Manure Report Supports CCI Action Clean Water legislation

IOWA POLICY PROJECT MANURE REPORT CONFIRMS THAT IOWA FAILS TO PROTECT OUR WATERWAYS FROM FACTORY FARM MANURE POLLUTION

CCI Action members say DNR, Legislature, and Governor Branstad put corporate ag profits before People and Planet

Des Moines, IA.  Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund (CCI Action) members applaud a new report released today by Iowa Policy Project for exposing the lack of regulations for factory farm manure pollution in Iowa.  The report confirms a number of things that Iowans have been saying for years:

• Iowa’s laws and regulations fail to protect Iowa’s waterways from factory farm manure pollution.  The report dug specifically into Iowa’s inadequate winter manure application ban, but CCI Action members say this lack of regulation is present in many aspects of the industry.
• Iowa DNR has an inadequate factory farm inspection program.  Iowa has a factory farm to inspector ratio of 194:1 compared to 7 other Midwestern ag states that average 72:1.
• Factory farm manure is a major cause of Iowa’s impaired waterways yet Iowa’s State Legislature & DNR fail to acknowledge manure in any of their policy proposals.

CCI Action members have introduced and lobbied for their Clean Water legislation in the past two legislative sessions that includes the policy proposals from the Iowa Policy report and more.  The bill had little support from legislators in both chambers even though it includes commonsense proposals like those supported by the Iowa Policy Project and were passed by the Ohio Legislature with support from the Ohio Farm Bureau.

“The fact that these commonsense regulations are considered good for Ohio but not Iowa shows the power the corporate ag industry holds over Iowa’s legislature in spite of the environmental impacts,” said Barbara Lang, a member of CCI Action’s Citizen Lobby Team.  “There are very few legislators that put Iowans and the environment before corporate ag profits.”

CCI Action’s Clean Water legislation includes other measures that would strengthen regulations for the factory farm industry:

• Ban spreading manure on Highly Erodible Land (HEL) and/or slopes greater than 9%;
• Increase MMP filing fees to fully fund DNR implementation of the Clean Water Act workplan (inspections);
• Require certification for all DNR employees who review MMPs;
• Require liability for contract integrator companies that own hogs and/or that submit MMPs when violations occur;
• Strike Iowa’s ‘no more stringent than’ law because it has become a significant barrier to clean water progress;
• Make manure application records public information;
• Pass a statewide moratorium on new and expanding factory farms.

CCI Action members plan to spend the summer educating and activating Iowans across the state about a statewide moratorium and other tough regulations for the factory farm industry.