CEDAR CITY -- Circle Four Farms' plan to expand its hog operation near Milford goes before the Iron County Planning & Zoning Commission Thursday.

Rich Wilson, chairman of the commission, said there is little chance the commission will not approve the company's plans to boost production of hogs over the next three to five years to 900,000 annually, up from 600,000.The expansion is part of the company's long-term plans outlined in general terms to representatives of the two counties and the public when it began operations, Wilson said.

Circle Four, which employs 375 people in Utah, has 32,000 sows in its Skyline complex 12 miles south of Milford.

It houses another 10,000 sows in the partially completed Blue Mountain complex 35 miles northwest of Cedar City and 35 miles south of Milford in Beaver and Iron counties. The expansion will take place in Blue Mountain, said spokesman Brian Mauldwin.

Mauldwin said the expansion of the Blue Mountain complex involves adding another 35,000 sows and an additional 165 jobs. He said workers earn an average of $22,000 a year, not including company benefits.

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"We're moving forward, and we'll show them our proposal exceeds or meets all their conditions," he said.

Critics contend the company's expansion will lead to environmental problems such as groundwater contamination. Waste from the company's facilities drain into massive open-air lagoons.

"This is devastating for Utah," said A. True Ott of the Citizens for Responsible and Sustainable Agriculture.

Ott dismisses the economic benefits of the plant: "A coal miner has a better job than working at a hog farm."

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