County’s board of adjustment target of new court petition

By Zach Jensen,

James Larew, attorney for Driftless Water Defenders, has filed two lawsuits on behalf of the Driftless Water Defenders in an attempt to delay or halt the construction of an anaerobic digestion facility near Ridgeway. (File photo)

The Driftless Water Defenders are making more waves in an effort to prevent a biodigester from being built outside the city of Ridgeway in western Winneshiek County. 

Attorney James Larew, acting legal counsel for the nonprofit environmentalist group, filed a second court petition on Oct. 3 — this one against the Winneshiek County Board of Adjustment. Larew previously filed a similar case on Aug. 30 against the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors for its handling of the public hearing on the rezoning of the property upon which the biodigester is slated to be built. The supervisors voted 3-2 to approve that request on Aug. 5, while the county’s board of adjustment unanimously voted to approve a conditional use permit for the biodigester after a Sept. 3 public hearing on the matter.

Earlier this year, Novilla RNG, LLC began the zoning processes required to build an anaerobic digestor facility, commonly known as a biodigester, on a four-acre plot northeast of Ridgeway. That site, known as Walnut Creek RNG, LLC, would be fed manure from farms owned by Full Bohr Dairy and KG4 Dairy.

The biodigester would be fed manure — from the two nearby dairy farms — which would be broken down to produce a renewable natural gas.

Larew’s lawsuit claims because “no federal or Iowa regulatory regime for manure digesters” exists, “it was up to the board of adjustment to protect the people of Winneshiek County from the hazardous wastes and pollutants produced by manure digesters.”

Kent Klocke Banner
 

“The board of adjustment denied the public a full and fair opportunity to be heard at the public hearing on the (conditional use permit) application by failing to read written public comments into the record arbitrarily, capriciously, and in abuse of discretion and in violation of due process,” the petition said. 

Full article available in the October 17 Decorah Leader.

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