(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) reviewed in further detail the findings of an environmental study concerning the landfill east of Arnolds Park. The review was conducted during a conference call with the firm that conducted the study, Coggen/Fairchild. Supervisors ordered the study after items contaminated by petroleum in a train derailment near Doon, Iowa were disposed of in the facility in June of 2018.
Jim Fairchild of Coggen/Fairchild told the supervisors that while nothing illegal was done during the disposal and that it was done in compliance with various permits and regulations. However, Fairchild recommended the supervisors advocate for more stringent requirements when it comes to a storm water discharge permit, saying more stringent testing standards are needed…
“It’s a general permit which basically is quite minimal in sampling requirements, reporting requirements, and I believe I would recommend that the board discuss with Iowa DNR the possibility of whether that is appropriate to classify that in the general permit category whereas the wetlands and the lakes and such maybe warrant a higher classification of permit.”
Supervisor Chairman Bill Leupold told KUOO news following today’s (Tues.) meeting that’s something they’ll likely be looking into…
“Well I think we’re going to look over all the suggestions that came from our experts that were out in the crowd and then see how practical they would be. Like I said we’ve got this philosophy, do we try and check for everything and make life horrible, or do we find that happy medium where well not everything’s tested, but we’re safe.”
Leupold says there was nothing new from any of the information that was presented today (Tues.) that raised any new concerns for him…
“Not really. I actually read the report, 97 pages of it, and I did find areas of concern, obviously the run-off and that it’s only checked once a year after a tenth of an inch rain and then it said well we didn’t test, and, you know, what do you mean? We had lots of rain.”
Among those in the crowd today (Tues.) that spoke on the matter was Mary Skopec of Lakeside Lab. She expressed concern over any possible presence of proprietary chemicals that could have been present in the petroleum contaminated items that were disposed of in the landfill.
