December 18, 2018
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Tuesday it has taken the unusual step of denying denied a permit for a large hog farm proposed for Fillmore County in southeastern Minnesota because of the threat of adding to groundwater nitrate pollution in the geologically porous region.
MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine said at a news conference that he denied the general permit for Waukon, Iowa-based Catalpa Ag's proposed 4,890-sow facility near Mabel because of the threat to public health. The piglet-producing operation would have generated over 7 million gallons of manure annually that would be spread on farm fields for fertilizer.
Groundwater nitrate levels in 19 of the county's 24 townships already exceed the state's safe drinking water standard of 10 parts per million, he said.
