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Mr. Hansen was raised on a farm in Central Iowa and received a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Iowa in 1963. He worked in the private industry sector for 10 years before returning to Iowa to raise hogs and grow crops. He produced approximately 3,000 head of hogs per year in a farrow to finish operation before getting out of the business in 1995. Harlan has been a Humboldt County Iowa Supervisor since 1995. Humboldt Country passed four ordinances that were to control the siting of hog facilities, require information on the proposed site to include existing tile lines and locations of agricultural drainage wells. They also tried to require financial assurances or insurance from builders to ensure that if the site went bankrupt, the county was not liable for associated clean-up costs. The last ordinance established air quality limits for the hog facility that would not affect surrounding neighbors or infringe upon their rights. These ordinances were challenged to the Iowa Supreme Court level. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the ordinances exceeded local control authority. Since then, the Iowa State Legislature has strengthened existing state laws to state that counties of Iowa shall have no control or jurisdiction over Confined Animal Feeding Operations. |
