DNR puts off June meeting on Pattison water permit
By Audrey Posten
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is backtracking on its previous plan to hold a public meeting or open house this month to share more information about Pattison Sand Company’s request to dramatically increase water withdrawals at its mining operation near Clayton.
A DNR water use permit summary report says Pattison would like to modify a permit to triple its current maximum water withdrawal quantity from 976.8 million gallons per year to 3.7 billion.
The request, which Pattison said will help the company quarry limestone below the water table, has drawn “a significant amount of public feedback,” according to Chad Fields, geologist II with the Water Supply Engineering Section of the Iowa DNR.
The request to modify the permit was the subject of an April 22 public hearing in Elkader, during which not one of the at least 80 people in attendance spoke in support of the water withdrawals. Attendees criticized a lack of notice and information about the water use, and worried about the withdrawals’ potential impact on the Jordan aquifer and local wells and municipalities. People also disagreed with the DNR’s assessment that Pattison’s need for more water is justified, while disputing that a corporation should be allowed to pull water from a public resource without being charged for it.
Fields was one of two officials from the DNR who led the hearing, but both declined to make a statement or answer questions. He later said the agency now recognizes “the need for improved communication regarding this permit,” and planned to hold a public event to share more details and respond to questions raised during the public comment period, which concluded May 27.
“We’re also exploring how to evaluate potential well interference impacts over the next year,” Fields said in May.
Now, Fields said plans to have a meeting on June 17 have fallen through.
“We’re going to reset and try another approach with a different agency,” Fields told The Guttenberg Press on June 5. He said a meeting should be held in later summer instead.
The Guttenberg Press asked Fields if he could share which agency would be involved and what necessitated the reset, but he declined to comment.
“There are still discussions happening, and I’m hopeful that we might still be able to work something out,” he said.