Iowa: Our liberties we prize and our waters we will degrade.

Iowa’s water quality is one of the worst in the country, but you probably already knew that. Poor water quality in Iowa is nothing new and is not going to change anytime soon. While everyone is familiar with cringing at the thought of taking a dip in the Iowa River or opening their eyes underwater in Lake MacBride, few are comfortable openly declaring whose fault this is; it’s the farmers' fault. Big Ag wants people to look villainous when they implicate the good ole farmer from small-town Iowa for making it so you can no longer trout fish in Bloody Run Creek or drink out of your own private well without putting yourself at risk for a laundry list of health concerns.

The forceful hand of Big Ag has infiltrated well beyond the Iowa Legislature and has indoctrinated most Iowans to look sideways at anyone who even whispers a negative word about Iowa farmers. When it comes to Iowa water pollution, the truth is: farmers may be holding the gun, but Big Ag is the one pulling the trigger. 

While the wave of industrialized agriculture hit Iowa in the early 1900s,[1] the development of drainage districts began as early as the 1850s.[2] Drainage districts are concentrated areas of underground drainage tile in fields used to lower the water table, keeping the soil dry and allowing crops—like corn—to extend their roots deeper in the soil and produce greater yields.[3] The water from the lowered water table has to go somewhere and causes an influx of water into the watershed that would not naturally be applied to the system.[4] When this influx of water is coupled with the overapplication of fertilizers and manure spread on fields, the drainage tiles serve as an expressway for these nutrients to get into the water supply. As soon as these nutrients leave the soil, more is reapplied on top.[5] The overapplication of nutrients to Iowa soils is well-documented, and recommendations by agricultural scientists are consistently ignored.[6] 

Easily the worst water quality violators are CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) which house thousands of livestock within only a few hundred square feet, never exposing them to sunlight, rarely giving them enough room to turn around, and leaving them covered in their own feces.[7] The gross mistreatment of these animals is one thing, but the mismanagement of the millions of gallons of waste they produce is another. Hog and cattle CAFOs are the worst of these violators due to the exorbitant amount of excretion they produce daily. The cattle population—between beef and dairy cattle—in Iowa produces the waste equivalent of 33.6 million people and the Iowa hog population produces the waste equivalent of 83.7 million people.[8] “What do they do with all that manure?” you might ask. Why, throw it on the fields of course!

Oh, how I wish I was kidding. 

Not only do CAFOs get rid of their manure by storing them in pools to eventually spread them on crop fields without being treated previously but the regulatory body, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), grossly under-regulates these processes. Under the Clean Water Act, farmers must obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to spread manure on their fields.[9] Within the NPDES permit application, an applicant must develop and disclose a Manure Management Plan (MMP) detailing how they plan to handle the manure.[10] In Iowa, these MMPs disclose which fields the manure will be spread. However, the Iowa DNR does not deny these permits even if multiple applicants submit MMPs that disclose they will spread manure on the same fields. The Iowa DNR is less concerned with where this manure is going and is more concerned that the manure is going something so they can rubber stamp the permit. Furthermore, the Iowa DNR has a history of not checking the accuracy of these permits and relies on an outdated and ineffective system—the Master Matrix.[11] 

One greatly atrocious misrepresentation on a permit resulted in the Sierra Club v. Iowa DNR lawsuit in 2021, when a feedlot operation misrepresented the number of cattle in their feedlot, not by hundreds, but thousands of cattle. This increase in the herd size would greatly escalate the already grievous pollution in the area and blatantly disrespect the purpose of regulating manure management. Without the nonprofit’s pursuit of legal action against the Iowa DNR, the state agency would have faced no repercussions. Thus, the permitting process only serves to check boxes and does little to actually regulate the distribution of manure or mitigate water pollution in Iowa. 

