Field Office Compliance - Assistance

Assistance ID - 119797
Top Of Iowa Co-op - 311431242
101 North Park Lake Mills, IA
Winnebago County

FO 2

Report
File Name File Type File Date Note
Comments
7/22/2021 Vern Martinson stopped in and said he was considering buying the now-defunct Top-of-Iowa Coop at 101 North Park in Lake Mills. He remembered there was a spill there 20 years ago and that DNR was involved, and he wanted to know what he might be getting in to if he bought the property. There is a file on the site under FO2 Contaminated Sites, and we went through the file together. There was a 28% ammonia fertilizer spill reported at 500 gallons circa 2000. DNR’s primary concern at the time was that a tile went through the impacted area and ammonia was detected getting into surface water; DNR ordered the tile be plugged. DNR required that wells and borings be installed in the most impacted area; ammonia was detected in both the soil and ground water, but detected ground-water concentrations of ammonia were well within actionable levels at the time. DNR eventually allowed cessation of sampling and the wells were properly abandoned. Based upon my review of the file I advised Mr. Martinson of the following: 1 - There was likely residual subsurface ammonia contamination at the property. 2 - There are no DNR prohibitions or requirements regarding the transaction of environmentally-impaired real estate; liability is best apportioned through the buyer’s and seller’s Purchase Agreement (Mr. Martinson has retained an attorney for this matter). 3 - To my knowledge, DNR has never required a non-responsible party to pay for run-of-the-mill environmental cleanup associated with agricultural activities. 4 - Future site development should consider the plugged tile line and efforts should be made to ensure the tile remains in a non-discharging state. I made copies of the germane portions of the file, which included a report by Barker LeMar characterizing environmental conditions at the site, and gave them to Mr. Martinson. We also discussed the contiguous Fleetguard site, and I gave Mr. Martinson a memo summarizing a 2014 meeting in which I participated, that suggested that chlorinated solvents were present in the subsurface at the Fleetguard property and had the potential to migrate off the property in trace amounts. DAVID MILLER
State of Iowa DNR Home Site Policy
Leading Iowans in caring for our natural resources
Version: 2.3.2.24780