This bill amends Iowa's animal feeding operations regulations to include shellfish alongside existing categories of animals such as cattle, swine, and fish. Specifically, it updates the definition of "animal" to encompass shellfish and introduces new weight-based subcategories for shellfish, assigning them equivalency factors for calculating animal units. For instance, one shellfish weighing 25 grams or more is equivalent to 0.001 animal units, while one weighing less than 25 grams is equivalent to 0.00006 animal units.

Additionally, the bill allows individuals who exclusively confine shellfish as part of a confinement feeding operation to opt for compliance with general water quality permitting requirements instead of the more stringent confinement feeding operation regulations. The bill also maintains existing penalties for violations of air and water quality regulations, which can result in civil penalties of up to $10,000 for administrative violations and up to $5,000 for judicially assessed violations.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 459.102, 459.320