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An aging mobile home park on the north side of Davenport has for nearly two decades avoided upgrading its wastewater treatment system and excessively polluted a creek that flows through the city, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR recently fined the Mt. Joy Mobile Home Park and its owner Daniel Peeters $10,000 for failing to comply with a 2016 court order to remedy the situation, failing to monitor and report the ammonia and bacteria it was discharging, and for not reporting wastewater that bypassed the system in 2023, a department order said.
The “failure to implement necessary improvements and report the...
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Jones said the project might cost more than $1 million. “The treatment system is old,” said Terry Jones, a senior environmental specialist for the DNR. “It was installed in the ’70s and can’t meet the more stringent ammonia and E. coli limits that were put in their permit several years ago. They were supposed to upgrade the system so that they could meet those limits, and they never did.” In 2019, an attorney for Mt. Joy sent a letter to the state “stating the cost for wastewater improvements were beyond what his client could afford,” DNR records show. In early 2020, Mt. Joy submitted a plan to the DNR to demolish its treatment facility and replace it. The department Mt. Joy has sought unsuccessfully to connect to the wastewater systems of Davenport and Eldridge, he said.
SUGGESTED HEADLINE: “Changes to Wastewater Laws May Put This Mobile Home Park Out of Business Unless $1 Million Can Be Found from an Out-Of-State Buyer”.