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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