Court upholds buffer agreement
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 3, 2004
The Iowa Supreme Court today upheld an agreement requiring a 200-foot buffer
strip between manure storage facilities and a popular trout stream, ruling
against an Allamakee County hog farmer.

The court said spreading manure in the buffer strip "clearly contravenes the
manifest purpose of requiring a buffer strip."

The decision came in a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and the Hawkeye Fly
Fishing Association against Wayne Weber, who had contracted with Murphy and
Stoecker Farms Inc. to build a three-building, 3,300-head hog confinement
operation on company land near French Creek.
The farm began operating in 1998. A year later, the Sierra Club and
neighbors sued Weber, claiming the farm was a nuisance.

In settling the claims in 2002, the two sides agreed to a 200-foot buffer
strip containing deep-rooted prairie grass to protect the creek from the
potential of manure runoff.

But Weber spread manure on the land intended to serve as a buffer. He argued
that the agreement prohibited spreading manure from the confinement, but not
from other sources.
The conservation groups argued that the intent was to ban the application of
manure to the buffer strip.

While the high court agreed, it did grant Weber some flexibility on the type
of prairie grass grown in the buffer strip and said the grass may be cut for
hay, as long as the roots remain in place.

Buffer strips with deep-rooted grasses are put in place to prevent manure
runoff from contaminating nearby waterways. Manure storage facilities at
factory hog confinements can contain thousands of gallons of liquid hog
manure.


Tarah Heinzen
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
(515) 251-3995
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