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Iowa environmental groups push for clean water quality standard
Rod Boshart
Aug. 20, 2013 2:40 pm
Iowa environmental groups filed a request with state officials Tuesday seeking to set water quality standards to protect Iowa's clean water supply, promote public health and preserve recreation at 159 of Iowa's publicly owned lakes.
The Iowa Environmental Council and Environmental Law and Policy Center filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Commission calling on the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to establish clear, science-based goals to prevent potentially harmful algae blooms and to keep Iowa's lakes clean and safe for swimming and recreation.
“These standards are focused on helping local communities prevent lake water quality problems that can make recreation less desirable, threaten aquatic life, and put people's health at risk,” said Ralph Rosenberg, executive director of the Iowa Environmental Council.
The proposed safeguards, called numeric nutrient criteria, would provide local community and watershed groups with a way to know if soil and water conservation efforts around a lake are sufficient to achieve needed results, Rosenberg said. They also will help DNR officials write permits to protect lakes by managing pollution releases by industrial sites and municipal wastewater facilities, he noted.
The proposed standards would set goals for measuring of water clarity and the presence of potentially harmful algae, along with goals for total nitrogen and total phosphorus in the lake -- pollutants that contribute to algae growth and low water clarity, he added.
Meanwhile, on a separate environmental front Tuesday, more than two dozen Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund members delivered a letter at Gov. Terry Branstad's Urbandale campaign office demanding the governor support a strong clean water plan between the state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ensure inspections of large-scale “factory” farm operations.
“A strong work plan means inspections and permits for every factory farm in Iowa, plus tougher fines and penalties for polluters,” said Barb Kalbach, a fourth-generation family farmer from Dexter who was among CCI members who held a “speak-out” at Branstad's campaign office and aired critical concerns at the EPC's monthly meeting. The group left the campaign at the request of Urbandale police.
CCI members contended that a draft agreement between the EPA and DNR includes language that stipulates only factory farms with more than 5,000 hogs may receive an on-site inspection by DNR field staffers. They demanded DNR Director Chuck Gipp sign a strong work plan agreement to inspect and permit the 8,000 largest factory farms in Iowa.
DNR Director Chuck Gipp said the Legislature and governor appropriated $700,000 for increased water-quality monitoring and he expects to have seven additional inspectors hired and in the field by November.
Regarding the issue of goals to reduce harmful algae bloom and clean up Iowa lakes, Gipp said his staff will review the petition and respond to it.
“We've got a lot of money invested our lake restoration program in Iowa and improving water quality. We know what an economic benefit it is,” Gipp noted. “We do what we can with what resources we have.”
Lake recreation is a significant economic driver in local communities, supporting an estimated $1.2 billion in spending and 14,000 jobs, according to 2012 estimates by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. But, said Matt Hauge of the Iowa Environmental Council, when lake water quality is poor, Iowans suffer the consequences.
“Decreasing the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus reaching a lake can lead to renewal and restoration of good water quality, and this has been shown in Iowa and throughout the world," said Iowa State University lake expert John Downing, who noted that Iowa's lakes have some of the highest nitrogen and phosphorus levels found anywhere in the world -- leading to blue-green algae blooms that are unhealthy for ecosystems and people.
In seeking clean-water goals to reduce harmful algae bloom and to protect Iowa lakes, Hauge said since 1998 the federal EPA has called on states -- including Iowa -- to set numeric criteria to protect lakes, rivers, and streams from nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. Other states, including Wisconsin and Minnesota, have set numeric limits for their lakes, but Iowa has not followed their lead, he said.
The petition calls for adopting standards DNR officials developed and proposed but never adopted in 2011. Despite a several year-long effort, including recommendations from a science advisory committee, the standards to protect recreational lakes were not mentioned in Iowa's Nutrient Reduction Strategy, first released in November 2012, Hauge said.
Under Iowa law, the state EPC must act on the council's petition in 60 days. Rosenberg said he hopes the commission will commit to setting the standards at its Sept. 17 meeting in Cerro Gordo County.