EPC May 20, 2002 The May EPC meeting began with the introduction of the internees in the Pollution Prevention Program, which is designed to keep Iowa students in Iowa and at the same time saves Iowa companies more than 5 million dollars The Directors remarks followed. Director Vonk said there will be fairly draconian cuts and he is expecting a tight budged. The Governor signed the oversight restructuring bill. Liz Christainson is the new Deputy Director, Wayne Giesselman is the Environmental Services Director. Wayne’s staff will move forward with the open bureau chief positions The next comments were about the rule making process in response to the livestock bill. They need to name appointees for the committee that will finalize the master matrix. The work of this committee needs to be completed by early September. This is a potentially contentious process, and they will be looking for a professional facilitator to keep it moving forward, The proposed rule for air quality standards will probably be ready in June. The EPC is meeting off site in June and many groups would want to comment on this item. They want to finalize their thoughts, then meet with interest groups and modify their proposal after that input before sending it on to the commission. Some think the DNR should not move forward with this rule until the monitoring program was done. Director Vonk disagrees. He wants external as well as internal expertise in order to have a good plan available for purchasing equipment, and he will be meeting with department division administrators and the chief to work on this. He has received a phone message from Robert Kennedy Jr., who called to apologize for derogatory comments he made tabout the Iowa DNR. He said he was misinformed and thinks the DNR is taking appropriate steps. Director Vonk believes the DNR is not in as serious jeopardy as other departments that are fully funded by the general fund. Parking receipts will pay a major role in how much they will divert to general fund Camping has not kept up. A free camping weekend had been scheduled to encourage people to get out and camp. People came to campsites a day or two early in order to have a campsite for the free weekend, however, from a revenue standpoint, he thinks the event was revenue neutral as it rained both weekends. The DNR needs to estimate how much they can divert to the general fund. They have not been hiring people or making purchase and may be able to revert 200,000 to the fund. They are not anticipating layoffs or furloughs. The public comment followed the Director’s remarks Audubon County : Sherry Clemson and Scott Small, both from Brighton spoke about a proposed hog confinement to be located in their county. Their concerns were about the potential impacts on water quality in the ears. Terraces have been put up and a tile line located there. They don’t know where the water will go and what the impact on water sources will be. It is estimated that there will be a 40-60% increase in runoff on the site. The industrial meat producers listed their site elevation incorrectly. It was 50’ off. They will be confining 7000 sows and the plan submitted by their engineers show the flow going to a property they have not yet purchased. There is also concern about contamination by hazardous substances. The previous owners of this site have been cited by the DNR for violations in the past. No testing has been done to find out what the contamination levels are from the vehicles that have been removed. The proposed industrial meat production operation will require over 50000 gal of water per day. The community does not think their area can handle this amount of draw down. The industrial meat producer also misrepresented the weight of the animals that will be housed here. The animal weight capacity should be the sum for all the animals being confined at the site at capacity and the potential at that site is 7000 animals. There are people in the area with health concerns. The DNR can revoke a permit based on a clear present health hazard. They have letters from physicians supporting their concern about the potential harm to patients. The DNR official told the commission that this industrial operative has met the provisions required for a permit. Any appeal will come back to the commission. The 50’ discrepancy is not a big deal - as the area is characterized by rolling hills . There is a difference in the water usage calculations and the DNR doesn’t understand why there is this difference. The DNR will not issue a permit until the commission is satisfied. They have already issued a draft permit and if there is a factual dispute it will have to be resolved. This has been under consideration since January and he DNR has looked into it well. The petitioners stated that the DNR was not allowed into some of the buildings and they think the DNR should have access to all of the buildings. The next item was about the prposed change in the derivation procedure used to calculate the amounts of ammonia and other pollutants that waste water treatment systems are allowed to discharge into streams. I talked about the credibility of the report. It stated that 70 cities commented , however, when I called Judie Hoffman of the Ames City Council, she said this item had never been considered by the city council. I pointed out that they had comments from 70 employees of cities and from the firms that are occasionally hired by these employees, but that these comments had not been approved by the cities themselves. Elizabeth Horton Plasket talked about the misstatement in the same report that questioned the credibility of the Iowa Environmental Council by suggesting that their comments did not represent all of their members. The Iowa Water Pollution Control Association is one of their members and their positions are achieved by consensus, so the Iowa Water Pollution Control Association did join with other members of the IEC in opposing this measure, even though the report stated that the Iowa Water Pollution Control Association was against it. She asked that IEC be consulted about such discrepancies in the future rather than allowing their credibility to be questioned . Approved final rule for Chapter 106 #8 contract with Metro Waste authority to take hazardous waste from Hardin County. This means Hardin County doesn’t not have to have all the equipment necessary. Approved #9 Approved #10 #11 Middleton with appointment of 2 temporary commissioners for hazardous waste treatment facility at the Army Ammunition Plant in Des Moines County The city council has voted to have these people but Jim Braun thinks that it should be a council person rather than the consultants for this company which have been