Northeast Iowa Citizens For Clean Water (NICCW) has reached an agreement with IDNR, Agriprocessors and the city of Postville concerning pollution limits on a new wastewater permit for Agriprocessors. Our suit was filed against IDNR, however at their request, Agriprocessors and the city of Postville intervened into the suit making them defendants as well.
The initial reason NICCW formed was to address a severe pollution problem that existed on Hecker Creek and the Yellow River. Much of the water in Hecker Creek goes underground into a shallow aquifer that supplies water to area springs and quite possibly private wells. The remainder of the water flows into the Yellow River, which is designated a high quality resource water and a rare cold water trout stream under Iowa law. When NICCW first formed, we circulated two petitions. Both of these petitions were endorsed by over 1300 citizens who expressed their concerns about this situation. We have done our best to represent these people. NICCW will continue to be involved in water quality monitoring and other uses of the Yellow River and it’s tributaries.
In July of 2002 the IDNR held a public hearing on a new permit for Agriprocessors. That permit would have allowed the discharge of close to 15 tons of salt /day at a concentration of 3375 mg/l of chloride. That was several times higher than was considered safe by existing state standards and EPA guidelines. The concentration in the new amended permit will be 1500mg/l. chloride for normal and high flow conditions and slightly different figures for low flow conditions. The bottom line is this: The chloride concentration will be about 60% lower with the new amended permit than with the original proposed permit.
In addition to effluent reductions, Agri. agreed to pay Allamakee County Soil and Water Conservation District $25,000/year for five years for water quality monitoring and improvement projects. They also agreed to monitor groundwater in the area for seven years.
Another benefit of this case is it set an important precedent. Last summer, Judge Eliza Ovrum ruled that the variances granted in this case were improperly issued. The judge told IDNR that it must follow the safeguards and limitations of the Iowa Administration Procedure Act in issuing any variances. These include requiring a specific finding of economic necessity and limiting the variance to the narrowest exception possible. This case should change the way the IDNR approaches variances in all future cases, and all programs it administers. We believe this will limit IDNR’s ability to bend the rules to suit a particular industry.
The amended permit will be out for public comment until April 4. You can send your comments to: Natural Resources, Environmental Services Division, Att: Steve Williams, 502 East ninth Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50319. Also there will be a public hearing on Tuesday March 28 at 6PM at the Postville State Bank. We urge you to support this revised permit.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all who supported this effort with their time and financial contributions. This amended permit will clearly benefit everyone in the area and help protect this sensitive Karst environment.
Respectfully,
John Schultz, Derrick Peters & Dave Smith
Members of NICCW
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