EPA addresses nutrient pollution in Iowa

One of the biggest challenges the EPA sees with Iowa's nutrient reduction strategy, said regional director Karl Brooks, is getting farmers to widely adopt conservation practices that will cut nutrient pollution.

Brooks, region 7 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, told agriculture leaders at the Farm Progress Show in Boone that the state has made progress cutting the nutrients that enter Iowa waterways and contribute to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We know nutrients are key to agriculture," said Brooks, who began a panel discussion. "We know nutrients grow crops that feed the world. But in excess quantities, when they leave the soil and move into the water, that's where excessive nutrients become pollution and degrade waters."

Iowa scientists, agronomists and others are developing a suite of practices — from cover crops to bioreactors to buffer strips — that work to cut nutrients that leave Iowa farm fields.

The state and federal government and industry groups are making money available to help farmers with part of the cost to adopt some of those conservation practices. "Now the responsibility falls to thousands of producers in this state to make the choice to implement practices that they know will reduce nutrient loadings," Brooks said.

He told Farm Progress visitors that the problems with nutrient loading are "not just a down-the-Mississippi River issue."

"It's a home issue for us in the heartland," Brooks said, referring to an algae-caused bloom that forced Toledo, Ohio, to shut down its water system for five days.

He also referred to statements from a Des Moines water leader who said the state's capital could easily find itself in a similar situation. That's why Iowa must aggressively pursue "solutions here on the ground," he said.

Pointing to an alliance that was announced Monday, Brooks said three Iowa farm groups behind the initiative have "committed the staffing and resources needed to make this a reality."

Iowa corn, soybean and pork producers associations are each providing $200,000 annually to support the new Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance.

The group, leaders said, can make "meaningful and substantial improvements to water quality in Iowa" by speeding the adoption of conservation practices.

Some environmental leaders expressed doubt Monday the approach would be strong enough.

Brooks said the alliance is "dedicated to the concept that nutrient pollution has a solution, (and) that solution comes from the very same qualities that make Iowa agriculture the envy of the world — smarts, dedication, technological innovation, creativity, persistence."

"Like every hard job, this one is not done," he said.