Field Office Compliance - Assistance

Assistance ID - 75388
Ovation Farms 60786 - Construction - 310204436
13780 450TH ST Thompson, IA 50478-7507
Winnebago County

FO 2

Report
File Name File Type File Date Note
Comments
12/23/2014 Ashley Waller and I participated in a phone meeting between DNR staff and the facility’s engineers working on a new Jordan well and a new RO water treatment facility at Rembrandt. During the meeting, DNR WSE staff discussed the timeline for completing the well construction permit request and updating the water use permit. DNR staff are already working on the initial steps of these processes, even though the facility’s engineers stated that they had not yet submitted the final permit application paperwork or application fee. Waller agreed to conduct a site survey the following afternoon (12/23/14). She will meet with Don Ostrander (the certified operator) and Jamie Makepeace (ISG engineer). I clarified how Field Office 2 staff will expedite our part of the construction permit process. [Based on the draft application materials submitted by email to Skipp Slattenow, a site survey request was created. Waller will complete the inspection tomorrow and submit a report to Slattenow. Slattenow will then be responsible for sending the written site approval to the applicant as part of the permit approval process. Conducting the site survey in this way should save the applicant about two weeks.] The remainder of the conversation focused on the applicant's desire to expedite multiple permit requests. Wendy Heib presented information about the time that will be required to obtain wastewater construction and/or operation permits for the pilot and production RO treatment facilities. Heib stated that the Field Office may be able to provide some assistance, but I stated to the applicant’s engineers and Heib that they would need to discuss that possibility separately with FO2 wastewater staff. No FO2 wastewater staff were present during the current phone call. The applicant’s engineers agreed to submit a proposal to the DNR. It was clear that neither engineering firm had previously been hired to submit a proposal for disposing of the pilot RO wastewater. It was also clear that the applicant would want to find a way to speed up the approval processes so that they could start construction as soon as possible. SCOTT WILSON
State of Iowa DNR Home Site Policy
Leading Iowans in caring for our natural resources
Version: 2.3.0.23170
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