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(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has filed a lawsuit accusing an out-of-state company and two of its top executives of failing to properly dispose of over a thousand decommissioned wind turbine blades. According to the Iowa Attorney General’s lawsuit, General Electric and MidAmerican Energy paid millions to a company in Washington state to cut up, transport and recycle wind turbine blades.
The attorney general says that company, Global Fiberglass Solutions, illegally dumped about 13-hundred wind turbine blades at parking lots in Newton and in fields in Ellsworth and Atlantic. The attorney general says those stockpiles posed an environmental risk and the company refused to act despite orders from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties of five-thousand dollars per day — over a roughly five year period — for violations of the state’s solid waste disposal rules.
The state of Iowa is suing a Washington-state company and its executives for dumping and then abandoning tons of old wind-turbine blades around Iowa, in violation of the state’s solid-waste laws. These blades were allegedly dumped in the city of Newton. (Photo from Iowa Department of Natural Resources files)
Both General Electric and MidAmerican Energy have had the blades removed from the three sites in Iowa and recycled out of state. General Electric has also sued Global Fiberglass Solutions for failing to dispose of retired wind turbine blades in Texas AND in Iowa. Attempts to reach a spokesperson for Global Fiberglass Solutions were unsuccessful.
(Ames, Iowa) – Officials with Iowa State University Extension reminds farmers that all it takes to start a fire is just a spark from an engine, an overheated bearing on a combine, or a hot exhaust manifold where some dirt and dry plant material have gathered. Dry plant residue, dusty conditions, low humidity levels and strong winds are a recipe for combine and field fires. During harvest periods with increased fire potential, fires cause millions of dollars in property damage in Iowa, including loss of machinery, crops, and time. Supply chain issues and limited availability of parts may only further plague down equipment. Injuries to farm workers and firefighters are also an unfortunate outcome in some instances.
Modern, high-productivity combines are powerful machines; power means heat. A fire cannot start without heat and fuel. You may not be able to remove the heat from the engine, hydraulics, and other hard-working systems, but you can remove the fuel source by keeping your combine and other equipment clean.
The potential risk for combine and field fires is always higher during harvest, but it doesn’t have to be. Taking a few minutes and following these steps and management tips could significantly help mitigate these risks.
Combine/Field fire east of Earling. File photo)
Prevention tips:
Management tips:
Create an emergency plan:
Fires can start from plant materials that may have been smoldering unnoticed for 30 minutes or more. The ignition source for field fires may have been the earlier passing of a truck, tractor, or combine. Flames may not be apparent until additional oxygen is supplied, perhaps by a gust of wind. Harvest crews and neighbors may want to discuss a plan for emergency tillage of a firebreak should that option become advisable. The goal of creating a firebreak with a tillage pass; is to stop an out-of-control fire from spreading. It creates an area that won’t fuel the fire, so the fire will eventually burn itself out.
Keep in mind that personal safety is far more important than property loss. Attempting to fight a fire should only happen after calling 911 and determining that it’s safe to do so. Fire prevention is possible; it just requires some regular maintenance and keeping equipment clean.
(Radio Iowa) – The Friends of Ledges State Park in Boone County will celebrate its 100th anniversary Saturday. Park manager Andy Bartlett says it’s a favorite place for one particular form of outdoor recreation. “Ledges is known, not only in central Iowa but across the state, as a premier hiking destination,” he says. Bartlett says there are only four-and-a-half miles of trails, but the provide a lot of different challenges.
“There’s a diversity of difficulty levels, the scenery is amazing, the topography makes it a little challenging, and it’s just really a big draw, especially in the fall months,” he says. “The colors are changing, the weather’s cool, the bugs are almost gone, and you will find a fantastic place to hike here, at Ledges.” He has a favorite spot to visit in the park. “Ledges canyon itself is really one of the focal points, most unique areas in all of Iowa, from the sandstone geology to the native plant diversity the animals that call it home, just the unique experience that it offers for our visitors,” Bartlett says.
Ledges State Park. (DNR photo)
Ledges has faced some challenges through the years with too much water. “Flooding has been, you know, a thorn in the side of any past employee who’s ever worked here at Ledges. The Des Moines River being our west boundary Pease Creek, which flows through the heart of the Ledges Canyon, both of those offer different types of flooding at different times of year, and can pose a little bit of a challenge,” he says. “We had a little bit of flooding early this spring from the Des Moines River, but it it receded out of here in plenty of time for this event.” The event Saturday is open to the public.
“Starting at 10 o’clock, we have a historical characters hike, which is being put on by our seasonal naturalist here at the park. They’re going to lead participants on about a mile and a half hike, pretty easy on the trails, but they’ll meet some of those historic characters that were such a big part of the story of this park and its origin,” Bartlett says.
You can go to the Friends Of Ledges State Park Facebook page to find out more about the events.
