Q&A: Ex-EPA official sizes up Iowa water quality efforts

Ken Kopocis, the Environmental Protection Agency’s former deputy assistant administrator for water, said the regulator is keeping close watch on efforts to reduce runoff from farms and other sources into the Mississippi River.

The agency says it has no plans to put in place a cleanup in the Mississippi River Basin similar to the one now in place in the Chesapeake Bay, but that agriculture will need to play a role.

Here are excerpts from the interview with Kopocis, who retired earlier this month:

Chesapeake Bay cleanup: Is Iowa next?

Question: What do you think of what is being done in Iowa and the Mississippi River Basin as far as water quality efforts?

Answer: “There is no doubt that there are water quality challenges along the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River is significantly impacted by excess nutrients that come from the agricultural sector and communities that are along the river and its tributaries. … EPA, along with other government agencies and 12 states that border the Mississippi, are working to try to formulate the best way to reduce these nutrient loads into the Mississippi River. And it’s not easy. If it was easy it would have been done by now. It will take some time to show results.”

Q: Efforts to improve the Chesapeake Bay between states and the EPA failed to make meaningful progress, then the Obama administration stepped in with new regulations. Could something similar happen in the Mississippi River Basin?

A: “We don’t have plans at this time. We’d like to see the process work and have an opportunity to prove its ability to succeed. … This does take a concentrated effort on the part of the states, but it also takes time to see results. What we’re doing in the Mississippi River is tailored to the problem in the Mississippi. We also have the opportunity to see reductions before we have to go do anything that might have to be more aggressive. The most effective tools particularly in the agricultural sector are going to be implemented by the states at the state level, so it’s important for us to have the cooperation and collaboration of the states.”

Q: Are farmers doing enough to contribute to water quality and limiting the runoff and residue that come off from their land into various waterways?

A: “What we have is a situation where we recognize that our water quality in this country still has serious issues with excess nutrients, and so what we want to do is fashion a way that we can reduce the amount of nutrients that are being placed into our waters, whether it comes from the agricultural sector, the municipal sectors or from other sources. So we have been working with the states, we’ve been working with the our sister agency the USDA, to try to determine what types of programs and opportunities are available to us to further reduce the nutrients that enter into our waters from the agricultural sector. … We have some tools to do that, some are going to be voluntary, some may be regulatory.”

Q: What about the argument by farm groups that the EPA is infringing on land rights and that these decisions should be better left to the states?

A: “I think some of the opponents have framed the argument in a way that confuses what it is that the Clean Water Act is about, suggesting that we’re regulating land use, when in fact that is not allowed under the Clean Water Act. We only regulate discharges of pollution or fill material that goes into water. From a clean water standpoint, a farmer is free to do whatever he or she wants to do on their land, as long as pollution doesn’t leave their farm and doesn’t go into waters that are jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act.”