approved by the city council Does not require the commission’s approval. Lunch #12 Iowa Water Quality Standards Procedure used to develop water quality based effluent limits. DNR staff presented the history leading up to this new derivation proceedure which by the DNR’s own calculations will allow a 100-372% increase in pollutant discharge levels. They pointed out that if this were delayed it would have to go back to the drawing board and other tasks put on hold. When Jim Braun began talking about the fact that this was sending the wrong message, etc. Jack Riessen jumped up several times to contradict his concerns, and say that they were not relevant. He insisted that this increase in the amount that could be dumped would in no way increase the amount of pollutants released into Iowa’s waters. Item 22 was the referral of Iowa Select to the Attorney General because of a hog confinement manure runofff on September 29th that caused a fish kill in four mile creek. There were problems with compliance on the manure management plan and a point of contention about whether the tenant had permission to make the application. At first it was said that a truck overturned going over a creek and this caused the spill. A great deal of time was taken talking about application of this slurry on a hard encrusted field where it simply ran off. CRP land was sprayed and torn up making dykes to contain the waste that had been discharged. Three parties were represented, Iowa Select, Southern Waste Hauling and the owners of the property. DNR staff maintained that inefficiency in the waste management plan led to this problem and that a company cannot contract away their liability. Iowa Select’s representative pointed out that the company can’t get permits while fighting enforcement. The owner of Southern Waste Handling told the commission he took full responsibility for the accident. It was his first violation and the hauler acted as quickly as possible to minimize the damage, then, with the agreement of Iowa Select, reported the spill to the DNR’s voice mail, although in the training this man had completed he had been given instructions about reporting it to the DRN hotline. The head of the company pointed out that he had already purchased the equipment that could have prevented this spill. The representative for the owners of the land said the owners had not delegated fertility decisions, that CRP land had been sprayed with waste and torn up trying to stem the flow to the river and that the waste applicator did not have permission to enter the property. They used airway injection, which is not a recognized application method. They have photographs of puddling two weeks after the application. They requested that this be referred to the attorney general’s office. An ICCI representative presented a letter from ICCI pointing out that this was a 100,000 fishkill and that Iowa Select has had 5 violations since August. DNR staff repeated that there was a question whether they had the right to be on the property at all. Reporting was a mutual decision between applicator and Iowa Select, further evidence of Iowa Select’s tie to the spill. The Iowa Select representative said that some commissioners have a conflict of interest and should recuse themselves. When questioned as to specifics he said that Lisa Davis is the director of ICAN, an organization that opposed confinement operations. Note: the commissioner in question was not even present at this meeting. Jim Braun pointed out that this is not legislation but has to do with a violation. After some discussion the commissioners decided that this was a dangerous precedent to set, as any farmer who contracted with an independent operator might be liable for the negligence of the independent operator under those circumstances. Lois Glantzman requested a closed session and after the public was readmitted the commissioners agreed to have this case handled administratively. The next item concerned certificatiion of nationwide corps of engineers permits. They certified them with three conditions. #14 concerning moneis for wastewater treatment passed #15 concerning funding for assistance for small businesses in addressing concerns of the clean air act passed #16 the insignificant activities passed. This eliminates the category of air emissions below the level at which action must be taken. The process was conducted between the DRN and industry representatives. There was no representative of the public or environmental community present at these deliberations. #17 passed. This had to do with air quality and construction permitting. This process included DNR staff and industry representatives. There were no representatives of the public or environmental groups. The EPA didn’t like some of the provisions and they were changed. #18 also concerned air emissions. This process included DNR and industry representatives and did not include representatives of the public or the environmental community. July 26 is the closing date for public comment. This rule has to do with “fugitive emissions” which are emissions that do not escape through, for example, a stack. There will be a public hearing July 11 at 10:30 in conference rooms 3 & 4 of the air quality bureau offices. If this passes into rule it would eliminate reporting fugitive emissions not listed as toxic emissions when calculating whether the facility is a major source subject to Title V permit program. #19 concerned fees to support Title V reporting. It passed. #20 adjacency for open feedlots no one objected to this clarification and definition of how close they need to be. Commissioner Priebe is against this. He thinks the cattleman’s association rolled over and played dead . It passed with one dissenting vote - that of Commissioner Priebe. #22 Bee Rite tire disposal referred #24 This concerns the new fines for fishkills. An ICN hearing has been set up for July 2nd at 15 locations. It was approved. #25 concerns rules to implement phase 2 of the storm water program concerning construction sites pollution prevention control . This would change the minimum area to one acre where it has been five acres. Industrial sites would still have to get a storm water permit. Cities with separate storm sewer systems 100,000 and over have to have permit. This action would bring that number down as well. There is currently a lawsuit at the federal level and this will be considered again next month. #26 monthly report The next commission meeting will be in West Burlington at South East Community College at noon. There will be a hearing at 6 or 6:30 pm Monday, June 16th. The commissioners were told to bring lunches. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT to [log in to unmask]