Des Moines Register
The state's top environmental leader rejected a request to review a controversial animal feeding project in northeast Iowa that critics say threatens one of Iowa's outstanding waterways.
Kayla Lyon, Iowa's Department of Natural Resources director, said she lacks the authority to review the Supreme Beef project, an 11,600-head cattle operation near Monona in Clayton County.
The open-lot feeding operation sits near the headwaters of Bloody Run Creek, a cold- water trout stream that's among 34 waterways and lakes designated as Outstanding Iowa Waters.
The Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, representing nearly 50 individuals, state lawmakers and organizations, wrote to Lyon last week, asking her to order a departmental review of the Supreme Beef project under an administrative code rule that gives the director discretion to evaluate animal feeding operations in environmentally exceptional areas.