(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Manure overflowed from hog confinement into SE Iowa creek • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]

['Jared Strong', 'Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- April']

Date: 2024-04-05  

A hog manure pit in far southeast Iowa overflowed late last year and polluted several miles of a creek, which killed an undetermined number of small fish, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Someone who was hunting west of Fort Madison noticed that Painter Creek was black with manure on Dec. 2 and reported it to the department. The DNR tracked the manure to C&M Hogs near Donnellson. The facility has about 4,900 swine in two buildings that have pits to contain the animal waste.

The DNR found the manure was overflowing from one of the pits into a nearby earthen basin that is meant to prevent an overflow from reaching the nearby creek. However, the basin was constructed with a drain that had no means to stop the manure from going through it.

“There was never a valve installed, and nothing was stopping it from flowing out,” said Jon Ryk, an environmental specialist for the DNR. “It just flowed right to that stream.”

It’s unclear how long the discharge was ongoing. The owner of the facility, Albert Cresswell, told the DNR he was working in another state at the time and employs a caretaker to manage it, according to a recent DNR order.

Cresswell said he had pumped manure from at least one of the pits a week before the discharge was discovered and thought a water line might have leaked and caused the overflow. Ryk said he was unable to verify that claim.

Cresswell or his caretaker first placed a bucket over the drain to stop the flow into the creek and later installed a valve.

DNR officers found the manure contaminated several miles of the stream until the flow of the creek ended. They determined that the scope of the fish kill was insufficient to warrant further investigation of it.

The department recently fined Cresswell $6,700 and ordered him to submit a plan to prevent future creek contaminations.

“Mr. Cresswell also hired a new caretaker for the facility to ensure that the basins were being properly maintained,” the DNR order said.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/04/05/manure-overflowed-from-hog-confinement-into-se-iowa-creek/

Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/