The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has approved the nutrient management plan of an 11,600-head open cattle feedlot near Monona.
Supreme Beef, owned by Mike Walz, Dean Walz and Jared Walz, now may complete the project started in 2017 but stalled by environmental violations, opposition from neighbors and legal wrangling with two former business partners.
Environmental groups were not happy with the decision.
“If IDNR can approve this facility, which is located in sensitive karst topography, in the watershed of an Outstanding Iowa Water and important cold water trout streams, then current Iowa laws and regulations provide no protection of the public interest and exist solely to rubber stamp livestock industry interests,” Ingrid Gronstal, water program director for the Iowa Environmental Council, said in a prepared statement.