Manure handlers fined for spills during transport

A northwest Iowa commercial manure service was recently fined $8,000 for repeatedly spilling hog fecal matter along a highway during transport, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Kunkel Express, of Merrill, was hired last year by a hog confinement operator near Farragut in southwest Iowa to remove manure from the facility and apply it to a field.

On Nov. 17, 2022, someone reported to the DNR that manure from the facility “was all over the road,” a recent DNR order said.

A DNR officer who investigated the incident noted manure along a two-mile stretch of highway south of Farragut and tracked the trail to a field that it had been pumped onto. It also “appeared as if manure had pooled around the pump location in the application field,” the order said.

The cause of the spillage during transport was likely from overfilling the manure tankers, the DNR officer concluded. She contacted one of the manure haulers of the company, Dillon Kunkel, who said his father Mike Kunkel had been transporting the manure near Farragut.

Both of their manure applicator certifications had lapsed for at least two years, the DNR said. The officer told Dillon Kunkel that the tankers had likely been overfilled.

Four days after the initial complaint, someone again reported manure on a roadway in the area, and there were trails of manure from the hog confinement to the same field.

A DNR investigation revealed that both Kunkels had hauled manure before the complaint. Dillon Kunkel had submitted paperwork to update his certification but Mike Kunkel had not, the order said. Both had taken a required manure applicator class earlier in the year but had been delayed in submitting the paperwork.

The DNR recently fined the company $8,000 and ordered it to comply with state regulations, including requirements to report manure spills. The Kunkels did not report their spills last year, according to DNR.