Hard Push For New Drinking Water Regulations On Nutrients In Iowa

Water quality advocates raised the stakes in Iowa’s protracted runoff fight recently by making a strong push for new regulations on agriculture after watching policymakers lean on voluntary standards for years. 

“Water quality advocates who see little progress toward reducing nitrate and phosphorous pollution in the Mississippi River and Iowa waterways called for bolder action by state and federal agencies, including the possibility of farmland regulations,” The Gazette reported. 

“The Mississippi River Collaborative released a report ... suggesting state regulations are inadequate and it’s time for federal officials to force action to improve water quality. [One advocate] says she’s hopeful that in 2017, legislators at the state level will find a ‘sustainable source’ of funding for water quality projects,” Radio Iowa reported. 

In a report titled "Decades of Delay," advocates pointed out that over 90 percent of phosphorus-discharging facilities in Iowa regulated under National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits have no limits or monitoring. 

The fight over water quality in the nation’s second-ranked agriculture-producing state has pitted utilities against farmers, sparking litigation and years of battles over policy. Water quality advocates now say they are fed up with voluntary measures that have done little to rein in pollution and want to see stricter rules in place to clean up the state’s ailing waterways. 

Susan Heathcote of the Iowa Environmental Council framed the problem like this, per The Gazette: “Despite decades of voluntary efforts in Iowa, nitrate pollution from farm runoff continues to threaten the safety of drinking water.” 

The issue is “not only a problem for the Des Moines Water Works, which provides water for 500,000 Iowans, but for the 260 public water utilities that provide drinking water to small towns and rural areas,” the report said, citing Heathcote. 

The Iowa Environmental Council and Mississippi River Collaborative had a clear message: existing programs have failed. 

The groups “called for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take specific action to regulate excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in state waters along the Mississippi River because Iowa and the nine other border states haven’t achieved any significant pollution reductions on their own,” the report said. 

“They called for the EPA to set numeric limits of allowable nitrogen and phosphorus in state waters, assessing water quality for nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that creates impaired waterways and ensuring states develop nutrient reduction strategies with specific implementation plans and adequate funding,” it continued. 

David Osterberg of the Iowa Policy Project said at a news conference in November, per the news report: “When we look at the status of water quality in the Mississippi and also within the state, we just can’t find much improvement there.”