BREAKING: 3rd manure spill for factory farm in Red Oak, Ia.

IOWA CCI MEMBERS DEMAND CLEAN WATER ACT PERMIT FOR REPEAT VIOLATOR

Hog Haven Has Had 3 Manure Spills Since 2009 With No Fines Or Penalties Per DNR RecordsDes Moines, IA.  A factory farm located in Red Oak, Iowa spilled manure into a tributary of the East Nishnabotna River Tuesday.  This was the third manure spill originating from Hog Haven, owned by Lindoah, LLC.  Iowa CCI members are calling on the Iowa DNR to issue its first hog confinement Clean Water Act Permit (NPDES Permit) to this repeat polluter.

“A Clean Water Act Permit would hold this polluter to higher standards or be shutdown.”  Said John Blasingame, Iowa CCI Board Member and retired Union Laborer from Malvern, Iowa.  “The laws and regulations protecting our water from factory farm manure pollution are weak and this is the best way to hold them accountable.”

CCI members say the benefits of Clean Water Act permits outweigh Iowa DNR’s current system of enforcement for environmental violations.  Currently DNR usually issues a Notice of Violation with no penalty attached.  Based on past experiences, the DNR only gets tough on polluters if local people make a stink about it.

“This is equivalent to a slap on the wrist.  If DNR doesn’t start getting tough on polluters, spills like this one become part of normal business practice.” Said Blasingame.  “Many of these polluters have had three, four and five spills.  These are repeat violators and really deserve to be shutdown.”

DNR has continually said that hog factory farms do not need Clean Water Act Permits because after a spill they are required to “permanently remedy” the problem. But, CCI members say they see repeat violations on a regular basis and rarely see any documentation that DNR has followed-up to ensure the problem was fixed.

“Some of these problems can never be ‘permanently remedied’.  These factory farms are designed to pollute.” Said Blasingame.

Some of the benefits of a Clean Water Act (CWA) Permit include:

-        Broader coverage of enforcement CWA permits must prevent discharges from the production area as well as land application areas. Iowa’s Manure Management Plans (MMPs) only address land application areas.

-        More transparency When permits are proposed the public must be given notice of the proposed permit and an opportunity to comment on it. NPDES permits, and all associated reports, must be publicly accessible.

-        Fixed terms Unlike Iowa’s MMPs, CWA permits have fixed five-year terms. That way, they are subject to being reviewed, updated, or terminated on a regular basis. DNR admitted in an Ag Appropriations Sub-Committee this year that DNR does not review MMPs because they do not have the capacity to do so.

-        Operation & maintenance requirements CWA permits have operation and maintenance requirements so that factory farm operators prevent problems before they happen. Currently, factory farm owners may have to fix a problem after a discharge, but aren’t required to use basic practices that would prevent many discharges in the first place.

-        Higher penalties for violations State law caps penalties at $5,000 per day per violation and the state cannot collect more than $10,000 per violation. Under the CWA, penalties are up to $37,500 per day per violation, which would include penalties for discharges or other violations of a permit. Higher penalties mean greater deterrence from pollution. When facilities have NPDES permits, permit violations are also CWA violations that can warrant these heightened penalties, even if the violation does not cause a discharge to a surface water.

The two previous spills from Hog Haven occurred on September 9, 2009 when the earthen manure storage structure overflowed and again on January 11, 2011 when a water line broke.CCI members say that until DNR starts issuing Clean Water Act Permits to hog factory farm polluters, they are not doing their job of protecting our water.Iowa’s more than 20 million hogs confined in thousands of factory farms produce nearly ten billion gallons of toxic manure every year.  There have been more than 758 manure spills since 1996 and Iowa currently has more than 630 polluted waterways.