The state has spent years documenting Rep. Andy Holt’s 1,400-hog farm as operating without a valid permit but has yet to come down on him, according to NewsChannel5.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Department of Agriculture had been chasing down Holt since 2009 for repeatedly finding his farm out of compliance both for operating without a valid permit and for failing to submit tests on manure quality, we first reported in 2013.
Last we left Holt, he had yet to complete an application for a proper permit after asked again in 2013. According to NewsChannel5's story aired Monday, he filed the same information that the state found lacking in 2012.
In 2012, after nearly three years without a permit, the state ordered him to turn in the required paperwork so he could get a permit. "This isn't something where I just said nope. I don't want a permit," Holt said. "I don't want to have to apply for that. That's not the case. There were several attempts made to apply for the permit."State records show Holt submitted the exact same incomplete paperwork in 2012 and 2013, but the state let him keep on operating.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "Were you really trying to get this permit?"
"Yes absolutely," the lawmaker insisted. "I was trying to make a good faith effort."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked [TDEC] Commissioner Martineau, "This has gone on for years. When do you go to the Attorney General and say let's shut this place down?"
"I can't guess in hypotheticals," Martineau responded.
Holt is vice chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, and a prominent voice among politically conservative tea party legislators who speaks out against overregulation and big government. An attempt to reach him Tuesday afternoon was not successful as of this posting. According to the news channel, one inspector wrote in an email upper management discouraged "enforcement action" against Holt.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is after him, too, for information about his farm, according to the news report. Details of what information the EPA specifically wants from him was not yet available.
Holt, a Dresden Republican, sponsored the "Livestock Protection Act" in 2013, legislation coined the "Ag Gag" bill that critics argued would target whistle blowers trying to build a case against animal abusers and hamper news gathering. The legislation would have required people to quickly hand over images of abuse to authorities. The governor later vetoed the bill amid public backlash and constitutional constitutional concerns.
Holt says that as of late 2014, he doesn't produce hogs anymore, although NewsChannel5 did a flyover of his farm and found a flock of buzzards pigging out on a dead hog. Holt says the birds must have dug it out of the dirt.
