DNR investigates property on highway

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has investigated a property on Highway 1 and determined it is not in violation of any DNR policy. The property is at 1676 Highway 1, about six miles south of Kalona, and is owned by Adair Holdings, LLC.

Russell Royce, an environmental specialist with the DNR, said he received an anonymous complaint about the property, which prompted an investigation. He said in an interview Thursday that the investigation has finished. The complaint was about the accumulation of solid waste materials on the property. Royce said the materials do not violate any DNR rule, although the DNR sent a letter to the owner and encouraged him to recycle the material that?s there and to remove the items from the site. The owner, Roger Escher, declined to comment for this article.

Washington County Zoning Administrator Steve Lafaurie said in an interview Wednesday that he was still investigating the matter. He said that, based on his investigation thus far, he did not believe he had jurisdiction over the property because he believed it was agricultural land, which is exempt from zoning. The Iowa Assessor?s Web site classifies the property as an ?ag dwelling.? The property contains a single-family residential building and two steel utility buildings.

Royce said he looked at the possibility the property was violating the DNR?s water quality and solid waste rules. The DNR has rules against allowing ?fugitive materials? such as trash to blow into a neighboring property. Royce said he found no violations of this. He also investigated whether the items on the property were accumulating in the ditch, which he said they were not.

Royce said the property contained several crates with plastic containers inside. He said he saw milk jugs, cottage cheese containers and other dairy products that appeared to be outdated. He said that, based on his investigation, he determined the outdated dairy products were fed to hogs.  

After talking with the people who operated the site, Royce said he learned that the material was accumulating at 1676 because they were short of help, which was creating a backlog and a delay in removing the plastic containers.

The DNR exempts agricultural buildings from certain regulations, such as open burning rules where someone is burning down a farmhouse. However, Royce said the agricultural exemptions would not pertain to this case involving solid waste.

Royce said he and other DNR employees had noticed the site in the past, but did not investigate it because there was no obvious violation that they could see from the road.

?Once we get a legitimate complaint from a citizen, then that gives us justification to approach a property owner,? he said.

He said the complaint came directly to the DNR. He contacted county officials to see if county rules would apply in this case. Washington County Environmental Health Inspector Jeff Thomann said he was not aware of any public health hazards on the property.