Environmental groups petition EPA to force Iowa to tackle livestock water pollution

Thirteen environmental groups are asking the Biden administration to force Iowa to adopt stricter rules governing livestock facilities in the environmentally sensitive northeastern sector of the state, citing the risk of contaminating drinking water and threatening residents' health.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should “exercise its emergency authority” to force protections under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, state and national groups wrote in a petition they filed Tuesday with the EPA. They said that “for decades, the state of Iowa and its officials have failed to mitigate the ongoing, imminent and substantial endangerment to the health of residents” from nitrate pollution.

The petition comes after the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources adopted rules Tuesday guiding siting, construction and operation of concentrated animal feeding operations, often referred to as CAFOs that did not include added protections in northeast Iowa’s karst region. The soil there is underlain with fractured limestone through which manure, bacteria and other contaminants can easily seep into surface water and aquifers.

"The Environmental Protection Commission has once again proven who they really serve — not the Iowa public, but big ag polluters," Alicia Vasto, the Iowa Environmental Council's water program director, said in a call with reporters. "The commission, which is obligated to protect Iowa's environment, refuses to adopt rules that would add any burden to livestock operations, even if it will protect drinking water for tens of thousands of Iowans."

She said northeast Iowa also contains the "majority of the waters that DNR has designated as Outstanding Iowa Waters," including Bloody Run Creek, a cold-water trout stream that environmentalists say is threatened by the construction of a large beef operation nearby.

Eldon McAfee, a Des Moines attorney representing Iowa livestock groups, said the state's rules on livestock facilities are stricter in karst areas and are "working to protect groundwater."

The DNR declined to comment on the petition.

EPA imposed similar requirements on Minnesota

The environmental groups are hoping to duplicate Minnesota's success last year in prompting EPA intervention in that state's southeastern karst region, just across the border from Iowa.

In November, the EPA's Chicago-based Region 5 required Minnesota to "develop and implement a long-term solution to achieve reductions in nitrate concentrations in drinking water supplies" there. It also required short-term actions, including testing private wells and providing drinking water to families whose private wells have high levels of nitrates.

Elevated levels of nitrates in drinking water are known to increase the risk of a wide range of serious health problems, including birth defects, cancer, thyroid disease and other illnesses, the groups said in their petition.

"We're asking that EPA do the same thing for Iowa" that it did for Minnesota, said Michael Schmidt, an Iowa Environmental Council attorney. "The state has proven it is not willing to take on water pollution."

More: Farmer's free-ranging cattle wreak havoc in northeast Iowa community, neighbors say

Among other measures, the state and national groups ask that the agency prohibit new or expanded livestock operations in the karst area until nitrate concentrations fall below unsafe levels; investigate specific companies and land-use practices causing contamination; and take civil enforcement actions against those that threaten public health by contaminating drinking water supplies.

The state and national groups said the DNR rejected a recommendation from an internal group of experts that called for requiring greater separation between CAFOs and the karst areas.

“The committee, made up of geologic experts and DNR technical staff, recommended increasing the separation distance to a minimum of 25 feet from karst geology,” which "would reduce the risk of leaking and failure of manure storage structures through sinkholes," the groups said. They said the rule adopted Tuesday “would make no change to the karst provisions, leaving the separation minimum at 5 feet.”

The DNR's internal karst team determined that “groundwater in karst areas is vulnerable to seepage from manure storage structures (along with many other sources)," according to a document the groups received through a public records request. It also said "cracks in the cement or new sinkhole formation could occur in the years following construction," making it "difficult to assess whether a below-ground formed structure is leaking.”

Rather than "heeding the panel’s advice, the EPC retained the existing requirements for construction in karst terrain, even though the department’s own experts deemed the existing requirements inadequate,” the groups said in their petition.

In September, McAfee, the attorney representing livestock groups, wrote to the Iowa DNR, saying cattle, pork and poultry producers were concerned about the "unintended consequences" of the proposed separation requirement.

The increase would increase construction costs, making it "financially difficult or impossible to implement for most farms," wrote McAfee, who worked with the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation on the rules response.

The agriculture groups said an analysis showed about 25% of possible livestock sites in the karst area would be eliminated under the proposed requirements, he said.

Additionally, McAfee wrote that the change would discourage open feedlots and require dairies to convert their operations to "roofed or partially roofed barns to reduce the risk from storm-water runoff and potential impacts on water quality," potentially undermining "the overall goals of this chapter."

Nitrates already reaching excessive levels in karst regions, groups say

The environmental groups said the northeast karst region, with about 316,000 people in 12 counties, already is struggling with high nitrates,

"Recent research indicates that up to 80% of nitrate loading in karst regions can be traced to nitrogen fertilizers that are quickly flushed from soils into the karst and groundwater systems during rain events," their petition said.

Based on Iowa DNR testing of private wells, 15.2% of the samples in the karst region, taken over 34 years, had nitrate levels above 10 milligrams per liter, the federal safe drinking water standard, while only 11.7% of samples statewide had excessive nitrate levels, according to the petition.

"People living in northeast Iowa have been exposed to high nitrate in drinking water for decades," said Vasto, the Iowa Environmental Council's water program director. "High nitrate is a danger to infants, but an increasing number of health studies connect long-term nitrate exposure, even at levels below the drinking water standard, to various cancers. It’s past time to take action to clean up our drinking water."

In addition to the Iowa Environmental Council, other groups joining the petition include the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, Iowa Izaak Walton League, the Environmental Working Group and Food & Water Watch.

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Groups petition EPA to take emergency action on Iowa water quality