State fines hog farm

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. -- State wildlife officials have fined Indiana's largest hog farm $230,000 for a March manure spill that killed more than 3,000 fish in a nearby stream.\nThe Indiana Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday it was imposing the fine on Pohlmann Farms for damages to Little Sugar Creek caused by the March 24 spill near Crawfordsville.\nThe $230,000 is nearly three times the $80,500 in fines that the DNR and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management have imposed on the hog farm since 1990.\nState officials have blamed the farm, which has about 14,000 hogs, for at least nine other spills since it opened in 1976 about 40 miles west of Indianapolis.\nThe farm "has proved to be a serious problem and they must take full responsibility for their poor management and pay for the damage they have done to the environment," DNR Director John Goss said.\nJohn Capper IV, the attorney for farm owner Klaus Pohlmann, said Wednesday that the farm was a state-of-the-art facility and that the manure spill last month was because of an equipment failure.\n"I don't think it was the result of any negligence on the part of Pohlmann other than there was a defective part that has not been a problem for 15 years," Capper said.\nAfter the March 24 spill, the environmental agency asked a Montgomery Circuit Court judge to order the farm closed by June 1. The agency also began daily inspections at the farm.\nThe $230,000 fine includes the estimated value of the fish killed by the manure spill, administrative costs of the investigation, lost recreational use and recovery of natural habitat, officials said.