The Washington County Board of Supervisors approved acknowledgement of a 2021 recycle center storm water pollution prevention plan at their recent meeting.

County Engineer Jacob Thorius explained that in the late fall the Iowa Department of Natural Resources conducted a random inspection of the county recycling center and discovered that the county didn’t have a stormwater permit for the facilities out there, which Thorius commented that they never had one, “After further review and understanding of the current situation where we are out there it was determined that we needed to obtain a stormwater permit. As part of that we also have to have a pollution prevention plan to identify how we are going to prevent or mitigate or minimize runoff from the facility out there.”

Thorius stated that recycling center operator Lynn Whaley looked over and approved of the document, and it has been submitted to the DNR. This plan is largely to be overseen by Whaley and reviewed annually. In other business, the supervisors approved personnel change requests from Thorius for an engineering summer intern and the county ambulance service for a part-time paramedic.