Pig farm owner now has one year to ease odors

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, July 9, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

A revised plan to make a pig farm in the middle of North Las Vegas less stinky gives its owner, Robert Combs, a year instead of six months to have his operation smelling as good as possible.

Since agreeing to a general odor-reduction plan in February, Combs said he has bulldozed about five of his 50 or so pigpens and will eventually replace all of them in addition to making other changes that he hopes will reduce the odor on the farm.

The original odor-reducing plan called for changes at the farm within six months. But a final version of the plan agreed to by Combs and Clark County attorneys two weeks ago gives Combs another six months to work on odor-reducing upgrades at the farm.

After six months the county's expert will visit Combs' R.C. Farms to see if any changes need to be made to the plan. Combs would then have another six months to fully comply with the odor-reduction plan. The final version of the plan is expected to go before the county Air Pollution Control hearing officer for formal approval on July 23.

Deputy District Attorney Catherine Jorgenson said Combs is being offered additional time at the recommendation of an expert the county hired to study the situation: a professor from Oregon State University.

"The expert when he came out he wasn't sure if some things would work or wouldn't work," she said. "Also, he realizes this is a huge overhaul."

In addition to replacing the pigpens, Combs has agreed to feed his 5,700 pigs through a trough instead of throwing feed on the ground, install misters over a concrete floor to cool the pigs, whereas now the pigs cool off in smelly wallows, and generally do more frequent cleaning of the animals and where they are kept. The farm is also home to about 300 cows.

Combs said the changes will cost him at least $100,000 and he might be able to get all the changes in place within six months.

Combs said although he didn't ask for more time, it will be helpful.

"Rome wasn't built in a day," he said.

By agreeing to the county plan, Combs avoided all but $500 of the $71,000 in fines that had been levied against the farm. R.C. Farms will be fined $10,000 if the farm does not follow through with plan.

For 40 years Combs has taken table scraps from Strip hotels to feed the hogs on his farm, which is on unincorporated county land surrounded by property within incorporated North Las Vegas.

The smelly operation was beyond the range of most of his neighbors' noses for decades, but it isn't anymore as development has all but surrounded the farm.

Combs said he has no plans to leave the area and says the farm will always have some odor. But he wants to be a good neighbor.

"We want to be a community asset," he said.

"It's always going to smell like a farm," Jorgenson said, "But the goal is to reduce it."

Some neighbors of the Combs' farm said they are hopeful the smell will improve and happy it is being addressed by county officials, even if it may take longer than previously thought.

However, none said they thought the smell will ever be eliminated unless the farm shuts down or moves, and Combs says he has no intention of doing either.

"It's agriculture and with 5,700 pigs you're going to have an odor," said Jim Hacker, 50, who has lived within a few hundred yards of the farm since October 1997. "The good news is that at least they're paying attention to it.

"I feel bad for the guy because he's been here long before we were. But let's face it, North Las Vegas is not going to stop growing because of a pig farm."