Livestock Burial Atlas

Application History

The Livestock Burial Zones interactive map was developed to assist with rapid assessment of proposed sites for animal burial.

The Advisory zones were developed in the early 2000s by a group of experts in livestock management, soil science, geology, water supply, and mapping. These experts identified areas that were at high, medium, and low risk for transport of contaminants to groundwater and surface waters.

The highest risk areas include karst regions, where thin soils and fractured carbonate rocks allow fast flow of contaminants through the ground, alluvial aquifers, poorly-drained locations, and areas near waterbodies. High or moderate risk areas also include cities and conservation easements, soils with frequent flooding, and areas characterized by woody vegetation, steep slopes, shallow bedrock, proximity to wells, or areas near or within a source water capture zone of a public water supply.

Higher separations distances are recommended from private and public wells when animals are diseased.

Detailed plans for mass animal mortality can be found in the 2019 Mass Animal Mortality Plan.

2020 Update

In April of 2020, the Livestock Burial Zones interactive map has been updated with the addition of a Livestock Burial Regulatory layer which shows areas where burial is prohibited based on the rules outlined in the Iowa Administrative Code 567 Chapters 100.4 (dead animal burial) and 43.3 (separation from public wells). The following table shows the conditions that were included in the Regulatory layer and those that were not included.

Conditions mapped	Conditions unmapped
Well-drained soils (burial allowed)	Tile lines or tile-drained soils
100-feet from a private well (household use)	50 feet from adjacent property line
1,000 feet from a public well	500 feet from neighboring residence
100 feet from any surface water
Outside of a flood plain, wetland, or shoreline area*
* alluvial soils are used in lieu of statewide flood plain maps

Additional updates include:

• An information summary which shows the presence or absence of advisory risk factors at a given location.
• Well locations differentiated by well data source (public wells, water use, GeoSam, private well tracing, agricultural drainage, county or test, or plugged).
• Links to relevant well data in the information summary when users click on a well.
• Display of the current map scale.
• Change in Advisory risk colors to increase contrast for ADA compliance.
• Addition of a Facility ID search tool for users to locate a site using a 5-digit AFO Facility ID.

Recommendations for Use

If all other requirements are met, areas characterized by both low risk (advisory layer) and having no restrictions (regulatory layer) are good candidates for livestock burial. Burial in areas that are not considered restricted (regulatory layer), but are located in high or medium risk areas (advisory layer) may require additional review to ensure that risks to water resources are avoided. Burial within restricted areas (regulatory layer) will not be allowed. Once a burial zone location is chosen, the location and information about the number and type of animals should be tracked to avoid accidental disturbance.

Caution!

The regulatory burial zones layer is displayed as a grid to reduce the file size and facilitate map function. Thus, proposed sites less than one grid pixel (10 meters square) away from the edge of a restricted area could be within the setbacks defined by IAC 567 Chapter 100. In addition, private wells are often poorly located; therefore, it is important to field verify private well locations prior to burial.

Map Help

Navigation
Address search	Type an address in the address search box. A comma should separate each portion of the address. Example: 123 X St, Des Moines, IA, 50311
PLSS search	Tier/Township Range Section search. Example: T84NR03E02
Zoom	Several options are available for zooming in and out on the map.
	use the +|- buttons on the map
	double-click on the map
	while holding down the shift key click and drag the mouse cursor on the map to zoom to an area
	use the + and - keys on the keyboard
	us the mouse scroll wheel
Pan/Move Map	Several options are available for moving around in the map
	click mouse and hold while dragging or
	use the arrow keys
Map Features
Place AFO Site	click on the map to place a marker and get AFO siting paramaters
Measure	click on the measure tool (ruler) on the tool bar above the map
Mail AFO location	click on the mail button (envelope) on the tool bar above the map, this will fill the body of the mail message with URL than includes the location of the placed marker