Iowa not adequately regulating livestock confinements, EPA says

Federal environmental officials say Iowa is not properly regulating manure discharge permits for livestock confinement operations and must fix its procedures.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has failed in several cases to take timely enforcement actions against livestock facilities violating the Clean Water Act and it did not assess adequate penalties.

The EPA says Iowa does not have an adequate program to assess whether livestock operations need certain federal waste discharge permits.

The EPA says Iowa has about 7,000 animal feeding operations and must have a process that complies with federal law.

The state has 60 days to respond in writing on how it will correct the problems.

The EPA's notice is in response to a petition filed by environmental groups.