The Hardin County Board of Supervisors has approved a recommendation for a new hog facility near Alden Township. During a public hearing held at their regular meeting this week (Wed. 9/3/25), Ken Kraus, a representative from Pinnacle Group which prepared the application for Summit Farms Pork, highlighted the facility’s environmental safeguards saying the project looks beyond what the state’s master matrix requires for the nearest water source.
“So in this question it’s what we refer to as small water, the unnamed river, stretch, ditches, creeks. The minimum is 500 feet. We looked out an additional 1,501 feet and scored 30 out of 30 on question number four.”
The site would house 4,099 hogs and produce about 1.6 million gallons of manure annually, with covered storage and setbacks from roads and water sources.
Despite the high scoring on the master matrix, residents raised concerns about environmental and health risks. One attendee warned…
“Cross your fingers at your kids. 21:03 grandparents, your family members, your parents don’t get cancer because that is one product of our current farm policy that continues to grow, the cancer rate. uh that’s, know, you want to change that cancer rate, you change farm policy, you change this kind of stuff.”
Despite the opposition, the Hardin County Board of Supervisors voted to forward the permit recommendation to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for final approval.
