South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem recently signed House Bill 1090 — a bill that aims to protect farmers from nuisance complaints or lawsuits — into law.
The law will limit the amount of money that can be awarded and addresses complaints or lawsuits against operations such as farms, ranches, and CAFOs. Damages will be measured by the reduction in fair market value, and in temporary nuisance cases, the reduction in the fair rental value of the property. Additionally, suits and complaints are limited to plaintiffs who live within one mile and are the owner or leaser of the property.
Noem signed the bill at a farm implementation in Mitchell, South Dakota, saying, “I think we all know agriculture is the number one industry in our state.” And, there’s no doubt that these protections would have saved courts and plaintiffs time and money in 2019 when Travis and Jill Mockler applied for a conditional use permit to operate a concentrated animal feeding operation in Clay County, South Dakota.
After the Clay County Planning Commission granted the permit, the Sierra Club sued. Multiple years into the legal battle, the Supreme Court eventually found that the Sierra Club lacked “standing to bring this lawsuit in its own right. The circuit court concluded that Sierra Club was not a person aggrieved and lacked representational standing.”
While opponents to the bill argue that noises and smells can travel over a mile and that the bill is unnecessary because of the low number of suits filed, provisions in the law say that a person filing the complaint must present “clear and convincing evidence” that the farm violated laws or regulations.
A similar bill was introduced in Nebraska’s legislature this year by State Sen. Beau Ballard. This bill even further limits plaintiffs to landowners who live within a half-mile of agricultural operations and who have majority interest in their land.
According to the National Agricultural Law Center, Right-To-Farm Statutes exist in all 50 states, but a slew of nuisance suits spurred a host of new state laws to protect farms from litigation over smells, noises, and water quality.
»Related: Ohio activists try to spin governmental inertia into CAFO policy win
