By Joyce Blumenshine

A second hog confinement barn has been added at the hog production business near Princeville. The original animal facility used a loophole to avoid a public hearing in 2019 by listing 2,480 hogs in their proposed CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) barn, just under the 2,500 number that would have allowed a public hearing established by a Peoria County Board resolution nearly twenty years ago. The property owner, Eleanor Basehoar, did not heed any local concerns regarding drawdown of the area water supply or for odors impacting Princeville. Now a second barn has been added and it is likely the number of animals at the location will double. Another loophole in the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s minimal regulations for CAFOs allows a new confinement building without any new permit or public process when it is part of an expansion of an existing CAFO confinement. There is no state consideration for doubling or more the number of hogs, which will produce more waste than a small town. Gasses from the huge quantities of manure at CAFOs add to global rapid climate change and include nitrous oxide and methane. Smells from de-composting carcasses at the site have been an issue for area residents.