The Iowa Sierra Club can continue its legal challenge of an Iowa Department of Natural Resources decision that paves the way for a large cattle feeding operation near a trout stream in northeast Iowa.
An Iowa judge ruled this week against the DNR’s effort to have the case dismissed, saying the four Iowa Sierra Club members who brought it have sufficient standing to challenge the state’s approval of a nutrient management plan for the 11,600-head Supreme Beef cattle operation near Monona.
The group says Supreme Beef’s nutrient management plan is flawed, vastly underestimating the amount of nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing material that would be taken from the feedlot each year and applied to fields.
The Sierra Club, which also names Supreme Beef in the suit, claims DNR’s approval was based on “an irrational, illogical or wholly unjustifiable interpretation” of law.
The group says the feedlot jeopardizes Bloody Run Creek, a cold-water trout stream the state has designated as an Outstanding Iowa Water.
The area’s hilly topography is underlain with porous, fractured limestone that can easily provide a direct path to surface and groundwater for runoff contaminated with manure and other pollutants, opponents say.
In addition to having standing, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Huppert said the Sierra Club members showed sufficient potential harm from the project to continue the case.
The Sierra Club and its members seek to reverse approval of Supreme Beef’s nutrient management plan. An Iowa DNR spokeswoman declined to comment this week.
“It is clear the DNR is trying every procedural trick to avoid a hearing on the merits of this case,” Sierra Club attorney Wally Taylor said in a statement. “But that is not working. DNR will have to explain why it violated its own rules in approving the nutrient management plan for Supreme Beef.”
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8457.
