MCPHERSON ? Faced with growing opposition, investors have decided to pull out of a proposed 3,500-cow corporate dairy in McPherson County.

Arkansas City businessman Fred Raybourn said he would not build the dairy, expected to cost at least $16 million and have 35 employees, where it was not wanted.

“I’m not going to fight them up there,” Raybourn said Thursday. “I’m not a confrontational person.”

The McPherson County Commission approved a resolution Nov. 5 opening the county to establishment of corporate dairies.

But at least 1,000 residents have signed petitions to force the issue onto the April 1 ballot, said Rick Anderson, general manager of the McPherson Board of Public Utilities.

Anderson’s concern is groundwater contamination. A 3,500-cow dairy could produce 402,500 pounds of solid and liquid waste a day.

McPherson, population 14,000, gets its water from 10 wells located in and near the city. Their average depth is 80 feet.

“We’ve got to protect that water supply,” Anderson said. “Without it, all the industrial development activities that we’ve got going are for naught.”

The idea of a corporate dairy is not without supporters.

“I think it would be an asset to our community,” said Doyle Davidson, a McPherson real estate agent. “I don’t think it presents the problems that some people would like you to believe.”

Before its recent closing, a 7,500-head cattle feedlot west of town showed that a large facility can be operated without environmental problems, Davidson said.

But Matthew Richter, a sign painter who signed the petition, believes residents should act to keep any corporate dairy out of the county.

“A lot of people haven’t said anything,” Richter said. “They’re borrowing against the future water quality of their county if they don’t get involved.”