§ 39-7907 — LOCATION GUIDELINES

This section provides location guidelines for swine facilities regulated by this chapter. Where the location guidelines provide a specific setback distance, that distance is the minimum setback distance that may be imposed. Further setback distances shall be imposed as circumstances require.
(1) A swine facility regulated by this chapter shall not:
(a) Locate its closest waste facility within at least two (2) miles of any occupied residence not owned or leased by the owner or operator of the swine facility;
(b) Land apply liquid animal waste within at least one (1) mile of the nearest corner of an occupied residence not owned or leased by the owner or operator of the swine facility.
(2) The setback distances provided in subsection (1) of this section do not apply if the affected property owner executes a written waiver with the owner or operator of the swine facility, under terms and conditions that the parties may negotiate. The written waiver is effective when recorded in the offices of the recorder of deeds in the county in which the property is located. The recorded waiver shall preclude enforcement of the setback distances contained in subsection (1) of this section. A change in ownership of the applicable property or change in ownership of the swine facility does not affect the validity of the waiver.
(3) All distances between occupied residences and swine facilities shall be measured from the closest corner of the walls of the occupied residence to the closest point of the nearest waste structure or waste facility, as defined by the director.
(4) No liquid animal waste may be land applied within at least one hundred (100) feet of an existing public or private drinking water well.
(5) The minimum distance from a waste structure or waste facility to a domestic well, public well or public water source shall be at least one (1) mile.
(6) Further, swine facilities shall not be located:
(a) In areas designated by the United States fish and wildlife service or the Idaho department of fish and game as critical habitat for endangered or threatened species of plants, fish or wildlife;
(b) So as to be at variance with any locally adopted land use plan or zoning requirement unless otherwise provided by local law or ordinance. If no land use plan has been adopted by the local government which would have land use jurisdiction pursuant to chapter 65, title 67, Idaho Code, the recommendations of the panel approving a site shall contain an analysis of the requirements and guidelines provided in this chapter. The analysis shall be accompanied by findings and conclusions, entered by the local government with jurisdiction after the local government has held a public hearing in accord with section 67-6509, Idaho Code, that the public interest would be served by locating a swine facility on the site for which approval is sought;
(c) No nearer than one (1) mile to any local, state or national park, or land reserved or withdrawn for scenic or natural use; and
(d) No nearer than two (2) miles to a school, church, hospital or community center.
(7) A swine facility active unit shall not be located:
(a) Within a one hundred (100) year flood plain;
(b) Within five hundred (500) feet upstream of a perennial stream or river;
(c) Within one thousand (1,000) feet of any perennial lake or pond;
(d) So as to cause any measurable impact on water quality limited streams;
(e) Within a wetland;
(f) Within two hundred (200) feet to the property line of adjacent land;
(g) Within two hundred (200) feet of a holocene fault or adjacent to geologic features which could compromise the structural integrity of a swine facility active unit unless the owner or operator demonstrates to the director that an alternative setback distance of less than two hundred (200) feet will prevent damage to the structural integrity of the swine facility unit and will be protective of human health and the environment. For the purposes of this subsection:
(i) "Fault" means a fracture or a zone of fractures in any material along which strata on one (1) side have been displaced with respect to that on the other side;
(ii) "Displacement" means the relative movement of any two (2) sides of a fault measured in any direction;
(iii) "Holocene" means the most recent epoch of the quaternary period, extending from the end of the pleistocene epoch to the present.
(h) Within seismic impact zones, unless the owner or operator demonstrates to the director that all swine facility active units and surface water control systems, are designed to resist the maximum horizontal acceleration in lithified earth material for the site. The owner or operator must place the demonstration in the operating record and notify the director that it has been placed in the operating record. For the purposes of this section:
(i) "Seismic impact zone" means an area with a ten percent (10%) or greater probability that the maximum horizontal acceleration in lithified earth material, expressed as a percentage of the earth’s gravitational pull (g), will exceed one-tenth (0.10g) in two hundred fifty (250) years;
(ii) "Maximum horizontal acceleration in lithified earth material" means the maximum expected horizontal acceleration depicted on a seismic hazard map, with a ninety percent (90%) or greater probability that the acceleration will not be exceeded in two hundred fifty (250) years, or the maximum expected horizontal acceleration based on a site-specific seismic risk assessment;
(iii) "Lithified earth material" means all rock, including all naturally occurring and naturally formed aggregates or masses of minerals or small particles of older rock that formed by crystallization of magma or by induration of loose sediments. This term does not include man-made materials, such as fill, concrete and asphalt, or unconsolidated earth materials, soil, or regolith lying at or near the earth’s surface.
(i) On any site whose natural state would be considered unstable in that its undisturbed character would not permit establishment of a swine facility without unduly threatening the integrity of the design due to inherent site instability;
(j) Where the integrity of the site would be compromised by the presence of ground water which would interfere with construction or operation of the active unit.

Legislative History

[39-7907, added 2000, ch. 268, sec. 1, p. 760; am. 2001, ch. 350, sec. 2, p. 1230.]