Chuck Gipp: Ruling will come on Monday in Millenium Ag expansion appeal

Iowa DNR Secretary Chuck Gipp told members of the Decorah Rotary Club on Tuesday that the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission will make a ruling next Monday on whether a permit should be issued to allow the expansion of Millenium Ag's hog confinement operation in northern Winneshiek County.

Winneshiek County supervisors voted 5-0 in September to ask the EPC to overturn the Iowa DNR's preliminary granting of such a permit.  Millenium Ag proposed to raise 4,100 hogs at their facility.  Normally that would trigger a review through the master matrix, but because the permit asks for an expansion of an existing facility rather than construction of a new facility, the master matrix was not used.

Speaking on Tuesday, Gipp defended the master matrix, although he pointed out that it should be called "the State Legislature's Master Matrix" rather than "the DNR's master matrix," since the system was created by a bipartisan group of state senators and representatives and has been continued by both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Gipp said the DNR acts as a referee in disputes involving agricultural permits, acting within the guidelines established by the state legislature.