Second lawsuit targets manure digester in Winneshiek County

A group that seeks to promote water quality in Northeast Iowa has filed another lawsuit against Winneshiek County officials in an effort to block a new facility that would capture methane from decomposing manure, according to court records.

The Driftless Water Defenders group alleges in a lawsuit filed last week that the Winneshiek County Board of Adjustment erred last month when it granted a conditional use permit for the project, which would consist of two large chambers capable of holding up to 5 million gallons of manure from two dairy farms near Ridgeway.

"This property is in an environmentally sensitive area where assuring the public access to water for personal, business and recreational purposes is at risk," the lawsuit says.

The group argues that the anaerobic digester facility that would be built by Novilla RNG, of Michigan, will enable the dairies to increase their herd sizes and thereby heighten their threats to the environment because of the extra manure they will produce.

Livestock manure and the leftovers from manure digesters commonly are dispersed on farm fields. Nutrients such as nitrate and phosphorus in that waste has the potential to contaminate waterways and groundwater.

That potential is greater in Northeast Iowa where the geology is porous and at higher risk from surface contamination.

The lawsuit alleges the board failed to make a written record of evidence it used for its decision, failed to consider health and safety effects, did not accept written comments and made an arbitrary decision contrary to the evidence. It asks a judge to nullify the board's unanimous decision to grant the conditional use permit and to schedule a court hearing.

The Winneshiek County attorney did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this article.

It is the second lawsuit filed by the Driftless group that targets the digester facility. In August, it sued the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors for its 3-2 vote to rezone the land that would host the facility from agricultural to industrial, thereby allowing the facility to capture and refine the gas for injection into an existing natural gas pipeline in the area.

That lawsuit alleges that Dan Langreck, the chair of the board, improperly limited public comments about the zoning request and that the board's vote was unreasonable and doesn't jibe with the county's comprehensive zoning plan.

It's unclear when judges will decide either lawsuit.

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