By Zach Jensen,
A request to rezone a piece of rural Ridgeway property from agricultural to industrial was approved in a 3-2 vote by the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors following a public hearing on the issue Monday morning.
Novilla Renewable Natural Gas submitted the zoning application, and the proposed biodigester will be located on land owned by Craig Bohr and Deb Storlie — specifically, the area near the intersection of 275th Street and Iowa Highway 9.
A biodigester contains microorganisms which break down manure in an oxygen-free environment, producing renewable natural gas, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – the facilities are also sometimes called anaerobic digestion systems or anaerobic digesters.
The zoning change request was necessary for Novilla’s proposed biodigester to be able to process and refine gases.
Monday’s public hearing was held after the county’s planning and zoning commission voted 4-2 against granting Novilla’s zoning change request. During that meeting, the commission’s primary complaint was that it wasn’t given adequate time to do the necessary research before making a decision on the issue. Some commissioners were also concerned about the potential for groundwater contamination — the proposed digesters are expected to be placed on a concrete base 3 feet thick, and they are to be filled with 70 feet of water to test for leaks before operations begin.
Similar concerns carried over into Monday’s public hearing, which was attended by more than 50 community members. However, according to Winneshiek County Auditor Ben Steines, such concerns would have been more appropriately directed to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which oversees agricultural issues such as groundwater contamination by agricultural waste.
“The construction of the biodigester is not what the rezoning is (for),” Steines said before the public hearing began. “This board’s action, today, won’t approve or prohibit the construction of that digester. This board is deciding, if the digester is built, whether they can refine the gasses that are put out by the digester at this location. That’s what the zoning is for — the processing and refining of gasses.”
Full article available in the August 8 Decorah Leader.
Submit A Comment
Fill out the form to submit a comment. All comments require approval by our staff before it is displayed on the website.