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In a recent release, the DNR’s Water Quality Section states:

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has recently added a document titled “DNR Guidelines for Bacteria Analysis” to the newly re-titled Bacteria Sampling NPDES page at http://www.iowadnr.gov/water/npdes/calculator.html . This document provides sample hold time guidelines for laboratories and NPDES permittees for the analysis of non-potable [...]

What do world trade, wood pallets, tree pests and the ozone layer have in common? In a well-written article appearing in the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law entitled “Analysis of ISPM 15 and its Impact on the Wood Pallet Industry, Nicole Woodroffe discusses in detail an issue I did not know even existed. Volume 15, [...]

If I want to buy some software to help my legal practice, the software company’s licensing system requires that I pay a “per seat” fee that is multiplied by the number of attorneys in my firm, regardless of whether they want or would even use that software. So, before I can buy software, I have to convince dozens of attorneys that it is worth spending $30,000 so I can have some software (unlikely) or that it is worth them getting the software as well and supporting me in my effort to get the rest of the firm to get the software as well. [...]

Flint Hills Resources, an independent subsidiary of Koch Industries, has won an auction to purchase two ethanol plants owned by Hawkeye Growth. Both plants share the highly successful Fagen 110 million gallon design. The plants are in Menlo and Shell Rock. The auction was instituted by the primary lender, The Royal bank of Scotland [...]

My clients in Minnesota are pleased that after years of litigation and the continued reliance upon expired industrial stormwater rules that Minnesota now has new rules. They may not be as pleased to see that the rules include additional regulatory steps, including as a key component the requirement to “shelter” pollutant containing materials from exposure [...]

Judge Jeffrey White of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued a ruling on August 13, 2010 vacating a USDA decision to allow Monsanto to continue to plant Genuity® Roundup Ready® (GMO) sugar beets. Based on the recent press reports, there seems to be some confusion regarding the nature [...]

EPA Region 7 has filed administrative compliance orders against eight beef feedlot operations in northwest Iowa for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. This is part of a targeted enforcement emphasis aimed at feedlots. The parties subject to the enforcement actions include:

Todd Bartman, doing business as Bartman Farms, of Rock Valley, Iowa, must [...]

University of Arkansas graduate students sampled wild canola plants every five miles along 3,000 miles of roads in the state of North Dakota. Of 406 plants sampled, 80% of the plants had a minimum of one transgene attributable only to genetically modified canola plants. 46% of the stops found genetically modified canola plants. [...]

there is evidence that the EPA is considering taking steps to clamp down on the Western and Midwestern propensity to generate dust. [...]