Does the Sioux Falls landfill handle bird flu disposal?

Tuesday’s meeting in Parker on a proposed 2.5-million chicken egg operation included some choice words from opponents about bird flu.

About a month ago, Sonstegard Foods representatives talked about the possibility of disposing some birds in the Sioux Falls landfill in the event of an outbreak.

On Tuesday, Chancellor resident Mike Schaffer essentially accused the company of lying about that. He said he called the city of Sioux Falls and found that there was no official agreement in place on diseased carcass disposal.

Massive egg farm approved in Turner County

Brian Donahoe, the Sioux Falls company’s lawyer, countered that nothing so explicit was ever promised. He also said the ability of any poultry operation to respond to an avian flu outbreak doesn’t hinge on access to a single landfill.

The back-and-forth illustrates not only the depth of opposition to the project in parts of Turner County, but to the salience of bird flu in the public imagination. Questions about what happens next time are top of mind across ag country.

There’s a good reason for that: Livestock disease has been an issue as long as humans have cared for animals, but last year’s outbreak was unprecedented and devastating. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in January that the outbreak had cost taxpayers $950 million.

If another outbreak of that size took place, the experience of 2015 suggests that the Sioux Falls landfill's role would be only one piece of a much larger response.

Millions of birds were killed, then composted, buried or burned across the U.S. Among them were 1.3 million egg-laying hens at Dakota Layers in Flandreau and turkeys from nine of the South Dakota’s 50 commercial flocks.

Sunrise Farms in Harris, Iowa - a Sonstegard Foods operation - lost its entire flock.

“Overall, nationwide, it’s gone down as the largest and most expensive outbreak of foreign animal disease in history,” said Dr. Dustin Oedekoven, South Dakota’s state veterinarian.

South Dakota has a crisis response plan for livestock disease through the Animal Industry Board and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the bird flu epidemic was the most extensive test of it. The plan held up well, Oedekoven said, thanks to coordination between producers and the rapid response from local veterinarians and scientists at South Dakota State University.

“We were fortunate to have some space and some plans developed with the DENR for that,” Oedekoven said.

The strain of avian influenza that struck in 2015 did not pose a threat to humans, although some strains of it can. Even so, a single diseased bird becomes a “virus factory” after infection. Once the disease was detected, birds were gassed to prevent further spread, Oedekoven said.

Most of the birds killed in South Dakota were buried near the barns they lived in, he said. Safety is the reason for keeping them close, he said, as there are concerns that bird flu could spread to other farms as carcass-hauling trucks drive by.

“We try to keep it on site as often as possible,” he said.

Burial isn’t appropriate for every pathogen. Some, such as anthrax, can live underground. Bird flu doesn’t stay in the soil, however.

As far as the landfill in Sioux Falls is concerned, Oedekoven said, burial there is similar to burial on a farm site.

Some sites in Iowa incinerated and composted birds to deal with the state's more massive losses, with the Iowa Department of Environment and Natural Resources encouraging landfills to accept some of the more than 20 million birds lost in that state.

Disposal a struggle in Iowa's bird-flu outbreak

Sunrise Farms composted about two million of its lost birds, and Rembrandt Foods – which has plans to place more than five million cage-free hens near Lake Preston – composted many of the 5.7 million hens lost.

Composting came up in Turner County in June when an Iowa lawmaker told officials that some neighbors to Sunrise Farms had to rent motel rooms to get away from the smell.

“Personally, I don’t ever want to see composting this close to town,” said Board of Adjustment Chairman Eric Meyer.

The USDA’s January report says composting, rendering and landfill disposal are acceptable options for disposal.

Diane Best, assistant city attorney for Sioux Falls, wrote in an email that the city’s regional landfill – permitted, lined underground and operating under a strict set of regulations – has yet to accept avian influenza carcasses. It might in the future, if there are more carcasses than producers could handle.

“The city has not discounted taking diseased birds in the future, if the proper protocols are in place, as recommended by public health authorities and the state veterinarian,” Best wrote. “That matter is being studied.”

Best also said that Sonstegard Foods has requested the landfill as an option for burial, but that it’s “too early to guarantee” that that would happen.

The discussion on Tuesday pushed officials in Parker to tack two bird flu-related conditions on the company’s permit. One bars it from composting deceased birds in an emergency, and another requires it to provide documentation of the regional landfill’s willingness to help.

John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog reporter for Argus Leader Media. Contact him with questions and concerns at 605-331-2301, 605-370-8617, twitter.com/ArgusJHult   or  Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog