State regulators have approved a massive expansion at Seaboard Foods’ hog feeding operation in western Kansas.

The state is permitting up to 396,000 animals despite concerns about whether the depleted Ogallala Aquifer underlying it has enough water to treat the waste from that many hogs.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment signed off on a wastewater permit for the facility on Feb. 26. This will be a 50 percent expansion at Seaboard’s Ladder Creek facility in Greeley County.

KDHE officials were drafting a response Tuesday afternoon.

A recent Kansas Geological Survey report states that the aquifer at the site is "effectively exhausted."