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Sensitive Driftless region highlights CAFO concerns

October 23, 2013, Decorah, IA – Thanks to tight competition, hog farmers are feeling a push to expand or get out of the business. That means confined animal feeding operations – or CAFOs – are growing even in the most environmentally sensitive areas.

Many people in Iowa’s Winneshiek County are concerned about the growing hog industry’s impact on the water supply here. This part of Iowa is in a swath of the Midwest that includes Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois called the Driftless region. Iowa Fisheries biologist Bill Kalieshek, with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the trout streams are here because underneath the ground surface there’s limestone. READ MORE