A. Any agricultural operation or agricultural facility is not, nor shall it become, a private or public nuisance by any changed condition in or about the locality of the agricultural operation or agricultural facility if the operation was not a nuisance at the time the operation began and has been in existence for more than one year; except that the provisions of this section shall not apply whenever an agricultural operation or agricultural facility is operated negligently or illegally such that the operation or facility is a nuisance.

B. Any ordinance or resolution of any unit of local government that makes the operation of any agricultural operation or agricultural facility a nuisance or provides for abatement of it as a nuisance under the circumstances set forth in this section shall not apply when an agricultural operation is located within the corporate limits of any municipality as of April 8, 1981.

C. The established date of operation is the date on which an agricultural operation commenced or an agricultural facility was originally constructed. If an agricultural operation or agricultural facility is subsequently expanded or a new technology is adopted, the established date of operation does not change.

D. No cause of action based upon nuisance may be brought by a person whose claim arose following the purchase, lease, rental, or occupancy of property proximate to a previously established agricultural operation or agricultural facility, except when such previously established agricultural operation or agricultural facility has substantially changed in the nature and scope of its operations.

History: Laws 1981, ch. 287, § 3; 1991, ch. 129, § 2; 2014, ch. 22, § 1; 2016, ch. 44, § 1.

The 2016 amendment, effective May 18, 2016, amended the Right to Farm Act to protect agricultural operations or facilities from nuisance claims; and added new Subsection D.

The 2014 amendment, effective May 21, 2014, eliminated improperly operated agricultural operations or facilities as a nuisance; prescribed the date when agricultural operations that are located within a municipality are exempt from local governmental rules and regulations that make agricultural operations a nuisance; in Subsection A, after "is operated negligently", deleted "improperly"; and in Subsection B, after "corporate limits of any municipality as of", deleted "the effective date of the Right to Farm Act" and added "April 8, 1981".

The 1991 amendment, effective June 14, 1991, deleted former Subsection A which read "For the purposes of this Act, 'agricultural operations' means the use of land for the production of plants, crops, trees, forest products, orchard crops, livestock, poultry or fish"; redesignated former Subsections B and C as Subsections A and B; inserted "or agricultural facility" in two places in Subsection A and near the beginning of Subsection B; substituted the language beginning "whenever an agricultural operation" for "in the case of a negligent operation or when a change in an operation would result in a common law nuisance" at the end in Subsection A; added Subsection C; and made minor stylistic changes throughout the section.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Hog breeding, confining, or processing facility as constituting nuisance, 93 A.L.R.5th 621.