DECORAH - A Winneshiek County man is claiming a chicken confinement facility on neighboring property is contaminating the groundwater.

Mike Meyer alleges construction by Cottonballs Poultry Barns created a sinkhole near a farm he owns, according to a lawsuit filed in district court. Pollution from the livestock operation in Frankville Township is now migrating through groundwater into a spring Meyer uses for drinking water, according to the petition.

Meyer lives in Ossian but in recent years built a cabin on his 160-acre farm in Bloomfield Township, which adjoins Cottonballs' property. The farm has been in Meyer's family since 1941.

Meyer is requesting a permanent injunction requiring Cottonballs move its facility to a site that complies with state law and one that will not pollute and damage his property. He is also asking the court for the costs of legal action and for additional relief.

Because of karst geology underlying the area, Meyer has opposed the confinement since initially learning of Cottonballs' intentions. His lawsuit maintains fractured limestone allows runoff from the confinement to enter the groundwater supply. Excavation during construction penetrated bedrock, causing a seep and creating a sinkhole, according to Meyer.

Cottonballs is owned by Sholom Rubashkin, vice president of Agriprocessors in Postville, which processes the chickens. A spokesman Charlie Arnot of CMA Consulting in Kansas City declined comment because Agriprocessors has not yet seen a copy of the lawsuit.

"Agriprocessors is committed to operating its facilities with environmental integrity and looks forward to resolving the issue as quickly as possible," he said.

Cottonballs originally planned a four-building facility with each barn housing 49,999 birds. But the Iowa Department of Natural Resources denied the construction permit because the project did not earn enough points on the state's master matrix, which is used to evaluate confinement projects for their impact on the environment and community.

Planners then scaled back to two buildings housing 99,998 chickens, an operation small enough to not require evaluation under the matrix system.

Meyer has monitored the quality of his water supply since construction began. Previously he has said water from the spring was deemed safe to drink. But after hilltops were leveled during construction last fall, the water was discolored. Tests now describe the water as unsafe for drinking, Meyer said.

Meyer said the DNR's solution was to cover the area exposed by the site.

State Geologist Bob Libra visited the Cottonballs site last fall and said Meyer's spring may been affected.

"Anyone moving that much dirt around for any purpose could have caused an incident like this to happen," he said.

" … We don't know if the excavating was the cause of the spring (becoming cloudy) - it could have been. Putting the soil back over the rock may have fixed the problem," Libra reported in October.

Libra also noted state requirements call for Cottonballs to have five feet of soil, two feet of compacted clay, or both, under the poultry barns so they are "not sitting right on top of the fractured rock."

Contact Sarah Strandberg at newsroom@wcfcourier.com.