Iowa company that wanted to ship water out West asks for big pumping increase

The northeast Iowa sand-mining company that sought approval in recent years to pump water from the ground to send to parched western states is poised to nearly quadruple its maximum pumping limits, according to state records.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has indicated it would approve the request of Pattison Sand Company, which operates a large quarry near the Mississippi River in Clayton County and wants to expand its mining depth.

But that approval has been delayed at least a week after requests for the DNR to hold a public hearing on the matter. It's set for Tuesday in Elkader.

Some residents are concerned that the pumping increases might affect private and public wells nearby. They also worry it might be a sneaky way to enable the out-of-state shipment of water.

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The company says that is not the purpose of the pumping increase, and the DNR says shipping the water would require permission that the department has not granted and has repeatedly denied.

Under its existing permit, Pattison is allowed to withdraw up to about 977 million gallons of water each year from a series of wells and the river.

It pumps water out of the ground to allow it to mine in areas that would otherwise be saturated, and it also uses water to rinse the sand it produces. The water eventually discharges into the Mississippi.

A new permit that is pending approval by the DNR would allow a maximum annual withdrawal of about 3.7 billion gallons.

That substantial increase reflects the need to eliminate groundwater from caves the company intends to penetrate deeper into, along with surface water from areas near its rail lines that haul the mined material away, said Kyle Pattison, the company's owner.

"If we don't pump, the water table could be right at where our tracks are — if we get a hard rain, above that," Pattison told The Gazette.

The proposed maximum annual withdrawal for the quarry would place Pattison among the Top 10 quarries in the state, said Chad Fields, a DNR geologist who evaluates the water-use permit applications.

A quarry in Cerro Gordo County that has the largest maximum withdrawal can pump about 6.5 billion gallons each year, an amount that approaches double that of the Pattison request. There are about 320 active quarries in Iowa.

Shipping water

Pattison's proposed pumping increase would exceed the amount of water it initially sought in 2020 to ship west by rail, which was about 2 billion gallons annually.

The DNR repeatedly rejected the company's plans to sell water because it did not satisfy a "beneficial use" requirement of state law.

The company's first proposal was to drill new wells to supply the water for sale. It then said it wanted to sell a portion of its wastewater — namely, the water it pumps from the ground into the Mississippi to enable its underground mining, a process known as dewatering.

A Pattison attorney argued in a July 2020 letter to the DNR that the company needed no special permission for the "re-use of water." It would merely be diverting part of its wastewater to a new destination.

That type of diversion would not violate the company's permit to release wastewater into the Mississippi, said Wendy Hieb, who oversees industrial wastewater permits for the DNR.

Those National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits — which are required for wastewater that goes into streams — govern the pollutants, not the flows, she said.

So, it's the DNR's water-use permits that prevent Pattison from selling water. The company abandoned its appeal in 2021 to overrule the department.

"Pattison is not approved or permitted for that use of water," said Fields, the DNR geologist.

The department has the authority to modify or revoke the permits after they are issued if their provisions are violated or the water withdrawals affect other water supplies or stream flows.

A public hearing

The state published a notice in March about Pattison's application to increase its water withdrawals that said DNR staff has recommended it for approval. The department solicited feedback with a deadline of April 15.

The notice caught the attention of members of the Driftless Water Defenders and the Sierra Club of Iowa, some of who peppered the department with questions and asked for a public hearing to solicit feedback.

"The public needs the opportunity to be better informed, and to comment on, a water permit of this magnitude," wrote Larry Stone, a member of the Driftless group, which seeks to conserve and protect the state's waters.

The department obliged and set a 5:30 p.m. meeting on April 22 at the Clayton County Office Building, 600 Gunder Rd., in Elkader.

"The initial approval date of April 15th will be delayed to account for input from the public hearing," Fields wrote to those who had contacted him about the permit.

Steve Veysey, a retired chemist of Ames and Driftless member, argues that the increase is unneeded, excessive and that it might unduly affect neighboring wells and the aquifers.

Further, he wants the permit to contain firmer language that bars the out-of-state sale of water by explicitly saying that all water withdrawn needs to eventually discharge into the Mississippi.

"Just make that one change and there's no longer any ambiguity," Veysey told The Gazette. "But if they don't make that one change then there is a huge loophole."

The department has repeatedly maintained that no loophole exists.

Pattison said the intent of the permit modification is to allow the quarry to expand: "I've not spoken to anybody about shipping water out."

The DNR's review of the application indicated there is a potential for the increased groundwater withdrawals to affect wells in the area. A department report said water levels in the wells in nearby Garnavillo should be measured to "determine the influence" of the withdrawals.

The department does not, itself, proactively track those water levels, Fields said.

"In past circumstances regarding well interference and quarries, private and public well users initially reported their concerns and information, such as drop in well water levels, to the program," he said.

Comments: (319) 368-8541; jared.strong@thegazette.com