Thanks for this report, Peggy!

Jack

on 2/18/02 10:59 PM, Peggy Murdock at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> The comic relief at the Iowa Protection Commission this afternoon was a Mr.
> Mike Glaser, representing Iowa Select,.  Mr. Glaser reserved a 2:30 slot in
> order to challenge the DNR's referral of his company to the Attorney General.
>
> It seems the investigation of a fishkill in the South Fork of the Iowa
> River led to two Iowa Select animal factory buildings, Sow 7 and Sow
> 10.  Iowa law prohibits discharge into Iowa's waters without a permit and
> the charge was discharging without a permit.  This discharge, which
> continued for three days, led to a violation of water quality standards.
>
> Mr. Glaser's first tactic was to request a full evidentiary hearing before
> the case was referred to the Attorney General.
>
> The Department representative said  a referral does not need an evidentiary
> hearing.
>
> Mr. Glaser then proceeded to refer to Chapter 10.  Chapter 10, he informed
> us, requires that the party has to realize a cost savings or economic
> advantage and Iowa Select did not save anything.  Iowa Select did not go
> out there and place the pollution in the waters of the state.  Iowa Select
> does not handle the manure of the farm in question and it would not be
> within Iowa Select's control to put a slide valve in the tile in
> question.  Moreover Iowa Select did not build the buildings, and besides
> that there was only one day of discharge and everything that happened was
> something that Iowa Select had no control over anyway.
>
> Somehow I got the impression during all of this that somebody had greased
> that pig, very well.  He certainly did seem to slip here and there with
> amazing agility...
>
> Koster Farms is the one that owns the building, he confessed, and leases it
> out.  Mr Glaser did not have a copy of the lease with him but had included
> sections  in a letter which had been distributed to the commissioners.
>
> "Who," he was asked, "are you saying is responsible for what happened?"
>
> "All I can do is tell you the facts from our perspective."
>
> The DNR representative said that Iowa Select's hogs were in there and they
> should be referred. " If additional parties should be included in the
> litigation liability," he added, "we can add those other parties."  "You,"
> he said to Mr. Glaser, "are responsible to see that that facility is under
> control."
>
> The DNR representative went on to point out that a building owner will say
> it was the hog owner's fault and the hog owner will say it was the building
> owner's fault.
>
> The motion was made to refer, and seconded.
>
> A commissioner said "Somebody has to be at fault and if Select Farms had
> that lease it was their responsibility,
>
> The motion carried unanimously.
>
> Now, that's the EPC functioning as it should.
>
> Peggy Murdock
>
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