Permit OK’d for carcass composting facility

A permit to build a 40-foot-by-30-foot animal carcass composting facility at 38474 133rd St. was approved on July 14 by the Aberdeen Board of Zoning Adjustment.

The facility, as requested by Lynch Real Estate Corp., will have three bays and be on the north side of the property near Lynch Livestock.

The Iowa-based company has several subdivisions, including a composting facility in Waucoma, Iowa, according to Bob Bickerstaff, area manager.

Stipulations applied to the permit include getting approval from the South Dakota Animal Industry Board, the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources and any other applicable state agency or board, with that information submitted prior to a building permit being issued. All required inspections must be completed, property lines must be located to verify setbacks and any complaints must be addressed.

According to information from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, “dead animal composting involves specialized on-farm facilities and practices to completely compost … carcasses on the farm or safely store them until they can be removed for off-farm disposal.”

Before the vote, Bob Babcock, Board of Zoning Adjustment chairman, asked if the animals will be flipped until they decay. Bickerstaff said they will be flipped only once.

Phone calls to Lynch Livestock headquarters were not returned.

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