(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson county board of supervisors spent a good share of their meeting Tuesday talking about manure.
Two public hearings on manure management plans were on the docket–one was for a new application from David Lorch for land in section 18 of Excelsior Township. It drew no comments. The supervisors took no action, as the state is in charge of approving such plans.
The other was a continuation of a hearing from last week on a manure management plan submitted by New Fashion Pork which plans to knife manure into some land in extreme eastern Dickinson county…just west of the Emmet county line. That one drew considerable discussion and concern. Mel Berryhill of Milford questioned the need for New Fashion Pork to bring manure from it’s operation in Emmet county to Dickinson county. Representatives of the company responded, saying they’re using all of the land they have available in Emmet county.
Mary Allen Martins lives near the site where the manure is to be applied. She says it will just be a matter of time before the state’s hand is forced to finally adopt tighter standards when it comes to manure management and the siting of factory hog farms. She says rural Iowa is “getting saturated with manure”. Martins expects action “once towns can’t draw from rivers for their drinking water, or we don’t have a decent place to swim at the lakes, then maybe people will get upset.”
Matt White of New Fashion Pork told the crowd there’s a better chance of controlling manure on the ground that other types of fertilizer, which he says can more easily contaminate a lake or stream.
After further discussion, the supervisors voted four-to-one to have Assistant County Attorney Lonnie Saunders draft a letter to the DNR expressing concern over the manure management plan and the fact some of the land proposed for the plan is located in what they say is an “environmentally sensitive” area near Christofferson slough and Swan Lake. Those areas drain to the West Fork of the Des Moines River.
Supervisor Mardi Allen cast the lone no vote, saying she feels the White family and New Fashion Pork are being unfairly singled out.
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