Hundreds of thousands of gallons of manure spill into a pair of northwest Iowa creeks, DNR officials report
- Thread starter cigaretteman
- Start date
An "AR" in its conventional package fires a .22 caliber bullet. It's so ****ing small the DNR has determined it is not ethical to kill deer with.
.450 bushmaster is a hell of a deer round. Not like the .308s and 30-06s the boys a couple hours west get to use but more than serviceable for deer.
Bess Truman was once asked why she didn't get her husband to use the word fertilizer instead of manure. Bess replied that it took her 40 years to get him to say manure.
I know very little about guns and really don't want to know anything about guns. What I do know are there are many gun owners that overdue it. The "you ain't taking my guns from me" are especially entertaining.
FWIW, Big Creek Lake beach has been closed multiple times because due to water contamination.
That’s a you problem. We are protecting America from socialism up here.
It likely was an 8" or 10" hose at 200 psi. They run them a couple miles so the hose break was not probably near the pump or where they were spreading. They thread them under roads in drainage culverts sometimes. No idea if that was what they had done here. A drainage culvert would typically be dry. They run under driveways and roads to keep water from pooling on the uphill side til it would run across the top of the road during rains.
Last edited:
Well I wasn't there but the area near there is gently rolling so there would be creeks around. Exactly where the farm was or it's topography is not discussed.
Understood.
It's like how everyone was incredulous that Florida had fertilizer byproduct waste stacks near the Tampa Bay estuary.
Stupid shit happens all over.
Accidents also happen. The custom manure guys sometimes run around the clock in shifts. I drove over both the creek and the river mentioned today just before 5 and there were numerous operations spreading at various sites. There is a very small window when ground conditions are fit prior to planting and the winter manure needs spread. The fall applied window is much wider after the crops are off and before the ground freezes.
That is a you tube video of an organic dairy spreading their manure with an umbilical. 3.5 million gallons 4.5 miles away.
Countryside Bar-B-Q sauce is actually made a few miles up the highway. A very Iowan sandwich or crockpot choice.
Thanks for that video, Scruffy! As everyone can see... there's a lot of things that can go wrong during the emptying of the manure pond. And as you likely noticed... there's a pretty fair amount of liquid that stayed on the surface even with knifing it into the ground. In spring and fall with shorter days, it takes some time to soak into the soil.
Now imagine a 1-2-3 inch rainfall immediately after application and the ground in that video was "rolling". So there can be a significant amount of "runoff" even with proper application.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is how rivers and streams become contaminated. Even with good intentions and proper manure handling.
Now imagine a 1-2-3 inch rainfall immediately after application and the ground in that video was "rolling". So there can be a significant amount of "runoff" even with proper application.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is how rivers and streams become contaminated. Even with good intentions and proper manure handling.
My grandpa raised 1500 hogs during his height in the 80s. That was a huge back then. The outdoor portion of the operation consisted of graded concrete that washed into a corn field. He’d clean out what he could with a skid loader but after a heavy rain it washed down hill. 100’ of burnt corn, 300’ of tallest corn in field and then a creek.
Today's issues are the result of the Iowa Selects and Christensen Farms of the world. Massive operations where the owner doesn't live on the property.
The USDA's policies have encouraged larger operations with it's subsidy programs. Iowa has encouraged larger operations because of it's lenient pollution standards.
Not a good combination.
The USDA's policies have encouraged larger operations with it's subsidy programs. Iowa has encouraged larger operations because of it's lenient pollution standards.
Not a good combination.
There was a lawsuit in the 90s Iowa counties lost over the local board of supervisors in each county's right to deny building permits for livestock facilities. Land O Lakes paid for it. Unless it has changed the only environmental test is a dnr permit for the manure storage and I believe if it is under the building it is almost an automatic rubber stamp. Some of the nuisance laws have also largely determined if it's zoned ag neighbors have no suit to object.
Iowa Select and Christensen Farms original concentration was due to local county level boards being pro livestock. Since their support facilities were in place they largely focused on those same regions while still in expansion mode. Once upon a time Wright County (DeCoster) was a top 10 exporter of eggs and pork in the world if it alone was a country. No idea if that still stands as I am not nor never have been involved in livestock outside of selling corn or soybeans to a feed mill.
