(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
DNR: Dairy farm expansion began without state approval [1]
['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-02
A northwest Iowa dairy farm that has been faulted for several manure releases has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine for starting construction on a significant expansion before obtaining approval from state regulators.
Rock Bottom Dairy, near Lester in Lyon County, applied to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for a construction permit in 2023 to increase its cattle confinement capacity by about 50%. But work on the project began before the department issued a permit, according to a recent DNR order, and a new manure storage basin was constructed too close to a nearby residence.
The DNR discovered the violation when the neighbor contacted the department to inquire about the work in September. The facility’s owner, Bernard Bakker, later admitted the work had begun prematurely “to complete construction prior to the winter weather,” the DNR order said.
Other state records indicate that the permit’s issuance had been delayed because the county neglected to publish a public notice about it. The permit was issued about a week after the department noted the violation.
An edge of the new basin was moved farther from the neighbor’s acreage to comply with state requirements that the basins be at least 2,500 feet away.
The expansion project increased the number of dairy cattle housed in a confinement building from 3,600 to 5,600, DNR records show. The animals are expected to produce about 37 million gallons of manure each year.
The dairy farm has been the source of five manure releases in the past two decades, two of which polluted nearby Mud Creek and its tributary with hundreds of thousands of gallons of manure.
The most-recent incident was in April 2021 and was caused by a manure spreader that was left running too long in a field. The creek contamination killed an estimated 96,000 fish, and Bakker paid about $36,000 in fines and fish restitution.
The expansion project was expected to include the installation of a manure digester atop preexisting manure basins, according to state records. Those systems capture biogas from manure decomposition that is often used to heat livestock facilities.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/dnr-dairy-farm-expansion-began-without-state-approval/
Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/
