(Wahpeton)– If you don’t want large animal confinements, you need to do something about it. That was the message Jeff Vonk, head of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, had at Saturday’s annual meeting of the East Okoboji Lakes Improvement Corporation.
Vonk expressed frustration over the fact the DNR hasn’t been able to get a measure on emissions to pass in the legislature. He says they’ll wait now to see how the federal Environmental Protection plans to address the issue before proposing anything new.
On another note, Vonk said the DNR is proposing new rules that would tighten guidelines on where large confinements could be located. He says it’s pending approval by the DNR’s Rules Review Committee, and if it’s approved, probably wouldn’t go on the books until sometime in September or October.
Vonk was greeted by a crowd opposed over plans by New Fashion Pork to build a four-thousand head hog confinement near the Little Sioux River in western Dickinson county. Vonk says Dickinson county residents got complacent after a group of residents was successful several years ago in paying off a firm in order to keep it from putting in a large confinement southwest of Milford.
Vonk was also critical of Palo Alto county’s so-called “Good Neighbor” policy, saying it doesn’t have any teeth in it.
Vonk urged those opposed to large confinements to lobby their local law makers.
In addition to the East Okoboji Lakes Improvement Corporation, Vonk also Saturday addressed the first annual meeting of the Silver Lake Improvement Association in Lake Park.
