Representatives from a Medicine Hat-based hog production company, which claims to have removed all environmental impacts from their operations, will be speaking in Weyburn as part of a provincial tour of prospective sites for a new hog operation.

The company, Pure Lean Hogs Inc., has expressed an interest in expanding into Saskatchewan, and has visited prospective sites in such locations as Estevan, Wawota and Moosomin. Their public presentation in Weyburn will be made on Thursday, Oct. 18, at the Elks Hall starting at 7 p.m.

The meeting was arranged by the Southeast Regional Economic Development Authority (SEREDA), whose manager, Dylan Clarke, feels this could be a good opportunity for the Weyburn area.

"There has been interest from some of the municipalities in SEREDA. The company representatives are going to go over how their system differs from traditional hog barns, as well explaining their future plans and investment opportunities," said Clarke.

He visited one of their hog operations based in Oyen, Alta., and said he found their claims about the lack of smell to be true.

"We stood in the middle of the barn, amongst about 10,000 hogs for an hour and a half, and there was no smell from the hogs whatsoever," said Clarke.

The key to their system, according to company information, is they do not use a slurry lagoon to store the waste from the hogs; instead, the hog manure is converted into clean compost, which is sold as a high-quality organic compost. Most of the stinky odours usually associated with hog barns are caused by gases such as sulphur dioxide released by the slurry lagoon.

In addition, as no waste leaves the hog barn, there is no worry about ground water contamination, which has caused problems with the water supply in some communities, such as Walkerton, Ont., where animal waste infected with E. coli got into the town's drinking water supply.

Their barns also provide more square footage for each hog than a traditional barn, with higher roofs to provide better air circulation, with the result the pork is a higher quality meat.