Rubashkins' Pollution Problem

Rubashkins' pollution problem: Postville, Iowa; Allentown, PA.

Comments

[CR]

Well, at least local environmental authorities are having their say and serving as a check on over-expansive practices.

"DECORAH --- Cottonballs Poultry Barns has withdrawn an application for a construction permit for a chicken confinement facility capable of holding 220,000 birds in Bloomfield Township. Instead, company officials intend to pursue smaller projects throughout the area.
...
"The company continues to actively push the family farms poultry program recruiting local farmers interested in diversifying their operations by putting up one of these poultry barns. They have a very good contract to offer the farmers," Gauldin said.
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Supervisors Chairman Dean Darling said it appears when large livestock confinements are rejected, operators revert to smaller operations. That's been the case with hog confinements near the state line he noted.

"They build a facility large enough to be just under the radar and not require any permit, which is their prerogative," Darling said.

Though supervisors haven't addressed the issue, Darling thinks local authorities should have some say over where confinement facilities go "just as we have siting authority for factories, hospitals, Wal-Marts or any other large industrial or commercial enterprises."

Stay tuned. Expect a "win/win" sort of compromise on this in the not-so-distant future.

[CR]

Also interesting is this nugget:After years of watching what they believe is the deterioration of the creek and the Yellow River it flows into, landowners and citizens banded together. The group they formed, Northeast Iowa Citizens for Clean Water, has waged a legal battle against the city and Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant and Postville's largest employer.

The group is also taking on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which it alleges has allowed the city to discharge overly polluted water into Hecker Creek. Chloride discharged from the city's wastewater system comes in part from Agriprocessors, which uses salt in its kosher processing.

A new $10 million wastewater treatment plant in Postville sits idle while the matter is sorted out in court.So, whose fault is it that the treatment plant, ready to go, is switched off? Whose fault is it that untreated wastewater continues to flow untreated? It seems to me that if "Northeast Iowa Citizens for Clean Water" really gave a flying flip they would want to get that plant up and online ASAP!

[criminal record]

very intersting article.