BELLE FOURCHE - Butte County commissioners Wednesday agreed to join Lawrence County commissioners and Spearfish and Belle Fourche city councils in asking the state to delay approval of a 4,000-head feedlot near the main Belle Fourche city water supply.

Several commissioners said they were surprised that the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources had not notified the county of the Two Tone Cattle Company's application.

"We didn't have any knowledge of it - and it's half the population of Butte County that could be affected," Commissioner Ken Hansen said.

The deadline for comment to DENR about the proposed expansion project is Friday, according to Belle Fourche City Engineer Terry Wolterstorff.

Belle Fourche receives about 60 percent of its water supply from a water infiltration gallery just north of Spearfish and west of U.S. Highway 85.

Commissioner Kim Kling said that further study of the proposed expansion of the feedlot is in order to determine possible risks to the city's water supply.

The county board authorized Chairman Stan Harms to send a letter to DENR to echo the city's request for research.

The Belle Fourche City Council on Monday requested the state to conduct at least a year's worth of testing on the aquifer to ensure a large feedlot would not have impacts on the Belle Fourche water infiltration gallery.

Many people are concerned that more than 4,000 feeder cattle would be dropping tons of manure on ground that could be feeding the shallow water aquifer that Belle Fourche people drink every day.

Belle Fourche has received its water from the gallery since about 1920. Although it is in Lawrence County, the water flows essentially northward by gravity through a 14-inch main. That main apparently is adjacent to the site of the expanded feedlot.

Wolterstorff said that Harvey and Bart Krautschun, on behalf of Two Tone Cattle Company, have spent quite a bit of money just preparing a plan for DENR that includes seven holding basins to contain waste runoff from the feedlot.

However, the proposed feedlot is about a mile from the underground gallery that draws its water apparently from several sources, including the Madison and Minnelusa aquifers - and the sand and gravel underlying the Spearfish Creek flood plain.

"It just defies all human logic to put a feedlot there," Mayor Dave Schneider said.

The area has porous soils and a history of housing and municipal projects that polluted water sources, cases that resulted in mechanical water treatment plants. City Councilman Henry Nore said the city has strongly opposed a residential development proposed in the area.

"This would be a greater hazard," he said.