Roy Exum: Andy Holt’s Newest Stink

  • Saturday, June 6, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

In 2013 the Tennessee State Legislature approved a bill that was craftily designed to discourage the use of hidden cameras to prove animal abuse on the state’s farms. It was immediately called the “ag gag bill” and, while it was successful in the state legislature, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam received over 15,000 emails and over 5,000 telephone calls when people realized its true intent and the governor vetoed it.

This was after an undercover video of Hall of Fame horse trainer Jackie McConnell went viral, showing him sadistically and unmercifully “schooling” a defenseless Tennessee Walking Horse that was shown to the world on the news program “Nightline.” Since then, soring and torture of horses has continued unabated in Tennessee.

The “ag gag bill” was sponsored by a fiery Republican legislator from Dresden, Tn., named Andy Holt – no kin to the legendary University of Tennessee president by the same name – and after he went on several tirades over the bill, it was learned Holt, a pig farmer, was a notorious scofflaw who ran his “factory” pig farm without any permit for a number of years.

In fact, an investigation by television station WTVF actually showed a report from the Tennessee Department of the Environment, written in 2011, that read, “Several serious violations noted, but an EAR (Enforcement Action Review) was discouraged by upper management."

“Discouraged” because Rep.

Holt is currently the vice-chair of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee in the state legislature and is also a member of the Local Government Committee and of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee. Oh my heavens!

"We're not letting this one slide under the doormat. We've been working on this," said Kelly Brockman, director of communications for TDEC several months ago, but she would neither confirm nor deny an active investigation of Holt and his farm.

"When we have an active potential enforcement matter, we cannot talk about where we are in the process," she told a Memphis website. EPA spokesman Jason McDonald said the same thing. "It's an open case. It's ongoing, so we cannot comment."

Here is part of the NewsChannel 5 transcript:

* * *

“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.

* * *

Now Holt has created more of what politely is called “a stink.” On April 21, 2015, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, Atlanta, sent him a Certified Letter and is demanding Holt answer some pointed questions. These include:

-- An unauthorized wastewater discharge of approximately 482,260 gallons (of hog waste) from a primary lagoon on Holt’s farm into an unnamed tributary of Mud Creek on or about Feb. 24, 2011.

-- An unauthorized wastewater release of approximately 142,560 gallons of (hog waste) from a secondary lagoon on Holt’s Farm into an unnamed tributary of Mud Creek on or about Feb. 25, 2011.

-- An unauthorized wastewater discharge release of approximately 237,000 gallons (of hog waste) from primary lagoon on Holt’s farm into an unnamed tributary of Mud Creek on or about August 6, 2013.

Gosh, that’s over three-quarters of a million gallons of raw hog excrement. According to one source, during one of the releases the Mud River was still black more than a mile away. Is it any wonder Andy Holt doesn’t want environmentalists or health inspectors or other people photographing that much pig “stink” that is being released into the water systems of Mud Creek? What about those who live downstream?

No one can predict what Holt will do. He says he no longer raises hogs but his temper is still volatile. During the “ag gag” circus, he lashed out at Humane Society officials with quite a rant: “I am extremely pleased that we were able to pass HB 1191 (the ag-gag law) today to help protect livestock in Tennessee from suffering months of needless investigation that propagandist groups of radical animal activists, like your fraudulent and reprehensibly disgusting organization of maligned animal abuse profiteering corporatists, who are intent on using animals the same way human-traffickers use 17-year-old women,” he raged.

Holt wasn’t finished. “You work for a pathetic excuse for an organization and a pathetic group of sensationalists who seek to profit from animal abuse. I am glad, as an aside, that we have limited your preferred fundraising methods here in the state of Tennessee; a method that I refer to as ‘tape and rape.’ Best wishes for the failure of your organization and it’s (sic) true intent.”

Yet in a roll call of the legislature, he finds it humorous to answer when his name is called, “Soooie!” What a dandy.

royexum@aol.com

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