(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Southeast Iowa city fined for delayed wastewater improvements [1]
['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- October']
Date: 2023-10
The city of Winfield has for more than two years been polluting a creek with elevated levels of ammonia nitrogen and E. coli bacteria because it has failed to update its wastewater treatment plant, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR recently fined the city $4,500 for failing to meet numerous compliance deadlines in the past five years.
Winfield is town of about 1,000 people in Henry County. Its wastewater goes into lagoons that discharge into a tributary of Crooked Creek, which flows to the Skunk River.
A permit for discharging wastewater into public streams in 2017 required the city to update its treatment plant to comply with state regulations by July 2021. Since that deadline passed, the city has routinely documented violations of those regulations.
The bacteria concentrations of that wastewater have been nearly 12 times the allowable limit, according to the DNR. Ammonia concentrations have been more than eight times the limit.
The city is poised to begin a $4.5 million overhaul of its treatment plant later this year or in early 2024, according to the Southeast Iowa Union.
The DNR has issued a September 2025 deadline for completion of the project. The department is requiring the city to provide updates on its progress every six months.
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