Impaired leadership: Iowa’s dirty water count grows

Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources released the state’s latest list of impaired waterways this past week. And it’s the newest chapter in the sad story of Iowa’s water quality problems.

A total of 594 lakes, rivers, streams and other waterways are fouled by 778 impairments, meaning they don’t meet standards for their intended use, such as recreation, supporting aquatic life or providing a source of drinking water. Another 157 waterways also have impairments, but the federal government is not requiring the state to set pollution limits in those cases.

The impaired waters list, released every two years, has grown longer yet again.

More than half of Iowa’s rivers and streams, 56 percent, are impaired, along with 67 percent of the state’s lakes and reservoirs. Among the culprits to blame are the usual suspects — bacteria, fish kills, with more than a third caused by animal waste, and algae growth, fed in large part by nutrients running off farm ground into lakes. Swimming advisories and closed beaches follow.

For example, Indian Creek and Dry Creek in the Cedar Rapids metro are on the list due to bacteria levels. Lake Macbride in Johnson County made the list due to algae.

Agriculture plays a central role in impairments, but the impaired waters list tells only part of that story.

That’s because Iowa has no measureable, numeric water quality standards for pollution caused by nutrients — nitrogen and phosphorus — in Iowa waterways. Only the federal government sets a nitrate limit for water bodies used for drinking water. So Iowans don’t know the true scope of agricultural pollution in our waterways.

And that seems to be a prime objective of our state’s environmental regulatory system, which is dominated by farmers, agricultural interests and their allies.

Regulators have long resisted setting pollution standards for nutrients washing from cropland into waterways. Three years ago, when Iowans petition the Environmental Protection Commission to set pollution limits for Iowa lakes, the commission unanimously voted no. The panel listened instead to staff who argued setting the limits, and knowing the true scope of lake pollution, could lead to a costly cleanup.

Earlier this month, the commission unanimously defeated an effort to set stricter limits on livestock operations built on porous karst terrain in northeast Iowa. Regulators have already signed off on a manure management plan for a large cattle feedlot near Bloody Run Creek in Clayton County. The trout stream is on Iowa’s short list of “outstanding waters,” and opponents of the project have argued the manure plan is flawed and the feedlot will pollute the creek. The DNR has refused to listen.

Republicans who run the Legislature have rejected calls for a moratorium on the construction of new livestock confinement operations and have refused to re-write the “Master Matrix” scoring system for new confinement projects that does precious little to encourage producers to put in environmental safeguards. Lawmakers have embraced large manure biodigersters that allow confinements to store even more manure to ostensibly create marketable methane gas, but have refused to set rules for their operation.

The state provides millions of dollars to producers to share to cost of water quality improvement projects, but requires no monitoring or proof the measures are working. What we do know is large amounts of nutrients are still flowing into waterways, down the Mississippi and on to the Gulf of Mexico, where they fuel a dead zone that stifles and scatters aquatic life.

So instead of presenting a call to action to protect the state’s environment, the impaired waters list is little more than a regularly scheduled chance for us to lament our failures and the indifference of our elected and appointed leaders. We could take meaningful steps to attack our dirty water problem — we have the means and expertise — but our leaders are more likely to attack Iowans calling for action. It is possible to do the work needed to remove waterways from the list. Cedar Lake in Cedar Rapids is living proof.

Poor water quality is a black eye for a state seeking to attract new residents to join our depleted workforce. They’ll see the impaired waters list as proof Iowa doesn’t care about its environment. We’ll know the real problem is impaired leadership.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com