Supervisor backs petition for change in animal confinement operation master matrix

Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Floyd County supervisor is one of a number of people pushing for changes to the state’s master matrix which controls when applications are approved for large animal confinement operations.

Mark Kuhn introduced at a supervisors’ planning session Monday morning a “confidential draft” of a petition that will be introduced to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources at its meeting July 18.

The petition, by the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Food and Water Watch, asks the Environmental Protection Commission of the DNR to change the matrix “to create a more effective process for involving county boards of supervisors in the permitting of new and expanding confinement feeding operations.”

It would make a number of changes to the matrix to increase required distances between confinement feeding operations and neighbors, and to increase protection of the environment, Kuhn said.

Kuhn is in a unique position regarding the matrix, because he was one of the 12 state legislators originally responsible for drafting the legislation that created the matrix in 2002, and now he is back in county government where, he said, he can see that the matrix is not working.

“I was extremely involved in the entire process, and now that I get back on the county board I see, in my opinion, it has serious misgivings,” he said. “I wouldn’t quite say it’s totally failed, but there’s so many things wrong with it.”

Kuhn said he realized the other two supervisors had not had time to read the petition and so he wasn’t asking them to endorse it, but he said he had been asked to write an opinion piece for a state newspaper backing the petition, and he wanted the Floyd County board’s permission to sign the letter as a Floyd County supervisor.

“I don’t want to put you on the spot,” he said. “Let’s read it and you can tell me later if you’d support me writing the letter as a member of the board of supervisors.”

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said she would read through it, “and I’ll let you know if I have any questions or concerns.”

Supervisor Chairman Doug Kamm didn’t commit one way or the other, but suggested Kuhn could just sign the letter “as Mark Kuhn.”

Kuhn spent several minutes explaining why he thought this petition is important.

Thirteen counties, including Floyd County, passed resolutions last year asking the Iowa Legislature to revisit the matrix and confinement feeding operation laws, but lawmakers took no action during the last session, “and it doesn’t look like they will do anything in the second year” of the current General Assembly, he said.

The reason the petition will at least cause some action, he said, is because by state law any individual or group can petition a state agency to adopt, amend or repeal a rule, which is what the matrix is.

The petition doesn’t force a change, but it does require the agency to respond within 60 days or request a 30-day extension then respond.

“This makes a lot of changes, proposed changes, but yet it works within the matrix,” Kuhn said. “It’s not calling for local control. It’s not calling for a moratorium. It is, indeed, just calling for changes very specific to the matrix.”

The problem, he said after the meeting, is that the matrix is a series of questions in three sections, and to be approved for an application for a confinement permit, a confinement operator need only score 440 out of a possible 880 points, “and once they reach 440 they don’t have to address any other question.”

An analysis of several years of previous applications shows that some questions are almost always used and some are almost never used by applicants, which shows some of the questions are too easy and some are too hard, Kuhn said.

Suggested changes in the matrix would “provide more protection for neighbors, for smell,” and would provide “more protection for environmentally sensitive areas,” he said.

Specific changes include:

• Increasing the separation distances between a confinement operation and residences, hospitals, nursing homes, child care facilities, schools, churches and businesses, and reducing the number of points awarded for meeting those distances.

• Increasing the distance from private or public water wells and decreasing the number of points for meeting those distances.

• Adding designated areas, karst terrain or wetlands to the areas where setbacks are required. Karst terrain, which is common in northeast Iowa, is land that contains limestone or other minerals that are easily eroded, which can result in large freshwater aquifers, but can also result in easier contamination from surface water to groundwater.

In general, the proposed changes would reduce the number of points possible on many questions, requiring applicants to answer more questions to meet the 440-point threshold.

Statistics included with the petition state that the number of confinement operations in the state large enough to be covered under the matrix has increased from about 1,000 when the matrix was passed, to more than 3,000 now, and that there are more than 5,000 other livestock operations that are not included in the state database.

The petition also notes that there are more than 800 identified water quality impairments in the state, and most of them are “due to pollutants and conditions associated with animal waste.”

Kuhn predicted that once some farm groups and livestock organizations hear about the petition there will be a lot of opposition.

However, he said, “The goal is not to not allow livestock producers in any county, but to permit them in areas where it is appropriate.”

Also at the planning session Monday, supervisors again discussed an ordinance that would provide penalties for continued instances of livestock wandering onto public roads or neighboring property. Supervisors agreed that after several changes over many meetings, the language was close to something they could approve.

The most recent changes would require two warnings before a citation is issued, although there is no time limit for how close together those two instances can be.

A change suggested Monday is to make it clear that any law enforcement official, including state troopers and state conservation officers, can issue a warning or citation in addition to county deputies.