Postville, Iowa - Deal reached over wastewater discharge from kosher meatpacker

Postville, Iowa - A deal has been reached between a meatpacker, state water quality officials and an environmental group that would end a lawsuit and clear the way for the meatpacker to operate its own wastewater treatment facility.
Officials say the resolution was made possible when the Iowa Department of Natural Resources amended its permit allowing Agriprocessors Inc., a kosher meatpacker based in Postville, to discharge sodium in a local stream.
The legal tussle began in 2004 when an environmental group filed a lawsuit against the DNR. It claimed the original permit would have allowed dangerous levels of chloride to be discharged into Hecker Creek, a tributary of the Yellow River.
Environmentalists also worried that salt and bacteria in the waste stream would flow into the groundwater and contaminate drinking water and threaten fish downstream.
Last summer, a Polk County District Judge agreed with some of the environmentalists' complaints and sent the permit, back to the DNR for changes.
New the state agency issued a draft amendment to the permit and scheduled a public hearing for March 28. The revision calls for a reduction in the allowable discharge of chloride.

In a letter to Postville residents, company vice president Sholom Rubashkin said the compromise benefits the environment, the local economy and the company.
Rubashkin also said the new $11 million water treatment facility, subsidized in part by a $7 million in federal grants and loans, represents "a huge leap forward in our ability to clean wastewater."