After a years-long court battle with a neighbor, a West Slope Colorado family has won a jury verdict in Delta County District Court affirming its right to operate a 15,000-hen egg farm under Colorado’s “right to farm” law. The case is said to have far-reaching implications for farming as well as property rights in general, reports Paonia-based High Country News.

Edwin Hostetler was sued in 2011 by a neighbor in rural Delta County who complained of dust and odor she attributed to Hostetler’s egg operation. But leading state officeholders from both political parties as well as state and local agencies stepped in on his side.

As reported by the petroleum-industry blog Western Wire:

In 2014, Colo. Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Department of Agriculture and then-Colorado Attorney General John Suthers (R) filed an amicus brief arguing that the Hostetler farm was protected under the state’s right-to-farm laws, which shield farmers and ranchers using standard farming practices from nuisance lawsuits.

Western Wire spoke with rural Republican state Sen. Don Coram, of Montrose, who went to bat for the farm:

“It’s a situation where, had we lost the first case, if they could shut that down [the chicken farm], they could shut down any business in the state down because of the nuisance,” Coram explained.

“It could have actually gone much farther into situations where there’s a gravel operation, for example,” Coram continued. “It could be used to shut that down or trucking companies starting their trucks at 4 o’clock in the morning; it would shut those down. It goes far beyond agriculture.”

The statute’s legislative declaration reads in part:

It is the declared policy of the state of Colorado to conserve, protect, and encourage the development and improvement of its agricultural land for the production of food and other agricultural products. The general assembly recognizes that, when nonagricultural land uses extend into agricultural areas, agricultural operations often become the subject of nuisance suits. As a result, a number of agricultural operations are forced to cease operations, and many others are discouraged from making investments in farm improvements. It is the purpose of this article to reduce the loss to the state of Colorado of its agricultural resources by limiting the circumstances under which agricultural operations may be deemed to be a nuisance. …