(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Wastewater disposal company fined for creek contamination [1]
['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- October']
Date: 2022-10-13
A company that disposes of wastewater by spreading it on fields has agreed to pay a $4,500 fine for polluting a southern Iowa creek that feeds the Des Moines River, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Buch Farms, of Fairfield, spread an unspecified amount of wastewater from a commercial composting site south of Eddyville on a nearby field in May 2022, DNR records show. Some of the wastewater — which is a byproduct of the composting process — went into a tile line intake and flowed into a tributary of Palestine Creek.
DNR tests of the creek revealed elevated levels of ammonia and a likely lack of oxygen. The creek water was discolored but no fish kill was apparent.
Buch Farms was disposing of wastewater for Chamness Technology, which has a long history of environmental violations at the rural Eddyville site, including wastewater discharges into Palestine Creek dating back to 2008, according to DNR records.
The company has been fined several times by the DNR, and in 2011 a district court judge ordered the company to pay $30,000 for deliberately pumping wastewater into the creek.
The creek flows about two miles to the Des Moines River, which is the drinking water source for Ottumwa about 10 miles downstream.
The DNR revoked the company’s composting permit in September 2021, and it is not allowed to take any more material to compost, said Brian Lee, a DNR environmental specialist.
The permit revocation followed a May 2021 wastewater discharge into the creek and a large fire in August 2021, DNR records show. Compost heaps can get hot and spontaneously combust if they are not tended properly.
Lee said the wastewater that was spread in May 2022 on the nearby field is from existing material that is still being composted, and that the site might cease operation unless the company is able to show it has updated the facility and its processes to prevent further environmental violations.
Buch Farms agreed to pay the $4,500 fine for the most-recent creek contamination and said it would not again spread the wastewater near the tile line intake.
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