Field Office Compliance - Complaint

Complaint ID - 29331
Golden Valley Acres - 310663142
16604 110th Avenue Grand River, IA 501081045
Decatur County

FO 5

Complaint ID:
29331
Complainant
(L)
Complaint Location
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Complaint Resolution
Responsible Party
Report
Document Name Type File Date Note
Gaal 9 (58010) - Complaint ID 29331.pdf
Letter (public)
04/12/2021 Letter - 041921
Gaal 9 (58010) - Complaint ID 29331 - Ltr of Non Compliance.pdf
Letter (public)
04/12/2021 Letter of Non-Compliance - 051721
File Name File Type File Date Note
Comments
5/17/2021 On May 17, 2021 we sent a letter of non-compliance (see attached letter). BILL GIBBONS
5/12/2021 On Wednesday, May 12, 2021, I received the following email from Kent Krause: Good morning Bill, The sawdust made it down and they have the pigs covered. Lupe has reinstructed to his caretaker that the pigs have to be covered each day, so I hope that takes care of it now. BILL GIBBONS
5/11/2021 On Monday, May 10, 2021, I received a reply from Kent Krause as follows: Yep That’s what I told him, but he needs to make sure he keeps Sawdust/Stalks available. We will try to monitor a little closer from here also. Thanks, Kent BILL GIBBONS
5/11/2021 On May 10, 2021, I replied to Kent Krause as follows: Thanks Kent, Someone must be keeping a close eye on the situation. Lupe needs to make sure dead animals are covered every day. Sincerely, Bill Gibbons BILL GIBBONS
5/11/2021 On May 10, 2021, I received a reply from Kent Krause with Pinnacle which read as follows: Bill, I just talked to Lupe about the situation. He did not know the pigs had not been getting covered. They have had a couple of loads of new sawdust ordered for down there that obviously haven’t showed up. He is going to take a load from up here right away tomorrow morning and get the pigs covered. He is going to check on the status of his 1st order also. Kent Krause BILL GIBBONS
5/11/2021 On Monday, May 10, 2021 I sent an email to Brian Ritland with Pinnacle which read as follows: Brian, We received another complaint last week about the Gaal 9 swine confinement (Facility ID 58010). The complaint was the same as before, not covering dead animals in the composting building. I went there this morning and took some pictures (see attached). It appears they have been putting dead animals in the middle bin without covering them for some time as I could see considerable breakdown of the carcasses. There are also a lot of recent dead animals and some of them are sitting outside of the bin. They need to address this situation right away. If they are having an outbreak they should consider calling rendering to pick up the carcasses. Sincerely, Bill Gibbons BILL GIBBONS
5/11/2021 On Monday, May 10 2021 I visited the site. The middle compost bin of the compost building was full and overflowing with dead pigs and they were not covered. They were in different states of decomposition with some of the carcasses looking like they had been there quite a while (highly decomposed) while many others looked like they had been placed there in the last few days. I took pictures BILL GIBBONS
5/11/2021 On Thursday, May 6, 2021 and Friday, May 7, 2021 we received pictures from an anonymous source showing dead pigs in the middle composting bin that were uncovered. Some of the animals were in an advanced state of decomposition. The picture Friday showed a much greater number of animals and the pile of dead pigs was flowing out onto the ground (outside of the composting building). BILL GIBBONS
4/20/2021 On April 19, 2021 we sent a letter to Guadalupe Moreno (owner of Gall 9) as a follow up to the complaint investigation. See the attached letter. BILL GIBBONS
4/14/2021 On Monday, April 12, 2021 I met Brian Ritland with Pinnacle at the site. They had a 3-bin composting building. The left and middle bin had material in them. The animals were completely covered (no body parts exposed). The right bin was empty. On the east end of the building there was a garage for a skid loader used to operate the composting system. Brian Ritland said they talked to the site owner. The owner told them the skid loader was broken down for a while and they may not have had adequate cover during that time. Brian and I also discussed land-application and keeping records. I told Brian the site should start turning in land-application records for the compost just like they do for land-application of manure. Since they are going to keep land-application records Brian Ritland decided to collect a sample of the compost material for a nutrient analysis and develop an appropriate land-application rate for the compost. I told Brian I would send a letter recommending the land-application record keeping. BILL GIBBONS

Compliance Tracking
Action Type Date Completed Date Comment
State of Iowa DNR Home Site Policy
Leading Iowans in caring for our natural resources
Version: 2.3.0.23170
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