The funding source for state grants to help finance installation of equipment that dispenses higher blends of renewable fuels will end next year. Grant Menke of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says his group will lobby legislators to continue the program. “Investments like this program not only benefit the Iowa economy and the Iowa environment, but Iowa consumers as well,” Menke says.

Governor Branstad has signed legislation that ends a one-cent-per-gallon state tax on motor fuel on December 31st of this year. The tax was established a couple of decades ago to finance clean-up of old underground petroleum storage tanks that were leaking, but that project is complete. Until June 30th of next year, three-million dollars generated by that tax will be spent on fuel pumps that dispense biodiesel and ethanol at higher blends.

“Iowa consumers can look forward to more choices at the pump for E15, for E85, for higher biodiesel blends,” Menke says. “It’s going to save them money. It’s going to burn cleaner.” State grants from the Iowa Renewable Infrastructure Program can cover up to 50 percent of the cost for retailers installing these kind of blender pumps. The retailer must agree to sell the higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel for at least three years.

Supporters hope to convince legislators next year to find another source for the three-million dollar annual cost of the program.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials with the Iowa DNR said Tuesday, that they had received an anonymous complaint of an overflowing manure pit in Taylor County. When the DNR investigated, they found evidence of a manure spill at Barrans Farms, a small hog finishing farm about three miles southwest of Lenox. The outdoor pit that collects manure from buildings at the site was not overflowing during the investigation.

However, DNR field staff saw a path where manure flowed into an unnamed tributary of the East Fork of the One Hundred and Two River. Field tests showed elevated levels of ammonia in water flowing into the tributary, but DNR staff did not find any dead fish. The DNR is continuing to investigate the incident and will consider appropriate enforcement action.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A government wildlife researcher says he’s found that rabbits and skunks can become infected with the bird flu virus and shed it enough to infect ducks, evidence that small mammals could contribute to the spread of bird flu on farms.

National Wildlife Research Center biologist Jeff Root says his experiments have shown striped skunks and cottontail rabbits in captivity in his laboratory have indirectly transmitted a strain of bird flu to mallard ducks after they’ve shared food and water sources. Root says it’s important now to figure out how likely it is such transmission across species happens in the wild.

Last year bird flu resulted in the death of 48 million birds in 15 states. Scientists hope to find how it gets from wild birds to farms and spreads.