The Iowa attorney general's office on February 3 sued two northern Iowa hog confinement operations for failing to file manure management plans. This is believed to be the first such lawsuit in Iowa.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources officials repeatedly warned eight large confinements owned and operated by General Development LC and Kollasch Land and Livestock Inc., to file the documents. The manure management plans are required by the state. Such plans detail how confinements will apply manure to crop fields without polluting streams and waterways.

Both companies are based in Whittemore, and the hog facilities are in Kossuth and Palo Alto counties. Wayne Gieselman, chief of the Iowa DNR's environmental protection division, says the companies failed to file the reports or to pay fees on time over the past two years.

Attorney general asking for $5,000 fine per day

Eldon McAfee, lawyer for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, agreed with Gieselman that this appears to be the first time the state of Iowa has sued a livestock confinement operation solely over the failure to file the manure management plans required of all but the smallest livestock confinements.

Most of the confinements in this case filed no plan for 2009 within the required period. At one farm, a 2008 plan was filed four months late. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is asking for a $5,000 fine per day for failing to file the reports. The lawsuit has been filed in Kossuth County District Court.

"Manure management plans are required in order to show that operations have adequate land for application of manure produced by the animals," says Miller. "The plans are an important tool to protect the environment—and the great majority of livestock operations comply with the rules."