Scuzzy governmental decisions are almost universally announced on Fridays, usually late in the day.
True to form, word of the approval by the Illinois Department of Agriculture for the permit to build a megadairy near Nora in Jo Daviess County came Friday. The megadairy is the idea of California businessman A.J. Bos.
Word filtered out just after opposition to the megadairy had won a small victory in court: Fifteenth Illinois Judicial Circuit Judge Kevin J. Ward ordered Ag to turn over documents requested by Bern Colleran under the Freedom of Information Act.
In February, I toured the area with some opponents, including Brian Clerkin, who couldn’t resist trying for smallmouth in a bit of open water on the Apple River.
The Rockford Register Star put together a good story here.
Very simply, this is a crappy area to put a megadairy.
For those who love the Apple River Canyon State Park and Jo Daviess County, what I wrote back in February still holds true.
The proposed site is smack dab on top of the headwaters of a feeder stream for Wolf Creek. To see it is a familiar scenic drive: turn right off Route 20 west of Freeport on Galena Road/Stage Coach, then left on Mahoney in Nora for a mile. The feeder creek joins, west of Route 78, Mud Run and the South Fork of the Apple River. Which joins, in the park, with the main branch of the Apple River. Which flows out of the park and eventually into the Mississippi River. The stream canyons make the park some of the most scenic state land. For smallmouth fishermen, the Apple is one of the three great small rivers, along with the Mackinaw and Kishwaukee, in Illinois.
This is a special corner of Illinois that deserves better than a steaming pile.
Opposition info is at http://www.stopthemegadairy.org.