Iowa Legislature Wants to Keep the Water Full of Sh*t

Moreover, under-regulated industrial agriculture is guarded and promoted by the Iowa Legislature, beyond the state’s capacity to manage it. These actions are especially grievous considering that the burden of removing pollutants from drinking water falls on municipalities and private citizens. Des Moines Water Works, for example, has one of the largest nitrate removal systems in the world to compensate for the overflow of nutrients put into the water system.[12] In 2017, they filed a lawsuit against multiple upstream drainage districts to recover some of the outrageous costs they incurred from the excess nutrients the drainage districts released into the watershed.[13] As Judge Leonard Strand stated in his ruling in favor of the drainage districts, “Iowa’s water quality problems are an issue for the Iowa Legislature to resolve.”[14] 

On top of public municipalities, citizens who rely on private wells bear the burden of digging deeper wells to access clean water, a task that costs the well owner thousands of dollars.[15] Unsafe levels of nitrate, coliform bacteria, and fecal coliform bacteria in private wells have been on the rise for decades.[16] Furthermore, Iowa does not require citizens to test their private wells beyond when they are initially dug.[17] Unlike public municipalities that are regulated by strict water quality standards, private wells are left without regulation.[18] Of the contaminated wells in Iowa, rural wells are the majority of those affected, with three out of every four contaminated private wells being located in rural counties.[19]

Since Des Moines Water Works was decided in 2017, the Iowa Legislature has done little to help improve Iowa’s water quality and has done nothing to regulate it adequately. Even worse, politicians running for current office refrain from even pretending to be concerned about it. No legislative candidates take an aggressive stance on water quality, and those with a stance perform the same song and dance of incentive-based approaches and optional compliance.[20] Multiple candidates for the Iowa Legislature point to necessary “increases in research” and the need for all industries to be held accountable.[21] Such statements are laughable considering we already know what is degrading our water with the main culprit for 90% of nitrates in waterways being industrialized farming.[22]

One Republican Representative, Jason Gearhart, has said that the DNR and EPA already have “many” regulations in place and do not need anymore.[23] He says, there will always be “bad actors,” and accidents happen![24] However, that does not mean there needs to be stricter regulations![25] I’m sure we can all agree with Representative Gearhart that the fertilizer spill by New Cooperative—that released over 265,000 gallons of nitrogen fertilizer and killed nearly one million fish along 60 miles of the East Nishnabotna River in March of this year[26]—should be chalked up to a little “whoopsies.” 

The Agricultural Industry will not stop unless they are forced.

Furthermore, those in the Iowa Legislature who hide behind the idea that additional regulation would put an undue financial burden on farmers and quash the agricultural economy of Iowa, only need to look to our neighbors up north to know they are entirely misguided. Minnesota—the second largest CAFO state—operates with a high level of regulation, with rules that heavily complement the Clean Water Act.[27] Violations of these set rules are rarely found during investigations, and when a violation is found, a notice of the violation is sent, followed by penalties if actions are not mitigated.[28] On top of these preexisting regulations on water pollution, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced this summer that they have intentions to “overhaul” CAFO permitting.[29]

It is important to note that Minnesota is not perfect and does not have pristine water. However, it serves as an example that polluters will not change their ways without regulation. Furthermore, Minnesota shows that regulations will not result in large negative impacts to the industry, and the costs that are borne will reap exponential benefits in terms of water quality improvement.[30]

The Iowa Legislature likes to gloat about loving, supporting, and protecting farmers. Unfortunately, words of affirmation are not the love language of Iowa’s rural economy, which has not seen growth in decades.[31] As a result, it is unsurprising that rural communities are declining rapidly. The concept of “Family farms” is becoming a thing of the past, with the number of farms decreasing rapidly while farm sizes continue to soar.[32] The few remaining “family farms” face immense pressure from the giants of the agricultural industry, as it becomes increasingly difficult to profit under current pressures. The farms that are profitable are run by private, multi-million-dollar corporations,[33] not an innocent “good ole boy” farmer people rush to defend. 

Industrial agriculture has been established in Iowa to benefit the lives of a few at the expense of many. The Iowa Legislature has a responsibility to its citizens to enforce regulations that will protect the safety of Iowans’ basic right to clean water. The only “family farmers" the Iowa Legislature is looking out for are corporations like Cargill, Smithfield, and Tyson. Voters in Iowa need to recognize the reality of our state, stop falling for the façade of the neighborly farmer who needs our help, and start demanding more from our Iowa Legislature.