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Cass Supervisors waive right to appeal S.W. IA Egg construction permit

Ag/Outdoor, News

May 25th, 2016 by Ric Hanson

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday, agreed to waive their right to appeal the issuance of a construction permit for Southwest Iowa Egg, near Massena. On May 11th, the Supervisors approved a Master Matrix scoring application for a construction permit. Southwest Iowa Egg plans to remove of two, older buildings and replace them with a larger, modern facilities that gives the chickens more room and is designed to considerably reduce out-gassing of odors from the manure.

The Board forwarded its recommendation of approval to the Iowa DNR, which, in-turn also approved the application. The DNR then created a draft permit for the Supervisors to either deny or approve. Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman read a letter received from the DNR’s Senior Environmental Engineer, with regard to the application. The letter said Southwest Iowa Egg Cooperative has met the legal criteria to issue a construction permit for seven new poultry confinement buildings and one new dry manure storage building.

The Board of Supervisors, according to Sunderman, had the right to appeal the DNR’s statement of recommendation to issue the permit, or they could waive their right to appeal the permit, to expedite the permit process. They chose the latter.

In other business, the Board approved a Sheriff’s Deputies,’ Jailors’ and Sheriff’s Office Assistant bargaining unit agreement for Fiscal Year 2017.