Decades of illegal burning draws fine for Iowa man
Had been repeatedly warned by state officials
A northern Iowa man who has been warned repeatedly for decades by state conservation officers not to burn various types of waste was recently fined $2,500, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Duane Alan Tesch, 73, of Carpenter, owns property in several cities that have been the subject of nuisance complaints in recent years, court records show. In July 2023, he admitted to burning a fiberglass water tank as part of his effort to tidy his site in Grafton, the DNR said in a recent order. The department further alleged that he burned a mattress, box spring, speaker, wheeled cart and other items.
“Mr. Tesch stated that he is under a lot of pressure from the city of Grafton to clean up the property, and he was just trying to get it done,” the order said.
The DNR fined him for the incident — which was reported by neighbors — and noted the numerous admonitions he has received from the department for similar violations dating back nearly 28 years.
“Mr. Tesch has a long history of illegal open burning and illegal open dumping,” the order said.
He was the subject of DNR investigations in 1996, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2016, 2017 and 2018 for burning construction waste, appliances, furniture, household waste, tires, plastic and other items.
The order said Tesch once allegedly boasted to a neighbor that “maybe someday he will just light the plastic pile and burn it as the DNR would have forgotten it by now.”
Man also accused of illegally establishing a junkyard
Some of those investigations coincide with other times that city and county governments sought to penalize him for his unsightly properties. Mitchell County accused him in 2016 of establishing a junkyard on a Toeterville property that did not have proper zoning. A judge dismissed the county’s request for an injunction, finding that the county had used the wrong court procedure to enforce its ordinance, but verified that the site was “junky.”
Tesch was also cited for nuisance properties in Carpenter in 2019 and Nora Springs in 2023, court records show.