A farmer in west-central Iowa’s been hit with a heavy fine for polluting. Lawrence Handlos owns and operates at least nine confinement feeding operations in Audobon County, totaling about fifty-thousand animals. A judge in Audubon County has fined him 50-thousand dollars for water-pollution and manure-handling violations at those farms. Last year, the Iowa Attorney General’s office filed an environmental-protection lawsuit against Handlos, alleging water pollution, storm-water discharge violations, failure to get a construction permit and not ensuring that manure-storage structures were built above the groundwater table. The D-N-R helped investigate the impact of the farms on surrounding land and water. Monday’s decree requires Handlos to do more to fix things up and warns against any more violations.
Iowa's Radio News Network
