Three little pigs, one big nuisance for Island Lake

Three little piggies came home this week to Bob Wargaski's new hog farm off Dowell Road near Island Lake.

How long they'll stay is anyone's guess.

The 61-year-old Wauconda Township man says he's using the pigs to stop a village well project that would cause his own well to go dry.

But Island Lake officials claim Wargaski's real motivation is money.

Village Trustee Rich Garling said this week that a confidential letter from Wargaski's attorney makes several demands in exchange for moving the pig farm - which is three years in the making - off his property and allowing the village to construct its well nearby.

In the letter, Wargaski lists nine conditions for resolving the matter, including the village paying for his legal fees and the costs of constructing the pig farm.

Among his demands, Wargaski wants the village to extend a water and sewer line to his property at its own cost and enter into a 20-year annexation agreement with him whereby he would have the option of annexing his agriculturally zoned property into the village as commercial.

"I feel he is holding a gun to our head with his demands," Garling said. "It's either 'do this or I'm going to put the pigs in there and I will continue to sue you.'"

Wargaski said the letter was his attorney's idea and sent in response to the village attorney asking him what it would take to settle the matter.

"I don't want them coming in there," he said. "That's my bottom line. If they're not going to move (the tower), then you have devalued my property and you're going to pay for it."

If the village were to make those improvements to Wargaski's property, it could triple his land value at village taxpayers' expense, Garling said.

Wargaski plans to raise the pigs for slaughter at the facility and says he's legally allowed to house up to 20 hogs. The pig farm will halt the well and tower project, he says, because of a law the prohibits the storage of animal feces within 400 feet of a public water source.

An IEPA inspector will visit Wargaski's farm next week to confirm that he is handling livestock waste there, said Rick Cobb, the agency's deputy division manager for the Division of Public Water Supplies.

Cobb said Wargaski could be cited for violating the setback provisions of the IEPA permit for its well and the Illinois Environmental Protection Act.

Wargaski would then have 45 days to respond to the notice. It's up to the Illinois Attorney General's Office to decide whether to file charges against Wargaski.

Wargaski contends his pig farm was there first, because the village hasn't made any progress on its well construction since receiving the IEPA permit in May.

Wargaski started building the hog containment shed on his land in August with a permit from the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Island Lake Mayor Tom Hyde said the village is moving forward with its roughly $5 million well and water tower project.

"That will be one of our largest wells once it's fully in operation," Hyde said. "There's millions of dollars invested in this. We spent many a thousands of dollars already just to get to this point. It takes years to put everything together."

The village in June provided the IEPA with a project schedule with a final project completion date of April 2010.