MOULTRIE — “The first thing I asked anyone wanting to put in a chicken house,” stated former UGA poultry scientist Stan Savage, “was what do you plan to do with the litter?”

Colquitt County Commission heard from Savage and others during a public hearing Tuesday as it considered zoning changes to address chicken waste disposal.

Following the hearing, commissioners approved measures requiring any facility housing more than 1,000 birds to have a stack house to allow for the storage and composting of the birds’ droppings.

Chicken litter is good fertilizer. Savage said he uses it himself on his hay fields. But changes in farming have left Colquitt County with too much of a good thing … and other people argue it isn’t such a good thing anyway when you consider the smell and other environmental effects.

A couple of decades ago, Savage said, a farmer might have two to six small chicken houses and either he or his neighbor would have fields in need of the fertilizer.

“In the last 20 years, that type of farmer is gone,” he said.

Poultry farmers tend to be specialists now with multiple, large chicken houses that can hold 25,000 birds each. A grow-out can produce 50 or 60 tons of litter, Savage said, and each house can host six grow-outs per year.

Those same farmers don’t have the large fields of row crops their predecessors did, Savage said, and even if they did, they’re getting litter all year long but can only spread it during a certain part of the growing season, before planting.

“After the land is planted, there’s no place to go with the litter,” he said.

The litter presents an environmental problem when rain washes it into streams and rivers. And neighbors can affirm that it smells. In fact, some Colquitt County residents spoke at the public hearing on that very aspect of the issue.

“Colquitt County’s going to be known as the Stink Capital of the World,” Ronald McMullen warned. McMullen said he lives near a poultry operation.

Stack houses won’t solve all the problems, but they’ll help. They’ll keep the litter contained and dry better than a tarp, which some growers use to meet federal regulations. And they’ll help contain the odor so neighbors won’t be affected as badly.

Existing chicken operations would be “grandfathered in,” which means they will continue to operate under the old law. If they add or move a chicken house, though, they’ll have to have a stack house in keeping with the new ordinance, County Administrator Chas Cannon said.

“It’s really a best management practice,” Cannon said, “protecting the environment and maximizing the value of the litter.”

Approval of the new zoning rule received applause from several spectators at the commission meeting.

A number of those spectators were associated with a second, related issue that came up later in the meeting. Near the end of the meeting is a time reserved for citizens to approach the commission about any issue, and at that time Jennifer Alexander spoke about a proposed chicken operation on J.R. Suber Road, where she lives.

Alexander described the dirt road with two sharp curves and its condition when it gets wet. She described it as sandy on one end and messy clay on the other.

A chicken operation, she said, involves a lot of traffic, including tractor-trailers hauling off the birds at harvest. She said the road wasn’t built to handle that kind of traffic, and it would be a safety issue for residents who live there.

Alexander was followed by Clarence Lowe, who has farmed nearby on Cool Springs Road for more than 50 years. He said he and other families had united in the 1980s to leave 8,000 acres near Warrior Creek pristine. Lowe said he feared that a chicken operation where it’s planned on J.R. Suber Road would lead to runoff into Warrior Creek, which would damage the land he and others had set aside and damage waterways all the way to the Little River and Reed Bingham State Park.

Lowe urged the commission to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to look at the proposed site, and Commissioner Johnny Hardin made a motion that the county do that very thing. It was seconded by Commissioner Winfred Giddens and passed unanimously.

In other action Tuesday, the county commission:

• Approved a renewal of the county’s contract with the Public Defender’s Office.

• Approved its contribution to a defined benefit plan.

• Approved the purchase of a backhoe from Flint Equipment Company at a cost of $31,500 after allowing for a buy-back provision.

• Approved the purchase of a 2015 Dodge Charger from Robert Hutson as a pursuit vehicle for the Sheriff’s Department. The car will cost $23,578. This replaces one that was totaled in a wreck on R.L. Sears Road.

• Named Commissioner Donna Herndon as vice chairman of the commission for 2015. The role was scheduled to go to Commissioner Luke Strong, who has struggled with health issues recently; the motion included the stipulation that Strong would be chosen vice chairman next year.

• Approved the purchase of a pickup truck for the Roads and Bridges Department at a cost of $24,100 from Robert Hutson.

• Declared an older backhoe and seven sheriff’s patrol cars as surplus to be sold.