EPA Wants To Rule Iowa Water Quality

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

The Des Moines Register says the EPA, prodded by a coalition of environmental advocacy groups, is seeking to take over control of Iowa water quality from the state Department of Natural Resources.  Four other states have given up such control.

The advocacy groups say the Iowa DNR is not tough enough on violators.  The DNR says it assesses penalties on a case-by-case basis and seeks compliance through voluntry action rather than by issuign fines.

What do you tihnk?  Should the Feds take over Iowa water?  Would that mean every intermittent stream?  Every tile outlet?  Every terrace inlet?  

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121113/NEWS10/311130049/1011/EPA-may-take-over-enforcing-...

[Nebrfarmr]

I'm just going to sit back on this one, and see what develops, but throw a couple possible scenarios out there.

Would the EPA be overstepping its bounds, if it found 'dirty' water coming out of a drain tile, and demanded that tile be sealed, to 'protect' creeks, rivers, and streams?

Would the EPA be going too far, by limiting how much fertilizer could be put on fields, based on potential leaching, into the drain tile.

Don't laugh, it could happen.  If you have livestock, and spread your own manure, you'd be amazed at the rules and regs that have come down the pike recently, some of which make no sense.

First one that pops into my mind, are regulations as to when you can spread manure on a field.  Used to be, the local feedlots, would cut silage, clean the lots, and spread the manure where they cut silage.  Not any more.  Now, they cut silage, clean out the lots, and then haul it to the edge of the field in dump trucks, leaving huge piles of manure sitting there, until the date comes, where they can re-load in onto spreaders, and spread it across the field.  Yup, so much better for the environment to have several strings of manure 4 feet tall X 10 feet wide, by 200 feet long, side by side at the edge of the field, as opposed to spread out across the field at an even quarter inch depth.

Fight it, fight it all you can.  When the power gets taken from the State, you go from a regionalized system, that is setup State by State, in a way that seems to work best in one area, to a system where 'one size fits all', or maybe more accurately (as I think Kay put it)  'All must fit one size'.  

[k-289]

If  you had a mont. well in your back yard that has 80 to 100ppm of nitrate readings for several years plus coliform with some of my samples you might have a question or two about feedlot practices --- Refusal to address the problem doesn't seem to alleviate it     

[Nebrfarmr]

I have feedlots all around me, and I agree that there are issues that need to be addressed, but an all must fit one size, is not the way to do it. Going to the manure rule, can you think of one valid reason, why it would be better to have manure in giant piles at the edge of a field for 3 weeks, instead of just spreading it evenly across the whole field. It sits for 3 weeks, then gets re loaded, and spread, because someone decided which calendar days the nannies could be applied. Not field conditions, but calendar date.

[k-289]

I am very confident there are solid operations in every part of the state and country that deal with blanket regs that may not be applable to everyone operation---regs are in all phases of business although putting up a firewall for the ones that are out of compliance can be a burden for those that don't have issues---  DOT and Osha regs being ramped up applies to many that have never have non-compliance and the examples are endless and agree some being questionable ---an example being the 18 wheeler that plowed into the back of stopped traffic on I-80 in western Nebraska with the result of 5 fatalities making huge unbecoming headlines for that industry all because of  "one perpetrator " and or the crane dangling above the skyline in New York City during the hurricane doesn't accurately describe either of the above mentioned industries--- my slant is if some individuals have compliance issues to admit and address them instead of causing the above action as mentioned in the article---as operations have increased in size so goes the increased responsibilities as in any business environment---site specific is part of the NDEQ responsibilities and that will keep it local instead of dropping the ball to the EPA  ---      

[NewAgJudge]

Without rules and regs every stream would  be a constant flow of swine piss and sludge.

It sucks that I almost pass out from takin a shower due to chlorine added.

It sucks I have BUY water to drink. ( I want my $$ back ) !

It sucks a kid cant play in a stream without a haz mat suit on.

it sucks when the Hog Units know the penalty will be a slap, if that and so proceed with negligence.

[Kay/NC]

It so happens that the head of the national estuary program that I've done volunteer work for for almost 18 years now called this morning.  The program is being changed under a new executive order by teh governor. 

This program puts me in regular contact with state and EPA  water quality people.  I've learned a lot from this involvement.  I have called people down for maligning the hog industry, when they had no idea how stringent our permitting is and how scrutinized we are, by two state agencies.  I've also put the program's face in hog industry meetings....

I guess I am a hybrid ag/enviro nut.

I mentioned Jim's post, and the guy and his public liason person, also on the call, both laughed.  The main comment that was offered was:You think turnaround time on a permit stinks now, just wait.  

It is rarely good to give up a state's rights to the federal government, for anything.  With water the next looming shortage, any state foolish enough to let Washington and EPA decide how its waters will be regulated - and thus, effectively allocated - deserves to die of thirst. 

Do whatever you can to fight this change.  Agriculture has no special status in the eyes of the agency.  Politically, we are disenfranchised nationally, with so few of us voting, compared to other interest groups.  Within the state, ag may still carry some clout.  Your chances to affect policy are thus much better  if state control of the regulatory process is maintained. 

'

You can let the primary enforcement responsibility slip out of your hands into those of the EPA...and I believe it will be a one-way street, a power the state would never get back.  You will not be able to unring that bell. 

[r3020]

---

@NewAgJudge wrote:

Without rules and regs every stream would  be a constant flow of swine piss and sludge.

It sucks that I almost pass out from takin a shower due to chlorine added.

It sucks I have BUY water to drink. ( I want my $$ back ) !

It sucks a kid cant play in a stream without a haz mat suit on.

it sucks when the Hog Units know the penalty will be a slap, if that and so proceed with negligence.

---

Where is all of this dirty water located and are no state rules that apply?

[k-289]

I wish I could unring the bell for our water - I guess having an under ground resource that has pollutants is slightly better than no resource at all - I guess ?

[Kay/NC]

The water we are drinking from our wells is probably sending up pollutants from 25 years ago today.  We apply 3 million or so gallons of hog manure annually today, but my larger concerns are the atrazine and other agri-chemicals applied decades before we came here. 

Manure and night soil (a polite term for humanure) have been utilized as organic inputs to crop production for forty centuries in China.  Where are the stacks of dead Chinese, then? 

Here in America, use of animal and poultry manures and litters is a well-respected and time- tested means of producing crops.  As long as agronomic rates are not exceeded, there is nothing to run off or leach out, thus no pollutant discharge. 

We even produce a huge amount of biomass that captures tons and tons of carbon dioxide, and thus helps mitigate climate change.  Everything that mankind does creates impacts on the natural order. 

Unless you forage for weeds and berries, transport yourself by walking only (and then  only in your birthday suit), and quaff your OWN urine, you are as guilty as the next person of making the world 'worse' environmentally. 

The only way to have Eden is to reduce current human population to a census of two.