Mink Farming

NS: NSUARB denies appeal by farmers, mink breeders
By Tina Comeau, Transcontinental Media

Source: The Vanguard, August 16, 2010

[YARMOUTH, NS] — The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB) has dismissed an appeal challenging a minimum 500-foot setback requirement the Municipality of Yarmouth introduced last fall. The setback creates a buffer between lakes and waterways and farming operations.

The appellants had included several farmers and the Nova Scotia Mink Breeders Association who argued the increased setback — made by means of an amendment to a municipal land-use bylaw — was not in keeping with the intent of the municipal planning strategy.

But in a decision dated August 12, the NSUARB said Yarmouth municipal council had reasonably carried out the intent of the strategy.

The municipality amended its land-use bylaw last fall. The amendment increased the required minimum setback distance of buildings, structures, pen areas, manure piles, manure storage facilities and burial sites for the disposal of dead animals used in connection with mink and fox ranches, hog and fowl operations from 328 feet to 500 feet from any off-site waterwell or any watercourse or waterbody.

At the time of the amendment public concern and anxiety was high over blue-green algae that has been polluting lakes in the area. Many believe runoff from mink farms is a contributing factor. At the time the municipality had also received an application from R&N Farms Limited for a development permit to build a mink farm on Sloans Lake.

During a NSUARB hearing, the board heard from three organic farmers who spoke to the difficulty of being included in the definition of a fox, mink, hog or fowl operation, given that they are not intensive livestock operations.

One of the appellants, farmer Kevin Hamilton, was concerned the increased setback requirement may result in fewer farms in the area. He said, for instance, there is a farm next door to him that he might be interested in purchasing, but the barn is within 500 feet of the well and therefore could not be used.

The appellants had also argued the setback had no foundation and was arbitrary.

The municipality had held a public hearing last September about the proposed amendment to its bylaw. The NSUARB noted that of the 19 people who gave oral presentations, only two opposed. And of the 22 written submissions the municipality received, only one person opposed the bylaw.

The NSUARB also noted that the evidence before it showed that during the public hearing the president of the Nova Scotia Mink Breeders Association said a 500-foot set-back was fine and that they would work with the community. The board notes in its decision that the association did not address this in its arguments or evidence presented to the NSUARB.

In its decision the NSUARB also noted that a 2009 Nine Lakes Report issued by the Department of Environment recommended municipalities do what they could to prevent nutrients from affecting the water quality of lakes and recommended that one of the methods of doing so was to create buffers.