An expanded turkey processing plant and more Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are coming to rural Southern Indiana. And environmental problems can't be far behind.

Dubois County is already No. 1 in turkey production in Indiana. And it has the highest number of CAFOs in the state.

Often confinement houses are sited on land that is much better suited to other uses. Much of the agricultural land in the county is high quality, designated as prime farmland. The marginal areas are hilly and best suited to forests.

The county is already becoming overbuilt, and air and water quality are becoming increasingly big issues, in large part due to animal waste. The fact is, that while manure is good in small quantities, in large quantities it is deadly.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Patoka River, source of Jasper's drinking water, has six times more e. coli than the state allows. The bacterium e. coli is commonly found in animal intestines.

Other pollutants also contaminate Indiana rivers. A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey Report found that, increasingly, antibiotics and hormones used in animal feedlots are showing up with other pharmaceuticals in the nation's waterways.

Although other studies have linked the rise of antibiotic resistant organisms in humans to antibiotic use in animal feedlots, the long-term risks to human health from all this are still being calculated.

According to a report titled Water Quality Issues in Poultry and Processing, 2001-2005: "Nonpoint source pollution from animal waste runoff can reduce surface and groundwater quality by introducing excessive levels of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, organic matter, and pathogens into the environment.

"In 114 watersheds studied throughout the U.S., excessive levels of nitrogen and phosphorus were derived primarily from excessive or irresponsible animal manure applications. With more and larger poultry operations confined to smaller areas of land, the likelihood of water contamination increases."

As for air pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports: "Dust, pathogens, and flies from animal operations are also airborne emission concerns. Dust, a combination of manure solids, dander, feathers, hair, and feed, is very difficult to eliminate from animal production units."

A University of Kentucky study found that even when best-management practices are used, these airborne contaminants are human health hazards.

Dubois County air quality has recently been over the limit for particulates and, according to many sources, has some of the dirtiest air in the United States. Given the probability of bird flu in the not too distant future, would it not be wise to limit the region's reliance on poultry production?

Does Southern Indiana really need new or expanded industries that foul our drinking water and stress our natural resources, as well as threaten human health?

Finally, the idea that all this will bring in more taxes that will "trickle down" isn't going to work, either. According to articles in the Jasper paper The Herald, part of the financing for this expansion will come as a result of creating a TIF zone.

This is where the county designates an area, in this case about 71.3 acres, into a "redevelopment" zone. Any new taxes that the development generates pay only for infrastructure in that zone.

Corporations get tax breaks in that the tax money they pay benefits them. Only the TIF zone benefits, not the rest of the community. None of that tax money is available for local schools, medical services, police, cleaning up the water and the like.

This is a conservative community. Yet plans for this expansion have gone largely unchallenged. And the pitfalls have gone unreported.

Instead of offering a $1.4 million incentive to an industry that offers no benefits and many problems to the county's residents, the community needs to look at all the ramifications of this before blindly accepting such a misguided plan. If an industry wants to expand, it should do so only after it has taken steps to insure that no harm will come to the community and its resources.

And it should pay for any increased costs of infrastructure and services. We need leaders who will expect and demand this.

Several years ago, then State Rep. Dennis Heeke made the claim that the future of southern Indiana lay in "turkeys, trash, and tourism." He certainly seems to have been on the money on that one, at least in the short term.

Unfortunately, along with those things, because of those things, the quality of life is deteriorating. New highways, more and bigger industries, larger farms and overdeveloped tourist traps will destroy the way of life that makes Southern Indiana a good place to live and visit.

We need to question our passion for cheap meat and start to calculate the real price it takes to produce that turkey sandwich. It's time we begin to question the tactics of a few that would significantly reduce the quality of life for the people who live in Southern Indiana.

We need to stop the destruction of a part of the state that is vital to those who don't live here.

Jeanne Melchior is president of Protect Our Woods, a Southern Indiana environmental advocacy group. She can be contacted at melchior@psci.net or via www.protectourwoods.org.