(Radio Iowa) – Water quality advocates says the effort to protect Bloody Run Creek in northeast Iowa from pollution has made progress after the D-N-R was ordered to reevaluate a feedlot water permit. The ruling by an administrative law judge could render the water permit invalid for Supreme Beef’s 11-thousand head feedlot in Clayton County. The president of the Driftless Water Defenders, Chris Jones, says the order could set a precedent for change to Iowa’s environmental protections.

He says it went unchallenged because it is law.

Jones says the next step is gathering signatures for a petition in Decorah on Monday. Bloody Run is one of the few streams in the state that supports the natural reproduction of trout.