Manure pit safety resolution back before supervisors

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — A revised resolution aimed at protecting the health of workers at large animal confinement operations will be discussed by the Floyd County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, and its sponsor hopes changes will result in more support this time.

Supervisor Mark Kuhn introduced a resolution at the board meeting the end of February to set worker health safety requirements for applicants seeking to get a state construction permit for a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO).

But at the supervisor’s meeting March 28, Kuhn moved to table discussion on his resolution after Supervisors Doug Kamm and Linda Tjaden both indicated their opposition.

The proposed resolution deals with requirements for workers around the large — and sometimes deadly — manure pits at many of these operations.

Kamm and Tjaden labeled the resolution a waste of time, duplicative of rules already in place and misleading.

Floyd County Assistant Attorney Randall Tilton said the original resolution was likely not legal under Iowa law that leaves regulating livestock to the state.

Kuhn said at a workshop meeting Monday that he has “worked almost daily on the resolution, trying to find a compromise solution.”

He said he met with industry representatives, local producers, experts at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa and with bankers.

He also met with Assistant County Attorney Tilton regarding “quote, unquote, the legality” of the resolution.

The supervisors will discuss the resolution during the meeting to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the supervisors’ chambers at the courthouse.

Also on the agenda Tuesday are:

• A public hearing regarding an application for a construction permit for K&K Hogs LLC to build a facility in Section 27 of Cedar Township for two 2,498-head deep pit swine finisher operations; and making a recommendation to the state regarding that application.

• Discussion of a resolution giving the city of Floyd permission to designate a commercial park urban development area that includes property outside the city limits.

• Review of the 2018 state secondary road budget and the 2018 secondary road five-year construction program.