North Iowa residents still awaiting EPA action on foul-smelling lagoon that killed man

Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register
·4 min read
Kossuth County resident are still waiting to hear whether the material inside a 300,000-gallon tank is hazardous, about 18 months after a Whittemore man was overwhelmed by fumes there and died.
Kossuth County resident are still waiting to hear whether the material inside a 300,000-gallon tank is hazardous, about 18 months after a Whittemore man was overwhelmed by fumes there and died.

Eighteen months after a north Iowa man was overcome by fumes from a mixture in a concrete tank where he was working and later died, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still hasn't yet determined if the material is hazardous.

Meanwhile, residents of the area who say they're accustomed to the sometimes strong odors of farming operations continue to complain about what they have described as the unbearable stench emanating from the 300,000-gallon tank south of Algona

EPA's Region 7 office said results from unspecified samples so far are inconclusive about what is in the mixture. Randy Dean Meyer, a 33-year-old Whittemore father, collapsed in September 2021 while using a tractor-mounted auger to agitate the material and died two days later at a Mason City hospital.

The EPA said it now wants to test the tank contents to determine whether they are a "sulfide-bearing waste" that generates toxic gases when combined with other materials. But the agency has "run into challenges concerning safety for sample personnel" who would come in "direct contact with the waste," Region 7 spokesman Kellen Ashford wrote in an email.

EPA workers will need advanced protective gear to take samples

A limited number of people are able to take the samples, he said. And the workers require specialized "Level B personal protection equipment." Described online as providing the highest level of respiratory protection, the gear includes self-contained breathing apparatus, chemical-resistant gloves, face shields, and hooded, chemical-resistant clothing.

A couple months before the Meyer died, area residents began complaining the lagoon smelled like rotting dead animals, making them gag and driving them inside their homes and businesses. The tank sits near U.S. Highway 169, a couple miles south of Algona.

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In 2021, local and state officials said the tank held peptones, a byproduct of pork production, as well as soybean wash and possibly other unidentified substances. State officials said the peptones were intended for use as a crop-fertilizing soil conditioner.

Area residents said they were told that the peptones are primarily the remnants of pig intestines used to make a blood-thinning drug called heparin.

With a few warm days this winter, complaints about the foul-smelling lagoon have rolled in again, said Kossuth County Supervisor Roger Tjarks, who along with the board's other supervisors have written the EPA expressing concerns about the tank.

With summer coming, the rancid smell "isn't going to get any better," said Tjarks, the board's chairman.

A large, open lagoon holding at least 300,000 gallons of byproducts from pork processing sits on this otherwise disused hog facility outside Algona. A man agitating the lagoon with an auger mounted to a tractor died after being overcome by the fumes in September 2021.
A large, open lagoon holding at least 300,000 gallons of byproducts from pork processing sits on this otherwise disused hog facility outside Algona. A man agitating the lagoon with an auger mounted to a tractor died after being overcome by the fumes in September 2021.

Companies told not to sell, use or move material in tank

In 2021, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa Department of Agriculture ordered companies associated with the lagoon not to sell, use or move the material. The letters went to Mobren Transport of Sioux City, the maker or distributor of the material; M&M Pumping and Michael Marso of West Bend; and Kevin and Josh Roethler of Algona, who own the land and tank.

Iowa DNR said the peptones came from Hepar Bioscience of North Sioux City, South Dakota, and the soybean wash was trucked from American Natural Processors in the Ida County town of Galva.

Scientific Protein Laboratories owns Mobren Transport, according to Iowa secretary of state documents, which name Scientific Protein Laboratories executives as officers of Mobren. The Waunakee, Wisconsin, company makes heparin, the blood thinner derived from pig intestines, as well as pancreatin. Made from pig pancreases, it helps people with cystic fibrosis metabolize fat and proteins.

In June, DNR spokeswoman Tammie Krausman said preliminary analysis showed the lagoon's material "might be hazardous waste," which placed the material under EPA's oversight.

'We can't do our job because EPA isn't doing its job'

Tjarks said Kossuth County residents continue to wait for EPA to determine what's in the tank, how to safely dispose of it and who will pay the costs.

"We're not getting anywhere," Tjarks said. "It's frustrating."

Ashford wrote that "potentially responsible parties have been identified during EPA’s investigative process and are responsible for cleanup." EPA won't identify them until "final determinations and notifications are made," he said.

The "EPA is committed to conclusively determining the extent of risk posed by the lagoon contents and its safe removal in the coming weeks," Ashford said.

Despite concerns that the site could hold hazardous waste, it only has a fence at the entrance that's easy to walk around, Tjarks said.

Ashford said the EPA and Iowa DNR have told the property owners they "need to protect the lagoon from passersby and trespassers."

The supervisors' most important job is to keep county residents safe, Tjarks said. But "we can't do our job because EPA isn't doing its job."

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: EPA still waiting on tests of material in foul-smelling pit near Algona