26 organizations demand Clean Water Act rule be strengthened
26 Organizations Submit Coalition Comments Demanding Iowa DNR Strengthen Proposed Clean Water Act Rules For Factory Farms
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI), the Iowa Sierra Club, and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) submitted coalition comments to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today, co-signed by 23 additional local, county, state, regional, and national organizations demanding state regulators strengthen a draft Clean Water Act rule to begin permitting factory farm polluters with tougher environmental standards. The proposed rule is a result of a petition asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw the state of Iowa’s Clean Water Act authority for failure to regulate factory farms, submitted by Iowa CCI, Iowa Sierra Club, and EIP in 2007, but the groups say that DNR’s proposed rulemaking does not go far enough.
Iowa CCI members alone have submitted at least 3,680 individual comments to the DNR, as well as turned out more than 200 people to six public hearings across the state. The public comment period ends today, May 13.
Twenty-six groups in total signed the comment letter. The 23 additional organizations who joined the Iowa CCI, EIP, and Iowa Sierra Club comments represent community, environmental, family farm, labor, rural, student, business, and animal welfare interests, and include Des Moines Water Works; Communications Workers of America, Iowa State Council; League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 306 Des Moines; Progress Iowa; Citizens for a Healthy Iowa; Iowa Food Systems Council; Iowa Farmers Union; Women, Food, and Agriculture Network; Iowa State University Sustainable Agriculture Student Association; Drake University Student Environmental Action Committee; Raccoon River Watershed Association; Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors; Poweshiek Community Action to Restore Environmental Stewardship; Allamakee County Defenders; Land Stewardship Project; Missouri Rural Crisis Center; Western Organization of Resource Councils; Dakota Rural Action; Oregon Rural Action; Food and Water Watch; Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Our Children’s Earth Foundation.
To date, the Iowa DNR, working closely with the Branstad Administration and corporate ag lobby groups like the Iowa Farm Bureau, has hidden behind a 2010 state law that says Iowa’s implementation of federal law cannot be “more stringent than” as an excuse to write a weak rule; but the coalition comments submitted today reject that position and explain that the DNR can, and must, do more to protect Iowa’s water quality from factory farm manure pollution.
“Iowa Code 459.311(2) prohibits any CAFO NPDES regulations adopted by the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) from being more stringent than federal regulations; but this does not bar DNR from using its knowledge of Iowa CAFO pollution and impaired water quality to determine which facilities require permits or what technical standards for nutrient management are capable of meeting federal requirements,” the coalition comments state.
“DNR should amend the Proposed Rule to establish presumptions that certain CAFOs discharge and have a duty to apply for NPDES permits and strengthen technical standards that are currently inadequate to comply with the federal regulations. Iowa’s ‘no more stringent than’ law does not prevent DNR from requiring permits of all discharging CAFOs, and in fact anything less is impermissible.”
The letter goes on to state that, at a minimum, DNR has the clear legal authority to:
Establish a presumption that factory farms which have previously discharged, are located in a flood plain, apply manure in tile-drained fields, use pit and lagoon systems that rely on pumps and pipes prone to failure, that discharge into a water of the U.S. via ventilation systems, and are located in the watershed of a waterway impaired by nitrogen, phosphorous, or bacteria, discharge and require a permit;
Revise state technical and water quality standards for nutrient management, a key part of CAFO Clean Water Act permits, to ban the application of liquid manure on snow, frozen-covered ground, and nitrogen-fixing plants such as soybeans;
Make all factory farm records accessible online, including documents on manure spills, inspections, and permitting decisions.
“These rules will only improve water quality in Iowa if DNR actually begins requiring polluting operations to obtain permits. Iowa DNR should clarify the proposed rule by establishing that certain facilities discharge and must apply for permits without further delay,” said Tarah Heinzen, attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project representing Iowa CCI.
There have been at least 728 documented manure spills since 1996 and Iowa currently has at least 630 polluted waterways, according to DNR records. Some researchers have found that manure from factory farm lagoons is leaking at more than twice the rate allowed by law, and it’s anyone’s guess how many times rainwater, floods, or melting snow have run freshly spread liquid manure off of farmland and into rivers, lakes, and streams.
Des Moines Water Works has also reported some ammonia problems already this spring that the water utility says “often” comes from “livestock operations” and “manure-fertilized fields.” Last year, Des Moines Water Works spent nearly $1 million removing nitrates from drinking water drawn from the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers.
Factory farm expansion is also up, with nearly one thousand of the state’s 8,500 factory farms being built since January 1, 2012. Iowa’s 21 million hogs produce between nearly ten billion gallons of toxic manure every year.
ABOUT THE PETITIONERS
The Environmental Integrity Project (http://www.environmentalintegrity.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 by former EPA enforcement attorneys to advocate for effective enforcement of environmental laws. EIP has three goals: 1) to provide objective analyses of how the failure to enforce or implement environmental laws increases pollution and affects public health; 2) to hold federal and state agencies, as well as individual corporations, accountable for failing to enforce or comply with environmental laws; and 3) to help local communities obtain the protection of environmental laws.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (http://www.iowacci.org) is a 39-year-old statewide non-profit grassroots organization. Iowa CCI has led the fight against factory farms in Iowa for the past 20 years and has pushed for better environmental and permitting laws for factory farms on the state and national level.
Sierra Club is the nation's oldest grassroots environmental organization. Its 1.4 million members and supporters work together to protect our communities and the planet. Through litigation and administrative and legislative advocacy, the Sierra Club has worked for the past decade to improve controls over factory farm water and air pollution.