Environmental group calls Legislature 'intrusive'

DES MOINES - Dueling plans to regulate manure application on frozen farm fields has raised a question about who should set such policies.

The Iowa House Ag Committee is set to take up House File 574 Wednesday, which would prohibit manure application on farmland between Feb. 1 and April 1 because fields typically are frozen and there is a danger the manure will run into waterways.

While livestock farmers and their commodity groups say it's rarely a problem - they cite common sense and the value of manure as a crop nutrient, environmental groups argue that manure run-off from large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) is a major contributor to high ammonia levels in some Iowa waterways and the overall poor water quality across the state.

Environmental groups and the Department of Natural Resources have registered against the bill and are promoting rules being drafted by the Environmental Protection Commission that also would regulate winter application of manure. That effort has been going on for a year and Sierra Club lobbyist Lyle Krewson believes the Legislature is being "intrusive."

The EPC rules could be finished in months, but a legislative approach would slow the process by months, Krewson said.

Judie Hoffman of the Iowa Farmers Union said her groups "would like to see the Legislature do a lot more." However in this case, the process was started in the DNR and "I'm not quite sure why it's being put before the Legislature."

Rep. Ray Zirkelbach, D-Monticello, think he knows.

"It's a huge policy issue," he said. "The ag economy is keeping us alive ... and a change this big should come from elected officials, not an appointed commission."

Eldon McAfee of the Iowa Pork Producers Association agrees.

"The legislature's job is to get involved and legislators want to get involved," he said on Iowa Public Radio's news magazine, The Exchange. "They are the policymakers. The Legislature is more responsive to the people in general. EPC members are appointed and I'll leave it at that."

Livestock manure is being applied to about 25 percent of Iowa acres, McAfee said, so "we're kidding ourselves if we think we can solve water quality issues by looking at livestock only. We're delaying tackling the real problem."

The EPC rules on livestock operations would be a start, Krewson said.

"We have some of the worst water quality in our streams the nation," he said. "A significant portion of that degradation comes from CAFOs."

He rejects suggestions environmentalists are trying to hamstring the livestock industry, but "we do insist they be responsibly operated, that waste be responsibly disposed of."

"Frankly, some of these facilities produce more liquid manure waste than small towns that are required to have sewage treatment facilities," he said.