OTTAWA - PORC took its protest to city hall Jan. 9, with 30 members of the new lobby group pressing Ottawa politicians to block plans for any factory pig farms in the Sarsfield area.

Ironically, PORC (Protect Our Rural Communities) is led by a farmer, more specifically dairy farmer Marc Lafleur who’s worried a piggery on 700 acres adjacent to his 300-acre operation could contaminate local clean water supplies.

Failure of the provincial legislature to pass the proposed Nutrient Management Act before the winter break was cited as one of the difficulties facing politicians and residents in trying to limit intensive hog farms.

One of the most rapidly urbanizing sectors in the restructured City of Ottawa, developers have pointed out that intensive hog farms in Cumberland Ward are a bad mix. Tolerating the stench of pigs in the area would be "bizarre", said one developer, vowing to fight such operations in the east end.

During the city hall protest, participants carried placards calling in English and French for an outright ban on such operations. On grounds "you don’t put a pig farm in the middle of the city", Ottawa councillors decided to seek greater power from the province to intervene in the situation.

At the moment, said Mayor Bob Chiarelli, the city is virtually powerless to act. Other than passing an interim control bylaw which it has done in one case, council has few other tools at its disposal: "We need provincial legislation," the mayor added.

A particular concern of protestors is that factory hog farmers eyeing Eastern Ontario are mainly from Quebec where environmental laws have become very restrictive. Producers who relocate are still in line for a subsidy on each weaned piglet shipped back to la belle province.

With MPPs not due back until spring, the implementation schedule of Bill 81- the Nutrient Management Act - is now up in the air. The legislation is needed, said OFA president Jack Wilkinson, to establish farm-specific nutrient management plans as the provincial standard.

At a public meeting held late last year to discuss the Ottawa factory farm, city planner Jean-Guy Bisson underlined the current disarray, with several pieces of provincial legislation and some municipal bylaws regulating various aspects of the proposed hog operation.

No umbrella legislation, Bisson noted, will be in effect until Bill 81 is finalized. In the meantime, Wilkinson said, farmers continue to find expansion plans impeded at the municipal level.

The OFA president noted that situations similar to the one in Ottawa have proliferated across the province in the absence of the long-awaited act.

The piggery next door to the Lafleur farm proposed by a Quebec corporate operator was originally intended for 2,800 sows. However, the number was trimmed back to 1,090 after council hastily imposed the interim control bylaw in effect until next September.

Meanwhile, rumours of a second factory hog farm in the east end abound, with no formal application having yet been made.

In addition to contamination of clean water resources, protestors are worried about pungent odours, loss of quality of life and other possible nuisances, said Lafleur, adding that "no one has ever invented a hog farm that doesn’t stink."

Lafleur, who was instrumental in collecting a 700-name petition against the hog farm, said eight unused and loosely covered wells on the site of the proposed operation could allow manure pollution to penetrate the area aquifer.

He insisted there would be no benefits to area producers because almost all supplies for the new operation would be bought in Quebec, with the factory farm operating its own feedmill.

He added that opponents are seeking legal advice.

OMAFRA Minister Brian Coburn, whose Ottawa home is not too far from the proposed piggery, said the issue is more one of best management practices than size. Lamenting the fact Bill 81 didn’t get passed, Coburn said the new act will be instrumental in regulating such situations.

Intensive operations can have a significant impact on ground water, quality and quantity, city planner Bisson said.

"The use of nitrates and phosphates and the spreading of manure are normal farm practices that ensure adequate crop productivity. However, if the management of these nutrients is not done in accordance with best farming practices, the potential exists for contamination of the surface and ground water."