In response to Fletcher’s Mayor [William] Moore and Barry Miller’s letter in the Mountain Xpress [“Duke Energy Project Option Poses Environmental Hazards,” Aug. 26] and the industrial chicken farms in Surry County, it seems that the affected landowners in a least two separate cases have had their constitution rights violated. …
Thank you [to Moore] for opposing the proposed Duke Energy power line route planned for a scenic area. … The health and environmental and economic damage from the electromagnetic field and 140-foot tall towers and wires and maintenance (soil erosion and chopping and spraying) from this construction is something we all have deal with along existing power routes. Property is devalued as well.
Ask any Realtor. Can you sell this house for the price it was worth before this sparking, crackling steel tower power line route was here above my house?
In the Surry County, Stokes County and downstream Forsyth County area, we are suffering from the detrimental air and water and groundwater effects of industrial chicken farms.
There are over 2 million chickens now being raised in Tyson/Perdue-sponsored industrial chicken barns (defined as exempt by North Carolina regulations). Tyson and Perdue supply the young chickens to be raised, and the “farmers” supply the barn and land and water and labor and waste disposal problem solutions.
These 2 million chickens in industrial chicken farms are in the Yadkin River watershed above Winston-Salem.
The citizen dwelling owners living next to these recently installed industrial chicken barns in Surry County have had their health affected and, essentially, had their property rendered unsellable by the effects of the ammonia smell and airborne particulate matter coming from the massive chicken barns (at least 25,000 chickens per barn). …
Can they sell a house for the value it had prior to the adjacent chicken barns being installed? These neighbors [are] prisoners, as they cannot hope to sell their plot of land, so they cannot move to a safe place. …
These hapless property owners below power lines and next to chicken farms have had their constitutional rights violated and can sue to address their losses.
Perhaps an alert attorney will be willing to take on a property devaluation/deprivation case to set a precedent. …
— Clayton Moore
Fairview
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