Five times more pigs than human residents and houses that are up to 40 meters away from pigsties: Welcome to Hohenrain in Lucerne.
“It stinks again.” Retired IT supporter Markus Ineichen looks at the neighboring pig barn and turns up his nose at the acrid smell of manure.
Cows were kept there 30 years ago, when his family came to Hohenrain. Their smell is less strong than that of pigs. Later, however, the farmer switched to pigs and enlarged his barn. Many farmers in the so-called pig belt of Lucerne did the same – with the blessing of the authorities.
Scent project: Only Hohenrain is taking part
Despite many complaints in recent decades, politicians only reacted in 2021: the “Ammonia and odor resource project” was launched. Measures to reduce odors were discussed with 15 farmers: from daily cleaning of the stables, to slatted floors so that the manure can drain off better, to air washers that clean the air in the stable and the closing of the outdoor areas next to the stable.
The eight-year budget is CHF 1.18 million, financed 80 percent by national taxpayers’ money. Four municipalities in central Switzerland were to be won over for the smell sub-area; but only Hohenrain reported. And the experiences so far are sobering.
Aggravation of the stench
The plan to improve the air quality in Hohenrain within three years by the end of 2023 thanks to measures taken by the farmers has literally vanished into thin air.
Those responsible for the project expected the greatest effect from the commitment of three pig farmers – they should replace old and defective air washers in their stalls with new ones. As well as from a fourth farmer who announced that he would switch his stable from pigs to less odorous cattle. After two years, however, only one of the farmers installed a new air purification system.
Delay tactics when installing an air washer?
“I feel fooled,” says resident Markus Ineichen. He points to the faulty air washer belonging to his neighbor Urs Isenegger, about which he has made numerous complaints to the municipality and the canton over the past 15 years. As part of the odor project, an agreement was reached with farmer Isenegger to replace the system by the end of April. But Isenegger doesn’t even have a building permit.
For nine months, the farmer has been at ping-pong with the canton, which has suspended his planning application three times. Due to missing and contradicting documents. The average duration of a planning application in the canton of Lucerne is 40 days.
A suspension can take a long time.
Ironically, Urs Isenegger is also a professional barn planner. He rejects the accusation of delaying tactics: “I know from experience how difficult it is to get a planning application. If the documents are not what the canton would like, a suspension can take a long time.”
Isenegger admits, however, that the system has tightened. In the past, the authorities would have looked too little or not at all, now “the tables are being turned”.
Participation in the smell project: voluntary
The crux: The resource project is a volunteer project. There are no sanctions against farmers who do not take measures against the stench. Alfons Knüsel, Mayor of Hohenrain, says the aim is to solve the odor problem in dialogue with the agricultural and non-agricultural population rather than through legal action. But who is responsible for the prestige project? It is the Lucerne Farmers’ Association.
Is the fox watching over the chicken coop here? He doesn’t see it that way, says Deputy Managing Director Raphael Felder.
You can’t blame us for not trying.
If it doesn’t work out voluntarily, “at least we can’t be accused of not having tried”. But what is the almost 1.2 million taxpayers’ money going to be invested in if the farmers continue not to take any measures for which they are financially supported by the resource project? For a guide showing how communities can handle odor disputes, Felder says.
Authority intervened only after SRF drone recordings
A particular annoyance for residents in Hohenrain: on the farm of a farmer who works in the working group on the odor project, the area contaminated with liquid manure has become even larger.
At the start of the project, the farmer remodeled the outside of his barn, enlarged doors and knocked out pens. And that illegally, i.e. without a building permit. The pigs lost their orientation as a result of the conversion, and since then they have been doing their business uncontrolled.
Legend:
Drone recording from the outside of the barn
The bays on the left in the picture have been broken out.
SRF
This increases the soiled area and with it the stench. The unauthorized conversion only came to light in August 2020 because of drone footage from Swiss television, says colleague Arthur Röösli.
He reported the unauthorized conversion to the municipality because Arthur Röösli was the only one who implemented the project’s goal and invested a quarter of a million francs, as he says, in a new air washer. At the request of the municipality, the farmer retrospectively submitted a planning application.
Disposal: Only after 2.5 years
“Am I the Tubel of Hohenrain?” exclaims Arthur Röösli at a project meeting. “It must not be that I buy a new air washer and someone muddles next to me”.
Only two and a half years after the unauthorized dismantling was reported to the authorities they have decreed that the farmer must dismantle or close the changed outdoor area. Originally, this pig farmer had given the project management hope by promising to convert his pig stall to less odor-intensive cattle fattening.
“We had hoped that it would be faster,” says Mayor Alfons Knüsel soberly. A planning application is in progress, but it is unclear whether the cattle barn will be built. Nothing is binding, said the farmer at a project meeting. It depends on the market situation and construction prices.
Environmental Protection Agency does not enforce law
The authorities should actually force the farmers by law to reduce the smell of pigs. This is because the smells from agriculture in Hohenrain are, according to an objective assessment, excessive. This was determined by a scientific survey in 2020.
This study, of all things, was the basis for the resource project, which relies on voluntariness. Luzi Bergamin, Managing Director of the environmental company Ecolot, which carried out the odor survey, refers to the Clean Air Ordinance: In the event of excessive immissions, the canton must take remedial measures and also order them against the will of the polluter, i.e. the farmer.
But in Hohenrain In the case of a housing estate, the situation is complex because it is surrounded by several farms, all of which together are responsible for the foul smells. A plan of action would be needed – in the case of odor nuisance, this is new legal territory.
The peasant lobby hinders the implementation
Why isn’t the Lucerne Environment Agency enforcing the law? In response to the question, manager Daniel Christen refers to the economic and political situation in his canton, where every third Swiss pig is produced: “There is a strong lobby in Parliament that says where to go. This makes it difficult to enforce.”
In the past, the canton promoted animal husbandry, but now environmental aspects are becoming more important. Christians: “It takes a change of heart. We’re right in the middle.”