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DNR should address water pollution now
Michael Schmidt and Diane Rosenberg
Dec. 13, 2022 6:00 am
Right now the Iowa DNR has an opportunity to make a meaningful improvement in Iowa’s water quality. The agency is revising rules regulating animal feeding operations (AFOs), which set the standards for Iowa’s 13,000 confinements and open feedlots. A coalition of 15 environmental and community organizations submitted comments to DNR earlier this month calling for stronger rules that protect public health and water quality for all Iowans.
The manure produced in these facilities is equal to the amount of raw sewage produced by 168 million people; unlike human waste, its applied to farm land without treatment. Over-applying manure means that nitrate, phosphorus, and bacteria end up in our drinking and recreational waters.
54% of all waterways in Iowa are impaired — that’s 751 impaired waterways. Keep in mind only half the state’s waters are typically evaluated every two years. An Iowa Environmental Council report found more than 40 percent of private wells contaminated with nitrate, bacteria, or both.
Clearly, we have a water quality crisis.
AFOs are required to submit and follow manure management plans to properly apply manure as a fertilizer. To minimize the risk to water, we need better rules and regulations restricting how this manure is used.
First, DNR must close the loophole that lets AFO owners avoid manure plans entirely. The legislature set the threshold for submitting plans at 500 confined cattle, 1,250 hogs, and 50,000-200,000 chickens, depending on weight. All confinements, regardless of size, produce manure and should be required to inform the DNR where it’s going.
Second, Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy calls for fertilizers — manure and commercial — to be applied only at rates required by crops. Iowa State University researchers found that using this rate would reduce Iowa’s nutrient loading by nearly 10% while saving farmers $32 million in fertilizer costs annually.
Yet the DNR allows manure to be applied at rates greater than these, and research by Dr. Chris Jones finds this over-application of fertilizer winds up in our waterways. We’ve asked the DNR to require the recommended approach and prohibit overestimating fertilizer needs to reduce water pollution and costs.
Next, the DNR needs to enter the 21st century and switch to an electronic manure management system. The current paper system doesn’t adequately provide the DNR with real-time knowledge of where manure winds up. With more than 13,000 AFOs and just a few DNR staff, it’s nearly impossible to determine if a field is getting manure from one AFO or more.
In Jefferson County, we map out fields in plans and often find fields in more than one manure management plan — sometimes as many as four or five. How is that not asking for trouble? The DNR must switch over to a manure management plan database, geospatial mapping, and real time reporting of manure application rates and locations to get a handle on what’s actually taking place.
The “LLC loophole” also factors into this problem. This loophole enables small, adjacent commonly-owned AFOs to be set up as separate corporations and regulated as two independent operations, bypassing manure management plans altogether. It also allows medium size AFOs to avoid construction permits, Master Matrix, and greater separation distances required for larger AFOs. In Jefferson County, we find a quarter of the AFOs fall into this category.
The DNR attempted to close the loophole in 2019, but only required a simple letter stating there was no joint ownership. This is not a legal document and has no teeth. Until the DNR requires legal documentation, the loophole effectively remains open.
These items are but just a few of the many recommendations our coalition made to the DNR. Requiring proper manure management is a step DNR can take immediately to improve water quality and reduce costs. Not doing so would be a missed opportunity at the expense all Iowans.
Michael Schmidt is the staff attorney of the Iowa Environmental Council. Diane Rosenberg is the executive director of Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors, Inc.
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