Casey Kuhn/KJZZ

The sign outside of Hickmans Family Farms in Buckeye, Arizona.

Locals living in a small community west of Phoenix are hopeful that a surprise decision this month could lead to more regulation of the pollution they say is put out by the huge Hickman’s egg-laying facility nearby.

The advocates helping Tonopah locals call this a ‘David versus Goliath’ win.

In 2014, Hickmans Family Farms built a four million-bird egg ranch in Tonopah, west of Buckeye, and residents started complaining about the smell and health concerns.

However, because it is deemed agriculture, the egg ranch is not regulated for air quality like, say, a steel factory. Instead, it's regulated on the emissions that can be controlled and measured, like emissions from extra generators to run fans. 

Locals argued before the Air Pollution Hearing Board last month that the county should regulate all of Hickman’s emissions, not just the minor ones.

The board acknowledged two of their claims by asking the county for more information on whether it’s a minor or major source of pollution.

“That’s a huge win because it could potentially meet certain regulatory thresholds where it has to start being controlled and regulated in a different way,” Danielle Diamond, Socially Responsible Agriculture Project director, said. She and her group helped the residents appeal.

But county officials like Maricopa County Air Quality Department Permit Manager Richard Sumner said because the Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t historically regulated large animal operations air pollution, change is possible, but unlikely.

“We’re looking for kind of EPA to have a concerted, consistent way of addressing those and that hasn’t happened yet but that would be very beneficial to us in how we would regulate those types of industries,” Sumner said.

The EPA is currently investigating whether Hickmans is compliant with the Clean Air Act.