Iowa Department of Natural Resources tries to help factories, cities control water discharges

Part 3 in a series on water safety in Iowa. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

The state of Iowa has more than 10,000 permits allowing companies, sewage treatment plants and other facilities to dump polluted water into Iowa's waterways, with some facilities exceeding discharge limits for many years before facing fines.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources fined about 125 permit holders from fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2014 for violations that included discharging too much human waste, manure, herbicides, coal and soybean meal, among other contaminants, into water used for drinking and recreation.

Here are summaries of some DNR enforcement actions:

• Muller Livestock of Griswold 'purposefully released' more than 100,000 gallons of manure and motor oil-filled water into a drainage ditch in 2009, killing fish in Rose Creek.

• More than 6,000 fish died in a private pond in 2011 after fertilizer-tained water was drained from the Agriland FS plant in Adair County.

• Two Sioux City water treatment supervisors released undertreated sewage into the Missouri River from 2012 to 2015, causing spikes in E. coli bacteria, which can sicken or even kill humans.

• Soybean refinery AGP violated limits on coal sediment flowing into a tributary of the Boone River four times before being fined in 2010.

• The Mahle engine component factory in Atlantic discharged toxic water 'dangerous for aquatic life' into the East Nishnabotna River and initially didn't comply with DNR deadlines to lower toxicity.

'For the majority of those actions it wasn't the first time they were cited for a deficiency,' said Ted Petersen, the DNR's environmental program supervisor. 'The department does a lot of coaching to compliance before we get to that enforcement point.'

Permits allow regulation

All Iowa facilities that release pollutants directly — as opposed to non-point source pollution from runoff — are required by federal law to get a permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).

The permits define what pollutants may be released and when. For example, a dairy cooperative with wastewater lagoons might seek a permit for occasional overflow during heavy rain.

Individual permits, as opposed to general permits for certain practices, require public hearings before approval and permit holders must file regular discharge reports.

NPDES permits generated nearly $700,000 in fees last year to pay environmental specialists who enforce the rules.

'This is really where the Clean Water Act hits the ground in Iowa,' said Susan Heathcote, the Iowa Environmental Council's water program director. 'But it all depends on the quality of enforcement and keeping permits up to date.'

Penalty Limits

The Iowa DNR is limited to fining NPDES permit holders $10,000, and it's very rare to shut down facilities for polluting.

The agency can refer particularly egregious cases to the Iowa Attorney General's Office, which has authority to levy fines of $5,000 per day per violation.

But the DNR has referred only 16 NPDES permit violations to the AG since 2006.

In March, the DNR's Environmental Protection Commission voted to ask the AG's Office to review the case against Sunrise Farms, an egg-laying facility in northwest Iowa.

A Sunrise Farms manager admitted telling employees to dump up to 18,000 gallons of wastewater containing egg wash, eggshells, acid rinse and manure onto a cornfield that drained into Stoney Creek, near Everly, according to commission minutes.

The DNR reported 163,000 dead fish in 18 miles of streams.

Water pollution cases also can lead to criminal charges.

Michael Wolf of Remsen was sentenced last summer in federal court to six weekends in jail for dumping 845,000 gallons of wastewater into a Floyd River tributary, court records state.

The water from Sioux-Preme Packing treatment lagoons went into a river tributary Oct. 23 and 24, 2012, killing fish more than 11 miles downstream.

Enforcement delays

More often, the Iowa DNR works with facilities — sometimes for years — to clean up their acts.

Ainsworth Four Corners Restaurant and Fuel Stop, a 24-hour convenience store and truck stop on Highway 92 in Washington County, was fined $10,000 in 2014 after receiving more than 25 violations since 2012 for releasing inadequately treated sewage into a nearby stream.

The truck stop's wastewater filtration system failed in 2011.

Rather than replace the $100,000 system or upgrade to a $500,000 lagoon system, Four Corners wanted to connect with Ainsworth's sewer system, General Manager Tim Anding said.

The truck stop offered to pay for the connection, but the Ainsworth City Council voted it down three times, with members concerned the large volume from Four Corners would overwhelm the city's system, Mayor Troy McCarthy said.

'The Four Corners was trying a number of different options to address their problems,' DNR Spokesman Kevin Baskins said. 'The decision was ultimately made to issue the consent order to make sure the problem got addressed.'

Last summer, the owners ponied up for a replacement system, which Anding fears he'll have to swap out again in 10 years. 'That's hard to do for a small business,' he said.

AGP, Mahle and Agriland officials — whose facilities were among those fined in recent years — said their companies also made changes following DNR fines.

Trying to keep up

Many municipal water treatment plants also are struggling to keep up with discharge limits.

Sioux City received three $10,000 enforcement actions in 2010 and 2011 for four violations. But on June 21, the DNR's Environmental Protection Commission voted to send a new Sioux City case to the Iowa Attorney General.

Two plant supervisors discharged decreased chlorine doses into water headed for the Missouri River between March 2012 and June 2015, causing increased levels of E. coli, a bacteria that can make people sick, said Guy Cook, an attorney representing the city.

To hide the problem, supervisors then boosted chlorine levels on days E. coli samples were taken, Cook said.

City officials became aware of the issue when a plant employee took two samples in April 2015 and anonymously turned in the results. The city reported itself to the DNR and the two employees were fired, Cook said.

In 2012, Coralville was fined $6,500 for not having a qualified wastewater superintendent after Brian Lamansky was injured in a methane explosion at the plant in December 2010.

The city since has hired a new plant supervisor, Chris Gilstrap, and is working on a $27.1 million upgrade to be complete by the end of 2018, City Engineer Dan Holderness said.

Could we do better?

Environmentalists say NPDES needs tighter control.

NPDES permit holders with a flow of 1 million gallons or more a day are inspected at least every two years. But smaller facilities are only required to have an inspection every five years.

The number of enforcement actions taken by the state plunged from 187 in 2010 to 50 last year.

Expired permits also are a problem, said the Environmental Council's Heathcote.

About one-third of Iowa's NPDES 1,678 individual permits are expired, with 76 permits issued 15 years ago, she said. This was before 2006 legislation that increased protections for smaller streams and added aquatic life protection for perennial streams.

'It's important we work on that backlog as quickly as we can,' she said.

Jess Mazour, an organizer for the farm and environment team for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, said the DNR should require hog confinement operations to get NPDES permits.

'We have these major industries in the state that seem to care a lot more about profits than the environment,' Mazour said.