OTTUMWA, Iowa ( IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH ) - The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ amendments to an Ottumwa coal plant’s water discharge permit have stirred controversy among environmental groups in Iowa, who allege the permit allows the station to avoid federal regulations on leachate discharges.

Despite DNR promises that the Ottumwa Generating Station does not discharge leachate, water that has interacted with the waste products associated with burning coal, the discharge of leachate occupied most of the conversation at the Wednesday public hearing for the permit.

Wendy Hieb, DNR’s coordinator for industrial wastewater permitting, said at the hearing that the amendment adjusted discharge limits at a wastewater outfall that was new when the Ottumwa Generating Station’s National Pollu

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