And as a followup to the video Scruffy furnished, these are commercial businesses that apply liquid manure and move from one operation to another and are on a strict time constraint because of "crops in the field". So, for example, if heavy rain is forecast in the next 24-48 hours, it makes no difference to these applicators. The manure gets spread with no exceptions.
Iowa's laws in this instance have forever been in favor of the livestock operations since the days of Branstad. Well contamination and ground pollution be damned.
Iowans have very few protections. Even the environmental penalties are mostly a "slap on the wrist" Counting dead fish to assess a financial penalty is a joke.
Iowa's laws in this instance have forever been in favor of the livestock operations since the days of Branstad. Well contamination and ground pollution be damned.
Iowans have very few protections. Even the environmental penalties are mostly a "slap on the wrist" Counting dead fish to assess a financial penalty is a joke.
So that would qualify as being "up shit creek"?Several hundred thousand gallons of manure spilled into a Lyon County creek Wednesday and, in a separate incident on the same day, another 10,000 gallons of manure also spilled into a Kossuth County creek that flows into the Des Moines River.
In Rock Rapids, Bernie Baker of Rock Bottom Dairy reported spilling "several hundred thousand gallons of manure" after "an irrigation unit became stuck," according to an Iowa Department of Natural Resources news release Wednesday evening.
The manure flowed through fields, which included cover crops or pasture, before it eventually flowed northwest of Rock Rapids and into Mud Creek, according to the DNR. When DNR staff arrived at the creek at about 3:20 p.m., "many dead fish," including bullheads, minnows and chubs, were found on the scene.
Due to the creek's slow flow rates, the manure-laden water is moving slowly downstream, according to the release, and the DNR recommends those who depend on the creek as a water source, such as livestock producers, should monitor conditions for the next few days.
DNR staff helped stop the spill and plan to continue to monitor the clean-up and assess how many fish were killed, according to the release.
Separately Wednesday afternoon, the DNR responded to a spill of 10,000 gallons of manure into Kossuth County's Lotts Creek, which is about two miles northeast of West Bend.
► More:Agricultural runoff puts Iowa's Raccoon River on list of 10 most endangered nationally, group says
As Precision Pumping, a commercial manure application company, was applying manure in the area through an umbilical rig, a hose detached from its pump and "flopped" into the creek, spilling thousands of gallons of manure into the creek before the pump could be shut down, according to the DNR.
A large number of dead fish were discovered as a result of the Kossuth County spill, as well.
DNR officials said recovering the manure, which was flowing downstream, would be "impractical" due to the creek's high banks, wide channel and swift flow. About 10 miles downstream of the spill, Lotts Creek flows into the East Fork of the Des Moines River.
"While not insignificant, the spill is not expected to impact downstream water supplies," DNR officials wrote in the release, adding that the department's environmental specialists are testing water samples.
According to the release, the DNR is considering "appropriate enforcement action," but did not specify what those actions might entail.
Cindy Martens of the DNR, the media contact for the Lyon County spill, said that Rock Bottom Dairy will receive a violation with referral and penalty. The media contact for the Kossuth County incident could not immediately be reached for comment.
Manure spillage comes at the heel of new report warning Iowa of pollutants in Racoon River
In an annual report published by American Rivers, an environmental advocacy nonprofit based in D.C., the group listed Iowa's Racoon River as among the top 10 most endangered rivers for the first time due to runoff from livestock facilities, such as manure, and farm fields.
“We’re sounding the alarm because pollution in the Raccoon River is putting drinking water supplies and public health at risk,” said Olivia Dorothy, American Rivers' Upper Mississippi River Basin director.
The Racoon River ranked ninth on American Rivers' list, which claimed that manure runoff "contributes to a clean-water crisis."
High nitrate levels remain an issue for water quality in Iowa, as well as other pollutants such as microcystins, which are toxins from blue-green algae blooms.
Community activists have spoken out against the amount of manure flowing into Iowa's water system, as well.
How a plan for the 3rd-tallest skyscraper in Iowa
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of manure spill into a pair of northwest Iowa creeks, DNR officials report
The manure spilled into waterways in Kossuth County and Lyon County Wednesday, according to an Iowa DNR news release.www.press-citizen.com
