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WEVER, IOWA -- A Lee County judge has penalized a Wever, Iowa hog feeding operation for water pollution and animal feeding operation violations.

A District Judge Cynthia H. Danielson ordered Pieper, Incorporated to pay an $18 thousand penalty and ordered the company to comply with state water pollution control and manure management laws.

This comes after a 2010 suit filed by the Attorney General Tom Miller alleging that the confinement just Northeast of Fort Madison had repeated water pollution and animal feeding operation violations.

According to a press release, Pieper admitted that in March of 2009, two employees without proper certification land-applied manure on a field at the Pieper operation with an irrigation gun, and manure then ran off the field into a drainage ditch.

Pieper also admitted that it had failed to submit a required complete manure management plan for the facility, despite numerous reminders from the DNR.

Pieper Inc. had been the subject of environmental enforcement administrative orders issued by the DNR in 1978, 1991 and 2006 for a variety of confinement feeding operation violations.

The Pieper Inc. operation consists of a 7,100-head gestation, farrowing and finishing operation and a 1,300-head nursery operation, contained in ten buildings. Manure storage is in below-building pits and a large slurry tank. The operation is located a few miles northeast of Ft. Madison, at 3638-190th Street, Wever, Iowa.