer who has contracted to raise chickens for Foster Farms in Brownsville, Ore., since 2000, will run J-S Ranch and hopes to begin construction in July. Once finished, the farm will raise six flocks of 580,000 chickens per year.

Simon has said J-S Ranch will feature state-of-the-art technology designed to provide optimal living conditions for the chickens — such as temperature, lighting, humidity and disease control. The farm will have 11 barns each measuring 39,120 square feet, or approximately 10 acres under roof.

“That’s all the science behind raising poultry, is how comfortable can you make that bird,” Simon told the Capital Press in an interview on May 31. “The better the condition the animals are raised in, the better it will convert its feed to growth.”

Simon said hardly any chickens are currently raised on the West Coast compared to the “chicken belt” from eastern Texas to Delaware, and farms like his are important to diversify U.S. food production.

It took nearly two years for ODA and DEQ to issue a permit for J-S Ranch after the initial application was submitted in August 2020. Even then, it came with a few added stipulations:

• Before breaking ground, Simon must obtain a stormwater construction permit from DEQ, road access permit from Linn County and water supply plan signed by the Oregon Water Resources Department.

• Before any chickens arrive, the farm must complete a ground compaction study to ensure the poultry barn floors will not allow contaminants to seep into groundwater.

• The farm must install and monitor two static wells to ensure groundwater levels remain at least 2 feet below the barn floors. Simon must also provide data from drinking water wells, ensuring groundwater is healthful to drink.

However, the petitioners argue the permit does not go far enough to protect clean water.

Among the grounds for reconsideration listed in the petition, the coalition claims that unlined, compacted earthen floors inside the chicken houses are not sufficient, “given the overall wetness of the area and high groundwater levels.”

ODA only required 4 inches of compacted soil and no impermeable floor covering, the petition states, while other states require at least 12 inches of compacted soil in similar situations.

The petition further calls out possible pollution in streams and rivers from airborne ammonia emissions. It estimates J-S Ranch may discharge 850 to 1,190 pounds of ammonia per day, given the size of the chicken flocks.

Regulating air pollution is beyond the scope of the CAFO permit, according to ODA.

Finally, the groups say they remain concerned about the handling and treatment of 4,500 tons of chicken litter and manure generated annually at the farm.

Simon said all litter and manure will be stored in an 8,400-square-foot storage barn and sold to other farms as a source of nutrient-rich fertilizer. The barn has capacity of 7,111 tons, to be stored for 569 days at a time.

Simon has said that with the current fertilizer shortage chicken manure is a hot commodity. “We have a very good market for our manure,” he said.

But petitioners say if something happens to those contracts, J-S Ranch may be forced to find alternative disposal methods, such as land applying in the Willamette Basin.

“DEQ and ODA need to take a second look at J-S Ranch and the harm that this CAFO operation could cause to people, wildlife and our waterways,” said Lindsey Hutchison, staff attorney for Willamette Riverkeeper.