Judge to Rule Soon on Lawsuit Blocking Cattle Feedlot Near Northeast Iowa Trout Stream

(Des Moines, IA) — A district court judge says he’ll rule soon on a lawsuit challenging a state permit for a feedlot with more than 11-thousand-600 cattle near a prized trout stream in northeast Iowa. The Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club sued after Supreme Beef won permission to put the open feedlot near the headwaters of a stream that’s in the environmentally sensitive Driftless region. During a virtual hearing Thursday, Assistant Iowa Attorney General David Steward represented the D-N-R and asked the judge to dismiss the suit, claiming the petition “points to no evidence that a harm has ever occurred, that there is any perceptible present or eminent harm.” Sierra Club attorney Wally Taylor said the lawsuit seeks to prevent a major pollution event. The lawsuit claims the D-N-R approved Supreme Beef’s application despite receiving calculations that the feedlot’s manure management plan was flawed.