Iowa Healthy Water Act would be a win-win

For years we’ve known that excess nitrate in our waterways has contributed to the aquatic dead zone in the Gulf. But there is now growing concern among medical experts that our water pollution may be killing people here in Iowa. We know there is strong evidence linking water nitrate to cancers of the colon, stomach, esophagus, bladder, ovaries, pancreas, and thyroid. We know that Iowans drink some of the highest water nitrate concentrations in the nation. And we know that Iowa has the fastest rising cancer rate in the nation. While I don’t suggest that water pollution is solely to blame for our state’s cancer crisis, we have to acknowledge that it’s probably contributing.

We should not have to worry that our most precious natural resource and a key necessity of life may actually be shortening our lives. We shouldn’t have to worry whether we’re harming our kids when we fill their cup from the tap. It is for this reason more than any other that I believe it’s time for my colleagues in the Iowa Legislature to join together and take decisive action.

The CISWRA Currents of Change Report, a scientific assessment of Central Iowa’s watershed, estimates that approximately 80% of the nitrate in our waterways comes from agricultural activity — 40% from synthetic fertilizer, 20% from manure, and 20% from nitrogen fixation by soybeans. But we can be honest about the main causes of our nitrate problem without vilifying farmers. At a time when Iowa farm foreclosures and farmer suicides reach alarming highs, we must be sympathetic that it often isn’t financially feasible to demand dramatic changes to farming practices without lending the tools and resources to do so. Given the importance of clean water to the health of all Iowans and the importance of agriculture to the health of our state’s economy, I believe it’s in the public’s best interest to use state resources to help farmers implement new conservation practices.

I’m proud to co-sponsor the Iowa Healthy Water Act, a bold five-point plan proposed by Iowa House Democrats to dramatically reduce the toxins leaching into our water supply. We propose partnering with farmers through state grants, zero-interest loans, and tax rebates to assist the adoption of water quality measures such as cover crops, buffer strips, and wetlands. The plan also fully restores state funding to our network of water quality sensors so that we can identify key waterways of concern and measure our progress as we make them cleaner.

Some activists may say that the Iowa Healthy Water Act is “all carrot and no stick,” and some agricultural groups may deny that farming has anything to do with Iowa’s chart-topping water nitrate levels. This plan, however, is designed for everyone to meet in the middle. Ignoring the problem with continued inaction threatens the health of our families. Taking decisive action through bipartisan collaboration will be a win-win for all Iowans. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to begin this hard work immediately.

State Rep. Austin Baeth is an internal medicine physician from Des Moines and is serving his second term in the Iowa House. Austin.Baeth@legis.iowa.gov