Gov Branstad's DNR wants to stifle public input on new Clean Water Act rule

CCI Members Slam Gov. Branstad’s DNR For Undercutting Public Input On Critical New Clean Water Act Rule 

After months of closed-door meetings with industry lobby groups and the governor’s office, the Iowa DNR says they will only allow a 28-day public comment period

 Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) members slammed Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Chuck Gipp April 8 for attempting to limit public comment on new Clean Water Act rules to only 28 days after months of closed-door meetings with the corporate ag lobby.

Iowa CCI members say the attempt to limit public comment is part of a long pattern of anti-transparent behavior by the Branstad Administration to shield big corporations from accountability and public scrutiny.

“Governor Branstad and DNR Director Gipp need to stop working with the industry and start working with everyday people to crack down on factory farm pollution instead of attempting to shut the public out of the decision-making process,” said Lori Nelson, the Iowa CCI board president from Bayard whose rural homestead is surrounded by 5,000 corporate hogs.

Iowa DNR legal counsel Randy Clark, available at 515.282.8891 or randy.clark@dnr.iowa.gov, confirmed to Iowa CCI members that public comment on the draft Clean Water Act rule would begin April 16 and end May 13.  Six public hearings in Mason City, Spencer, Carroll, Des Moines, Calmar, and Ainsworth will also be jammed into the space of six back-to-back working days, May 6-13, excluding Mother’s Day weekend May 10-11.“The Notice of Intended Action [set to be published April 16] will provide that the comment period ends on May 13, 2014.  Thereafter DNR staff will review the comments and summarize them in a responsiveness summary which will be provided to the [Environmental Protection Commission] at the time it considers adopting the proposed amendments.  The DNR will strive to bring this to the August EPC meeting,” DNR legal counsel Randy Clark wrote Iowa CCI members March 31.Iowa CCI members say DNR rulemaking on similar issues in the past typically ran at least 60 days and often as long as 180 days, and that the 28-day window in this case for citizen input beginning April 16 and ending May 13 will drastically limit the ability of everyday Iowans to learn more about the proposed Clean Water Act permitting rule and participate fully in the public comment process.

A strong Clean Water Act rule has the potential to force some 8,500 factory farms in Iowa to either start playing by tougher environmental standards or get shut down, but the rule as currently written is much weaker and leaves too much discretion to state regulators to look the other way and continue business as usual.

The proposed new rule was mandated by a September 11, 2013 work plan agreement signed by the Iowa DNR and the EPA after years of organizing and litigation by Iowa CCI members and allies the Environmental Integrity Project and the Iowa Sierra Club.  The work plan negotiations last summer were marked by the political interference of Governor Branstad, who brought key industry lobbyists into the meetings by state and federal regulators.

The DNR’s first post-workplan meeting with the Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa Pork Producers, and Iowa Cattleman’s Association was November 15, 2013 and the DNR made at least one change after that to weaken the proposed rule based on industry comment.  The rule was then held up for several weeks in late February and early March by the governor’s office before being forwarded on to the EPC at their March meeting.

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.   A conservative estimate finds that Iowa’s 21 million hogs produce between five and ten billion gallons of toxic manure every year.