Iowa OK’d egg farm tied to ‘habitual violator’

August 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

GALT, Iowa

The owner of an egg farm at the center of a massive salmonella recall was able to expand his egg empire despite being branded a “habitual violator” of Iowa’s environmental laws — a label that was supposed to ban him from building any more farms.

Documents reviewed by The Associated Press suggest Austin “Jack” DeCoster, 75, one of the nation’s largest egg producers, got around the ban that lasted more than four years by having associates seek approval for the projects and assuming control of the enterprise later.

State regulators approved a huge egg farm in 2001 even though it had suspected ties to DeCoster. The farm is now operated by Wright County Egg, which he owns, and is involved in the recall.

DeCoster expanded his business into Iowa in the 1980s from Maine, where he started egg farming as a teenager. He also had enterprises in Ohio and Maryland.

In 2000, DeCoster, who also ran some large hog farms, was facing several lawsuits that accused him of polluting Iowa rivers and streams with hog manure. To settle the complaints, he acknowledged being a habitual violator — the first and still only Iowa farmer to be branded with that label, which banned him from establishing any more animal farms through October 2004.

But records show his associates won approval in 2001 for a huge egg farm that he started controlling after his penalty expired. Today, that site is one of the largest operated by Wright County Egg, which has recalled 380 million eggs linked to salmonella cases.

Just weeks after DeCoster accepted habitual-violator status, his associates founded a company called Environ Egg Production LLC. Its registered agent was a Des Moines lawyer who had represented DeCoster in the environmental lawsuits.

Soon, the company was pushing for approval of a project that would house 1.8 million hens near Galt, a tiny town north of Des Moines.

The permit was issued based on the information provided by Environ Eggs and the assumption that DeCoster was “neither constructing nor financing the project,” wrote Wayne Farrand, then a supervisor in DNR’s wastewater section.

Environ later transferred ownership to a company called Environ/Wright County Inc., which leases the site to Wright County Egg, owned by DeCoster.

In 2004, a check issued by one of his companies paid Environ’s annual compliance fee, records show. By 2007, DeCoster was signing documents listing himself as the site’s owner.

In Ohio in 2004, state officials say DeCoster hid behind other farmers to get permits for an operation called Ohio Fresh Eggs. The permits listed two men who had put up just $10,000 apiece, and DeCoster had pumped $126 million into the four farms, according to testimony in an administrative proceeding there.

Ohio officials yanked the permits after learning about that, but an environmental-appeals panel overturned that decision.

In the 1990s, DeCoster battled with Maryland officials over an egg facility.