Hold agriculture accountable for water pollution

Last week, I overheard a person say that cities were responsible for more nitrogen runoff than agriculture. Then, on Sunday June 22, I read the Des Moines Register staff editorial titled: Clean Water Out of Reach? The Register reported that Iowa has high levels of nitrates in its water because of manure and chemicals escaping agricultural operations and getting into Iowa’s streams and rivers.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources admits that agricultural resources are responsible for over 90% of the nitrogen entering Iowa’s waterways. (Anaya L. Hall, “Cropaganda: Mythology of Corn Belt Agriculture,” Journal of Rural Studies, May 2024.)

Iowa has 36 million acres of land. Thirty million acres is in agriculture. Cities and industry make up only 2.6 million acres. (Source: Iowa Department of Natural Resources GIS Library and NRCS GeoSpatial Data Gateway.) Due to the scale of land in agriculture, far more nutrient pollution is shed into the streams and rivers from cropland than from city lawns.

According to retired research engineer Chris Jones, Iowa’s population is composed of:

Hogs: 20-24 million

Beef Cattle: 1.8 million

Dairy Cattle: 250,000

Laying Chickens: 80 million

Turkeys: 4.7 million

Humans: 3 million

The waste from the five non-human species generates the waste of 134 million people while the population of Iowa is about 3 million.

It is becoming more and more costly for city and rural water providers to clean up our drinking water. Several Iowa beaches are closed this summer due to polluted water.

Iowa’s leaders must hold agriculture accountable.

Elaine Hughes

Independence