Owners of an 11,600-head cattle feedlot in Northeast Iowa withdrew their application for a manure management plan after a public hearing in which opponents said there were errors and omissions in the plan.
Supreme Beef told the Iowa Department of Natural Resources earlier this week it would retract a nutrient management plan awaiting review after an Aug. 8 public hearing.
“Supreme Beef expects to make amendments to the NMP and will resubmit it to DNR when those are completed,” Kelly Cwiertny, an attorney with Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, said in an email Monday to Iowa DNR attorney Kelli Book. The department provided The Gazette the email after a public records request.
About 40 people attended a virtual public hearing and six spoke out against Supreme Beef’s nutrient management plan — the first submitted since a Polk County judge threw out a previous plan last spring.
Steve Veysey, a retired Iowa State University employee and water quality advocate, said at the hearing there were errors in the feedlot’s manure calculations. The amount of manure Supreme Beef proposed to apply to nearby farm fields would take more than 4,000 acres — not the 2,200 listed in the plan, he said.
Opponents have been concerned about the feedlot since 2017 because it was built on porous terrain, where spilled or overapplied manure could quickly contaminate groundwater or the nearby Bloody Run trout stream.
Larry Stone, an Elkader resident who lives near the feedlot, said this week he’s glad Supreme Beef withdrew the plan.
“I think we have to take it as good news, in that Supreme and DNR finally may realize they’re under the microscope and need to follow the rules,” he said in an email. Stone said he’d like to see the Iowa DNR conduct the same sort of rigorous review of manure plans as Veysey did in this case.
“If Supreme comes back and tries to fix those problems, it still does not mean it should be OK to have an 11,600-head cattle operation in the watershed of Bloody Run Creek,” Stone said.
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The Sierra Club sued Supreme Beef and the Iowa DNR in September 2021 after the department in April 2021 approved the feedlot’s nutrient management plan for up to 11,600 cattle. Trout Unlimited later joined Sierra Club in the lawsuit.
Polk County Judge Scott Rosenberg sided with the nature groups in April and sent the decision back to the Iowa DNR. The agency told Supreme Beef Owner Jared Walz in May that until a new plan was approved by the agency, no manure could be removed from the site.
www.thegazette.com
Supreme Beef told the Iowa Department of Natural Resources earlier this week it would retract a nutrient management plan awaiting review after an Aug. 8 public hearing.
“Supreme Beef expects to make amendments to the NMP and will resubmit it to DNR when those are completed,” Kelly Cwiertny, an attorney with Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, said in an email Monday to Iowa DNR attorney Kelli Book. The department provided The Gazette the email after a public records request.
About 40 people attended a virtual public hearing and six spoke out against Supreme Beef’s nutrient management plan — the first submitted since a Polk County judge threw out a previous plan last spring.
Steve Veysey, a retired Iowa State University employee and water quality advocate, said at the hearing there were errors in the feedlot’s manure calculations. The amount of manure Supreme Beef proposed to apply to nearby farm fields would take more than 4,000 acres — not the 2,200 listed in the plan, he said.
Opponents have been concerned about the feedlot since 2017 because it was built on porous terrain, where spilled or overapplied manure could quickly contaminate groundwater or the nearby Bloody Run trout stream.
Larry Stone, an Elkader resident who lives near the feedlot, said this week he’s glad Supreme Beef withdrew the plan.
“I think we have to take it as good news, in that Supreme and DNR finally may realize they’re under the microscope and need to follow the rules,” he said in an email. Stone said he’d like to see the Iowa DNR conduct the same sort of rigorous review of manure plans as Veysey did in this case.
“If Supreme comes back and tries to fix those problems, it still does not mean it should be OK to have an 11,600-head cattle operation in the watershed of Bloody Run Creek,” Stone said.
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Sign up for the once-a-week Environment & Outdoor Newsletter written by your local environmental journalists Erin Jordan and Brittney J. Miller.
The Sierra Club sued Supreme Beef and the Iowa DNR in September 2021 after the department in April 2021 approved the feedlot’s nutrient management plan for up to 11,600 cattle. Trout Unlimited later joined Sierra Club in the lawsuit.
Polk County Judge Scott Rosenberg sided with the nature groups in April and sent the decision back to the Iowa DNR. The agency told Supreme Beef Owner Jared Walz in May that until a new plan was approved by the agency, no manure could be removed from the site.
Supreme Beef withdraws manure plan after criticism
Owners of an 11,600-head cattle feedlot in northeast Iowa withdrew their application for a manure management plan after a public hearing in which opponents said there were errors and omissions in the plan.
www.thegazette.com