(Radio Iowa) – Former President Donald Trump says John Deere will face steep tariffs on machinery made in Mexico if he’s reelected. “Just notifying John Deere right now, if you do that, we’re putting a 200% tariff on anything you want to sell into the United States,” Trump said. In June, Deere announced it would shift production of skid loaders and compact track loaders from its plant in Dubuque to facilities in Mexico by the end of 2026.
“They think they’re going to make product cheaper in Mexico and then sell it in for the same prices they did before,” Trump said, “make a lot of money by getting rid of our labor and our jobs.” Since March, Deere has laid off about 24-hundred workers at its plants in Ankeny, Dubuque, Ottumwa, Waterloo and the Quad Cities AND at its research and business offices in Dubuque, Johnston, Urbandale and Moline, Illinois. 
Deere has said it’s responding to market conditions, as lower crop prices and higher interest rates have depressed demand for its equipment. Deere has not responded directly to Trump’s comments, but a company spokesperson said it is sometimes necessary to move less complex operations to other locations in order to position Deere’s highly value-added activities in U-S factories.
(Radio Iowa) – The U-S-D-A crop report released Monday, says farmers were able to harvest five percent of the corn in the last week. That is five days behind last year but equal to the five-year average.
The report found nine percent of the beans were out of the fields and into the bins at the end of the week. The harvest rate is equal to last year and one day ahead of the five-year average.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig is back from a trade trip with the governor and business leaders to India. “Met with folks who could be customers of ours in India in terms of importing, food and agriculture products, but also had a chance to brag on Iowa a little bit and talk about what it’s like to do business here, and try to recruit some folks who may want to put a footprint in or make an investment in the state,” he says. Naig says India has a lot of potential.
“The largest country by population, over one-point-four billion people,” Naig says, “and from a food and agriculture standpoint, there are so many things that they need in order to meet that demand. They’ve got a rising middle class, a middle class that will exceed 500 million people.” Naig says there are some key Iowa products that could fill the void there. “We think that there’s tremendous opportunity for us to supply feed to their livestock sector. They’re also looking to improve and increase the amount of ethanol that they’re blending into their fuel. And so ethanol is a very, very real possibility for us to have significant exports to that country,” he says.
Mike Naig (Iowa PBS photo)
Naig says feed and ethanol are just a couple of the items that could be exported. “There are just opportunities abounding there for the things that we produce and have so much in abundance here in the state of Iowa,” Naig says. Naig says they did sign two memorandums of understanding with India. “One with the sort of the livestock and feeding grain sector to explore ways that we can work together, and the other was with a research institute to look at ways that we can work together in terms of research on crop and renewable energy,” he says, “also, how do we prepare the next generation with the skill set that they need to take advantage of the types of technology that we have here in the United States.”
Naig says the trip is part of the effort to lay the groundwork for longer term trade. “I think what we want to do is be positioned to have an opportunity to enter that market and do so in a big way, but it’s going to take some time for that to develop,” he says.
Naig joined the governor, and directors of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Finance Authority on the ten-day trip to India.
(Area News) – ISU Extension in Adair, Audubon, Cass and Guthrie Counties will host a free, one-hour learning session for private well owners on Wednesday evening, October 9th (2024) at 6-p.m. The program will help attendees understand their well’s water quality and connect them to resources to manage their well. A representative will also be on hand from the Guthrie County Environmental health department, which provides services to all four counties to offer free well-water testing. 
Did you know that Iowa has a unique funding source for free or low-cost annual testing of private wells? Or that some water pollutants are odorless, tasteless and will not be removed by boiling water? If you’re curious about the answers to these questions, then take advantage of the upcoming learning session which will detail how to test your well and who can help, common contaminants, and factors that affect well water quality.
The program will be taught by Catherine DeLong, Water Quality Program Manager for ISU Extension and Outreach. According to DeLong, “About 230,000 Iowans rely on private wells as their home’s main water source, yet many do not know they should be testing once a year and that Iowa has a unique funding source to help cover the cost of testing.”
The free program will take place on Wednesday evening, October 9 from 6:00pm –7:00pm at the Anita Community Center, located at 805 Main Street in Anita. While there is no charge to attend, pre-registration is requested for seating and materials. To RSVP contact the county Extension office in Adair (641-743-8412), Audubon (712-563-4239), Cass (712-243-1132) or Guthrie (641-747-2276) county, or email keolson@iastate.edu. Information about this and other upcoming programs can also be found online at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.
(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials in charge of Iowa’s state parks invite you to lend a hand this Saturday, Sept. 28 for Statewide Volunteer Day. Several state parks and forests will host events that include picking up litter, trail maintenance, prairie seed gathering and more. No experience is necessary. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) invites you to come out and enjoy the outdoors! The list of state parks and forests where volunteer help is needed can be found HERE.
In southwest Iowa, that includes: Lake Anita State Park, in Anita; Springbrook State Park, in Guthrie Center, and Waubonsie State Park, in Hamburg. 
You can learn more about specific events, on the DNR’s Volunteer webpage
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