Letter: Support proposed EPA regulations

Ted Cruz has derided President Barack Obama for believing the environment is the biggest problem we face. Iowa's Republican senators and representatives are trying to limit the Environmental Protection Agency in regards to the Clean Water Act. They have leveled charges that the EPA is stifling economic growth, it's 'big government,” 'overreaching authority,” and the need to protect 'our private property rights.” Washington representatives have ties to agriculture and big business chemical producers.

The EPA was a signature achievement of the Nixon administration in response to environmental disasters, such as the burning Cuyahoga River in Ohio and the book 'Silent Spring.” The EPA has responded to the New York's Love Canal, Kentucky's Valley of Drums, and Missouri's Times Beach Dioxin contamination, all of which were chemical dumping grounds on private property. The EPA has responded to asbestos, PCBs, DDT, alar, lead poisoning, acid rain, smog, heavy metal dumping, sewage treatment and countless other environmental hazards. The current flap involves the regulation of herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers being applied to farmlands and other private properties. These chemicals are responsible for the Mississippi Delta Dead Zone, Lake Erie Algae Blooms, record Iowa microcystin beach closures in 2015, and water well contamination by chemicals suspected of causing birth defects in children. If elected representatives continue to object to proposed EPA regulations, may I suggest that they be required to get their families drinking water directly from field tile. After all, the water looks clear.

Paul Anderson

Cedar Rapids