The Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment (DWEE) has received around 40 letters from current and former Cherry County residents since July 1 – the vast majority opposing a proposed hog operation near Valentine.
DWEE has indicated in its public notice that it intends to approve a construction and operating permit for TK Angus Co., a family cattle operation seeking to add two swine finishing barns — housing up to 4,999 hogs — alongside 600 feeder cattle on land about 2.7 miles from the Niobrara River. The department has said a final decision will follow review of public comments, which closed Friday.
A one-woman information campaign
Sunny Elliott, a Cherry County resident and science teacher, built a website tracking the permit process largely on her own, after concluding that many residents didn't understand the environmental implications or the permitting process behind the decision.
"I just kind of found that a lot of people surrounding this really didn't understand the basics of the science behind this. And so I just wanted to create the website," Elliott said. "First I started with the Facebook page, then it grew into a website, and I wanted to try to just simplify that so that people could easily understand this process."
The website, Protect Cherry County, compiles verified facts and open questions from the public record, and includes a tool that helps residents draft personalized comments to DWEE. Elliott said the site started as something simpler — a way to organize her own research.
"It really was kind of for myself to keep organized. This was a lot of information to tackle. And I still just sit and organize and organize and try to figure out the best way to put that stuff in," Elliott said.
Elliott said she launched a digital petition on July 29 that gathered around 300 signatures within about two days. She said the petition isn't meant to decide the permit's fate by popular vote — it documents how many residents are formally asking DWEE to either deny the permit or hold a public hearing before deciding.
"My primary concern is whether the permit application and nutrient-management plan adequately account for the conditions at this particular location," Elliott said, pointing to the Sandhills' permeable soil and vulnerable groundwater as reasons to scrutinize the plan's assumptions.
An application's own numbers don't match
Marissa Mann, an agronomist who grew up in the Valentine area, said the numbers in TK Angus's own permit application don't add up.
Mann, who holds a bachelor's degree in agronomy and soil science from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, submitted an independent technical review of the plan to DWEE. She said friends and family in the community asked her to take a look, because the application seemed incomplete. Mann's family owns property neighboring the proposed site.
"They have seemingly deflated the amount of manure and nitrogen produced, but inflated the amount of acres that they're going to apply to," Mann said.
Her written analysis estimates TK Angus may be short somewhere between 137 and 312 acres of usable farmland to responsibly apply the manure the operation would produce, depending on which assumptions are used. According to Mann's review, "the land base worksheet identifies 431 acres versus 471.9 acres as is reported in the land maps" — two different totals for the same land base, in the same application.
Mann also flagged a second issue in an addendum to her report: TK Angus's 600 feeder cattle appear to be missing from the plan's nutrient calculations entirely.
"Six-hundred head of feeder cattle were not included in their fertility plans," Mann wrote, adding that accounting for the cattle "would increase the number of acres needed to appropriately utilize the manure/nitrogen produced."
Mann said she isn't opposed to livestock production broadly.
"I want to ensure that things are done ethically and responsibly, especially when we have such a critical environment to protect," she said.
A permit fight that predates the state review
According to reporting by the Nebraska Examiner, Cherry County commissioners initially denied TK Angus a conditional use permit in 2023, despite a favorable recommendation from the county's planning commission.
TK Angus sued, and a district judge ruled in 2025 that the county lacked sufficient evidence the project would harm neighboring property owners, ordering commissioners to approve it. Only after that ruling did the project reach DWEE's final-stage review.
Elliott said it's important to distinguish that earlier fight from the one playing out now. The county case, she said, addressed local zoning and planning — not the environmental questions currently before DWEE.
That distinction, she said, is part of why she believes a public hearing in Valentine would matter. It would give residents and technical experts a venue to address the environmental record directly, in a way the county case never did.
“There was a substantial amount of evidence that was never entered into the court. So bringing that public hearing to Cherry County, to our residents, would really allow for those technical reports and to get the true science… And just to find those people who have the technical skills to analyze this further,” Elliott said.
Tim Marlatt, whose family has operated TK Angus for years, told the Nebraska Examiner that concerns about odor and leaks are unfounded, and that the facility's design — capturing manure in a deep pit before it's applied to nearby fields — will prevent both.
Marlatt did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
DWEE did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. As of Friday, the department had not announced whether it would grant residents' request for a public hearing in Valentine, nor set a timeline for a final decision. In its public notice, DWEE describes its position as an "intent to approve" — not a final permit — pending review of the written record.