The group of Friendship citizens opposed to the expansion of TCB Farms' swine operation said the operation's location near Pond Creek is a concern.

"It's already hurt pretty bad by all the runoff for years," said Viki Parker, an advocate against the TCB permit request. "Pond Creek doesn't need thousands of pigs with thousands of pounds of manure next to it."

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Pond Creek is classified by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation as an "impaired stream," with high amounts of agricultural chemicals and unhealthy organisms.

The almost 25-mile long stream runs from near Friendship into the North Fork of the Forked Deer River south of Dyersburg, flowing beneath Highway 210 and Sorrells Chapel Road. A July 2005 TDEC report noted Pond Creek was polluted by low oxygen, phosphorus, e. coli bacteria, and loss of biological integrity due to siltation.

The TDEC study noted Pond Creek at East Road, at the monitoring station nearest to TCB Farms, had e. coli readings five times higher than the maximum water quality target.

At the time of the study, Crockett County had a hog population of 474, mostly in traditional small farm pens, and the TCB Farm was not operating.

The same study said CAFOs -- a Confined Animal Feeding Operation -- are considered sources of e. coli. Another source is failed septic systems. The Pond Creek watershed had 2,388 septic systems in 2006, the study said.

The TCB permit is the first for a Class I CAFO permit in the larger watershed.

TCB's sole customer, Tosh Farms, was fined by TDEC in June 2007 with a $75,000 civil penalty and $1,358.42 in other penalties after a complaint of black water flowing in a stream 500 yards downstream of the main Tosh facility in Henry County.

The investigation found no CAFO or construction permits had been issued for the hog barns and waste had been discharged into state waters. The polluted streams also tested extremely high for fecal material, said the state's complaint.

Tosh appealed the decision. The fine was reduced in December 2007 to $14,000, in addition to the $1,358.42 in other penalties.