Two landfills in Iowa have been approved for use in disposing of millions of bird carcasses resulting from the state being hit with the bird flu outbreak.

At different corners of Iowa, Iowa Waste Systems (IWS) and Northwest Iowa Area Solid Waste Agency (NIASWA) will be accepting portions of the 27 million chickens, ducks and turkeys infected by bird flu. Larry Oldenkamp, NIASWA operations director, says he is expecting the first batch from 1.5 million birds by Friday.

Aside from landfills, the Metro Waste Authority, which serves the Des Moines metro area, has also agreed to help with disposing of about a million of the birds killed by the virus. It is unlikely that a landfill in central Iowa will be pitching in, but it ultimately depends on how the bird flu outbreak progresses in the state. Before anything is finalized, however, Metro Waste Authority must first negotiate a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Leaders in the metro area discussed with state officials and landfill management the safety procedures involving the dead birds and possible environmental, financial and legal ramifications that may arise from using landfills as bird flu disposal sites.

Given the risks of using the landfills, many leaders were opposed to the plan. Des Moines City Council member Skip Moore, however, said he is in support of the plan, despite water quality issues and other legislative matters, simply because he believed in Iowans helping each other.

"If there's a city in the state that can cry foul, it's the city of Des Moines. But does that mean we don't respond when there's an emergency? No," he stated.

When the bird flu outbreak erupted in Iowa, 62 facilities were infected by the H5N2 virus. All over the country, 39 million birds are said to be affected, most of them coming from Minnesota and Iowa.

Before use of the landfills was approved, Iowa producers were burying and composting dead birds on their properties or incinerating them.

County and state officials and local residents near Malvern in southwest Iowa was upset about the plan to deliver the infected birds about 200 miles to the IWS landfill. They are mostly concerned about how bringing infected birds into the area would affect poultry operations nearby, and how groundwater might be contaminated for years to come.

Iowa is the leading egg producer in the country, producing almost 15 billion eggs in a year. That's about one out of every five eggs produced in the U.S.

Photo: Phil Roeder | Flickr