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DNR reduces fine for repeat manure offenders
A pair of northeast Iowa dairy farmers successfully appealed for a reduced fine for contaminating a creek with manure despite a similar violation in recent years, according to administrative orders of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. William and Jeff Lawler were initially fined $10,000 — the maximum amount — in February for the most-recent […]
Company fined for sewage discharge near drinking water source
An Ottumwa company will pay $5,500 for releasing thousands of gallons of municipal wastewater into a rural area with a drain that leads directly to underground tile lines. The wastewater flowed into a ditch and creek that feed the Des Moines River, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The DNR received a report […]
Farmer fined $18,000 for creek contamination and fish kill
A northeast Iowa farmer who hauls and applies soil conditioner to farm fields was aware one of his storage pits might be leaking but filled it anyway with the conditioner last summer, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The leak led to extensive pollution of a nearby creek that feeds the Turkey River. […]
Wastewater leaks into creek that feeds Creston lake
The bank of a Creston creek collapsed and severed a sewer line on Tuesday, which spilled untreated wastewater into the creek for about four hours until city workers were able to repair it, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The leak was reported about 1:20 p.m. in the southwest Iowa town of about […]
Iowa COVID cases hold steady; hospitalizations rise
State health officials reported 900 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday for the past week — a slight decrease from the previous week’s numbers — but hospitalizations doubled. There were 68 people infected by the coronavirus receiving inpatient treatment at Iowa hospitals that day, according to U.S. Health and Human Services data. That’s an increase […]
Groups choose Fort Dodge for Summit pipeline hearing
Fort Dodge should be the location of the Iowa Utilities Board hearing to consider a proposed liquid carbon pipeline that would span about 680 miles across the northwestern half of the state, the pipeline company and an anti-pipeline group agree. Summit Carbon Solutions is one of three companies to propose such a pipeline — which […]
Guthrie Center used city firefighter’s property for illegal training fire
A western Iowa fire department conducted an illegal training simulation last year when it burned an old church building owned by one of its firefighters. The building was not properly inspected for asbestos as required, and it had already been demolished, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The former Church of the Open […]
Biogas producer fined for weekslong wastewater discharge
A northern Iowa facility built to extract methane from industrial wastewater and organic waste leaked an estimated 72,000 gallons of wastewater into the ground, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The wastewater entered underground tile lines and flowed into a river tributary over the course of about seven weeks while the facility’s owner […]
Vilsack: Impact of bird flu in 2022 might be ‘significantly less’ than 2015
If current infection trends hold, the effects of deadly and highly contagious avian influenza outbreaks in the United States will not exceed those of 2015, when more than 50 million birds were culled, according to the country’s top agriculture official. “In terms of the nature of the outbreaks, the size of the operations that have […]
Iowa’s COVID infection rate nearly doubles but remains low
State health officials reported 930 new confirmed coronavirus infections on Wednesday for the past week, or an average rate of about 133 per day. That is nearly double the previous week’s rate of about 68 per day but is still far below the pandemic peak in January, when there were more than 5,000 new COVID-19 […]
State: Recreational vehicle park can’t use brand-new $65K septic field
The owner of a newly opened park for recreational vehicles in western Iowa placed a septic field too close to a lake and has been barred from using it, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Zachary Terry, who opened his Sunset at Blue Oasis RV Park near Onawa on April 1, said he […]
Amid bird flu fears, peak duck migration is here
Wild ducks that are prominent carriers of a highly contagious avian influenza are migrating through Iowa in their greatest numbers this month, said Adam Janke, a wildlife extension specialist at Iowa State University. There are about 20 different duck species that number in the hundreds of thousands that travel through Iowa on their way to […]