Iowa awarded $1.28 million through energy program

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa has received $1.28 million in federal funds to help farms and businesses buy more efficient grain-drying systems, officials said.

The money was awarded through a USDA renewable energy program, said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

“By maximizing our energy efficiency, we can decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil,” Grassley said Thursday. “The farmers and business owners who are taking advantage of this program are helping our country move in the right direction.”
Grassley said 20 applicants will receive funds, either grants or loans.

Pennsylvania warns of Listeria contamination in raw milk

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The state Health Department has issued a warning to consumers not to drink raw milk from a Lebanon County dairy farm after tests showed samples contained the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes.

The Department of Agriculture said in a statement Friday that routine tests conducted May 29 at Green Acres Jersey Farm in Lebanon showed some raw milk samples contained Listeria, which can cause illness when ingested.

The state is advising consumers to discard raw milk bought at the dairy farm anytime after May 8. The agriculture department has suspended sales at the dairy until samples are free of the bacterium.

Listeria can sometimes cause fatal infections in young children, the elderly and others with weak immune systems, and miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Healthy people may develop fevers, headaches, nausea, diarrhea and other symptoms.

Pennsylvania law requires raw milk to be sold on the premises of the dairies that produce it. It is not sold in grocery stores.

No illnesses have been reported, but anyone who may have consumed the milk should consult a physician if they feel sick, the agriculture department said.

Raw milk has not been pasteurized to kill bacteria. Some proponents say it contains more vitamins than pasteurized milk and can be consumed by people who are lactose-intolerant, although the Centers for Disease Control says no health or nutritional benefits have been scientifically proven.

AES Corp. buys two wind farms

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — AES Corp. said May 30 it acquired two wind farm projects from GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of General Electric Co. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The projects include Lake Benton I, a 106.5-megawatt wind farm in southwestern Minnesota, and Storm Lake II, a 79.5-megawatt wind farm in northwestern Iowa. Combined, the company said these two projects can power approximately 50,000 homes in the United States.

With the addition of these two wind farms, AES has more than 1,000 megawatts of wind facilities in operation or under construction in the U.S.

Along with the projects in Minnesota and Iowa, AES also said it finalized an agreement to purchase an additional 4.25 megawatts in wind generation assets in Tehachapi, Calif.

Group criticizes study’s end without air quality regulations

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An environmental group is criticizing Iowa’s move to end a study of potentially dangerous emissions that waft from factory farms.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will likely stop monitoring of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide at the end of this year, when its funding runs out, said Wayne Gieselman, the agency’s head of environmental services.

The legislature has funded the field study each of the past four years, spending more than $1 million on the research.

“We’ve gone year-by-year on funding,” he said.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI), an advocacy group, is criticizing the move, saying the research is ending before the state has developed a plan to regulate ammonia. It says the chemical can damage rural Iowans’ health.

“They have to deal with a lot of issues, not just the smell, but the health problems that are coming from the emissions,” said Jessica Mayo, a rural organizer with ICCI.

Gieselman said federal officials are continuing to examine emissions from livestock confinements, and that a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study will continue for a couple of years.

“The EPA will be a lot bigger base to draw (information) from,” he said.

In the meantime, Gieselman said he “really doubts that anything will happen here or nationally until the EPA study is done.” That’s been a sore spot for many environmental groups, who say protecting rural residents’ health continually gets put off by lawmakers who cave to industry pressures, conducting study after study instead of taking action.

“Especially this last legislative session, a lot of bills got brought up and didn’t go anywhere,” Mayo said.

Many point to a 2002 University of Iowa and Iowa State University study as an example. It looked at air quality and recommended some safe health standards. However, lawmakers pushed it aside and failed to adopt any ammonia regulations.

The universities’ study recommended a 150 parts per billion standard for ammonia emissions. The DNR’s 2006 field study results showed that of 10 sites, they totaled 340 hours at or above that level, according to ICCI.

Mayo pointed out that the state has adopted a hydrogen sulfide health effects value – but it’s twice the limit recommended by the universities’ study.