County hearing puts Buffalo confinement site on hold for distance and water‑outlet review

The Wright County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing on a proposed new confinement operation in Vernon Township (section 15) and heard technical detail and local concerns before pausing further action.

Kent Krauss of Pinnacle, the consultant handling permitting, described the Buffalo site as a new‑construction project for 4,999 head with two deep‑pit, fully covered, tunnel‑ventilated barns. He said the facility is projected to produce just under 1,300,000 gallons of manure per year and that the manure management plan as drafted can accommodate more than 2.1 million gallons of application acreage. “This site scores 495 points of the 440 required,” Krauss said when presenting the master matrix summary.

Supervisors and staff raised several concerns that could change that scoring. County staff and members questioned whether the closest residence and a newly built home were properly accounted for in the distance measurement; they also flagged a private pond and inlet ditch that outlets to the Iowa River and asked whether the matrix measurement should use the pond outlet for the distance to water. The presenter and supervisors discussed a possible waiver recorded for a neighboring farmstead and noted that a revised map and rescoring would be necessary if the measured distances change. A supervisor asked the board’s drainage attorney to weigh in regarding the pond’s drainage‑district status.

Soil and application method were also points of inquiry: the site sits on sandy, gravelly soils that supervisors said could increase the risk of nutrient loss; the presenter noted the manure plan is built on injection application, which reduces surface setbacks and is generally considered more protective from runoff, but staff said they would seek DNR clarification and local site verification.

County staff and the presenting consultant agreed to rescore and re‑map the Buffalo site and to request final clarification from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources about how to measure distances in the pond/ditch area. The board closed the hearing for the Buffalo site and directed staff to return with revised scoring and any DNR guidance before proceeding to a final decision.

No formal permit approval was issued at the meeting; supervisors said a follow‑up public hearing would be scheduled after staff completes the rescoring and site verification.