DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A northwest Iowa cattle producer has agreed to pay a court ordered $12,000 fine for improperly applying manure on fields that flowed into a tributary of a local creek in 2012. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says Vernon Van Beek failed to report the discharges, which were discovered during a June 2012 routine inspection. Van Beek owns Lone Tree Feedlot near Inwood. He raises about 990 cows.

Van Beek agreed to the judgment to settle a lawsuit filed Thursday by Attorney General Tom Miller representing the DNR. State records show the farm discharged in 2009, 2010, and three times in 2011.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered the farm to obtain a Clean Water Act permit from the DNR after the 2010 spill. A permit was issued in 2012.