I represented the Sierra club at the Technical
advisory committee of Air Quality and Concentrated
Feeding Operations(CAFO's) held June 11.
The DNR has proposed air quality standards for the
following:

Hydrogen sulfide   15parts per billion
(H2S)
Ammonia vapor      150 parts per billion
(NH3)
Odor               7 times what is detectable by the
                   human nose

Minnesota and Colorado currently regulate odor
Missouri and Minnesota regulate H2s & NH3

Studies done at Premium Standards Hog
Factory(defendant in a landmark nuisance suit in which
the Sierra Club was a Co-plaintiff and which has
126,000 hogs) showed NH3 violations exceeding the Iowa
standard 46% of the time primarily during the night
and especially in July and August. H2s was in
violation of Iowa Standards 3% of the time primarily
around 10 PM and 4-5AM.

The DNR is doing continuous H2S measurements at 2
locations since January. The first is a Hog CAFO near
Clarion in Wright County in which no violations have
been sited. The other is a Decoster CAFO near Williams
in Hamilton County in which the H2S standard has been
violated 6 times. There are no present NH3 or odor
measurements.

NH3 can only be measured continuously.
Odor can be only measured by spot checks(The DNR gets
500 complaints concerning odor)
H2S can be measured continuously(which the DNR and
outside technicians prefer) or by hand held
Cassettes(spot checks which Iowa Citizen's for
Community Improvement prefers). The latter has  a
margin of error of 7 parts per billion soit is less
accurate than continuous testing but the monitors cost
$6000 instead of $12000 and are much more portable.

The Legislature authorized $500,000 for CAFO
monitoring for a variety of species. The DNR doesn't
want to visit any one site more often than every 2
weeks It would cost $1500 on average to move and
set-up a continuous monitor trailer. The DNR thinks it
could buy 6 continuous monitoring trailers with the
amount funded. And there is the rub. If DNR limits
itself to continuous monitoring there will be only 6
"traffic cops" at any given time. Those CAFO's may
clean up but all the rest of the CAFO's have no
incentive to do so.

The next meeting is scheduled for June 25.

Charlie winterwood




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