Field Office Compliance - Assistance

Assistance ID - 75411
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
12/24/2014 I attended a phone conference with Ryan Norman (DGR Engineering), Mike Banovetz (Rembrandt Foods Inc.),Taroon Bidar (IDNR), and Skip Slattenow (IDNR) to discuss expediting the review and approval for a new well and reverse osmosis (RO) test pilot. Rembrandt Foods Inc. wants to construct an RO test pilot for a future RO system by mid to the end of January. They want to dig a new Jordan well for the RO test pilot and eventual permanent use of a RO system. The RO system will replace the current softening system due to the chloride levels being close to their wastewater permit level. This water is used to comply with food grade processing of eggs and other food products. There are two engineering firms being utilized on this project. They are DGR Engineering, which will be designing the RO water treatment system and I and S Group, which will be designing the well. Ryan stated they would qualify for expediting this process due to economic loss. Taroon stated he had never heard of this reason for expediting, and he explained it needed to be due to an emergency health issue. Taroon stated the IDNR would do its best at meeting their timeline, but due to the holiday season, he could not promise this would occur. We discussed using current water quality data from Wells 6 and 7 due to the proximity of the new well to the existing well i.e. the water in the new well should be about the same as wells 6 and 7. Also, the possibility of performing the RO test pilot on these wells due to the time constraints was discussed. However, radium is not currently required to be tested on wells 6 or 7, so they need to test wells 6 and 7 for radium to see if it is of concern with the new Jordan well. Also, when the new well is constructed they will have to ensure they meet all maximum contaminate levels (MCLs) and/or half MCLs. If the new well's water compostion is not close to well 6 or 7, then the RO test pilot must be performed on the new well. However, if it is close, then the RO test pilot maybe run on well 6 or 7 Rembrandt will need to update their existing water use permit for the new well water withdrawal. We also discussed the possibility of drilling the new well as an observation well and converting it to a permanent well later. DGR Engineering needs to submit the RO pilot protocol to IDNR Water Supply Engineering. Disposal of the concentrate from the RO test pilot was discussed. Ryan stated they planned on performing the RO test pilot and then blending the concentrate and permeate back together to achieve the same water as what is in the well. They would discharge this to the storm water collection point. A meeting with DGR Engineering, I and S Group, Rembrandt Foods Inc., and IDNR was discussed. Please see Ryan Norman's attached notes for more information on this meeting. ASHLEY WALLER
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