For the common good?

Iowa's Environmental Protection Commission has another opportunity this week to decide what it really wants to protect.

On Wednesday, the EPC may serve notice that it intends to scrap a 2-year-old state rule mandating that builders replace 4 inches of topsoil on finished construction sites. Or commissioners could serve notice they're more interested in controlling runoff and improving water quality than pleasing some vocal central Iowa homebuilders and their allies.

You may recall this is a saga that began in the governor's office, with the appointment of a 'stakeholder group” to review the topsoil rule and recommend possible changes. That group was packed with homebuilding interests and chaired by Creighton Cox, who leads the Homebuilders Association of Greater Des Moines.

With the exception of one public hearing in Des Moines dominated by critics of the rule, all stakeholder meetings were closed to the public.

The 4-inch rule, which applies to developers who are required to hold a common stormwater handling permit, was created to clarify a federal rule and push builders to replace topsoil stripped off sites during construction. As Iowans living in subdivisions with dysfunctional, compacted clay yards can attest, builders often don't replace topsoil.

Topsoil soaks up water far better than compacted clay, reducing runoff. Reduced runoff has a clear, positive effect on water quality, flash flood mitigation and soil conservation.

But homebuilders who have assailed the rule claim replacing topsoil is too expensive and difficult, adding thousands of dollars to the price of a home.

The proposed topsoil rule vaguely directs builders to replace topsoils 'unless infeasible.” Infeasible is defined as 'not technologically possible or not economically practicable and achievable in light of the best industry practices.”

In other words, builders decide what it means.

If it somehow happens to be feasible, the new rule would allow removed topsoil to be placed anywhere on the permitted site. So the soil from your yard might end up elsewhere in the subdivision, maybe in a low spot or a decorative berm or at the bottom of a retention pond.

Bottom line, the new rule would allow builders to do whatever they want, with no measurable standard for accountability.

What should have happened is a much more open and evenhanded process, balancing the concerns of critics with environmental issues, problems faced by homeowners and the thoughts of other construction interests that may have far less problem with replacing topsoil. That sort of process might have resulted in a good compromise, lessening the burden on builders while still requiring topsoil replacement.

Instead of a rigid 4-inch requirement, for example, the EPC could have instituted a soil depth range or average, depending on topography and other factors.

Instead, we got a stacked deck and a lousy new rule that pleases one interest group at the expense of the common good.

The EPC still can turn back, hit the reset button and do this right. But even if it moves forward with tossing the rule, there's still time to weigh in. A public hearing on the rule change is set for 6 p.m. March 18 at the Cedar Rapids City Services Center.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com