Iowa allows backyard burning of residential waste at dwellings of four family units or less, unless a local rule is stricter. That exemption is unavailable inside Des Moines, West Des Moines, Clive, Urbandale, Windsor Heights, and Pleasant Hill, and Polk County still bars burning when AQI is 90 or above.
567 IAC 23.2(3)(f) permits backyard burning of residential waste at dwellings of four-family units or less, and lets local governments adopt more restrictive rules. Statewide, the residential-waste and landscape-waste exemptions are explicitly unavailable inside eleven named cities that include the Polk County municipalities of Des Moines, West Des Moines, Clive, Urbandale, Windsor Heights, and Pleasant Hill. In unincorporated Polk County, backyard burning is still subject to the county's permit system and the AQI-90 no-burn trigger. Residential waste excludes garbage, tires, trade wastes, and recyclable goods or plastics, which may never be burned.
Backyard burning inside a prohibited city, of banned materials, or during an AQI action period is enforceable under the county air-pollution rules and Iowa Code 455B.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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Polk County allows backyard composting but regulates it through the Health Nuisance Regulation: a compost pile that harbors vermin, produces offensive odors,...
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Polk County has no ordinance for or against artificial turf on residential lots. Installation on unincorporated land is generally unrestricted; cities and HO...
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Polk County has no ordinance banning native or prairie landscaping, and the county promotes native roadside vegetation. The one legal limit: your planting ca...
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Iowa has no state ban on collecting rainwater, and Polk County sets no rain-barrel ordinance. Residents may capture roof runoff in barrels or cisterns; only ...
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Polk County sets no lawn-watering schedule. Central Iowa's water is managed by Central Iowa Water Works / Des Moines Water Works, which can impose voluntary ...
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Iowa Code 317.10 requires every landowner to destroy all noxious weeds on their land as directed by the county board of supervisors. Polk County's Weed Commi...
See how Polk County's backyard fires rules stack up against other locations.
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