EPA “misses the moment” to address mounting factory farm pollution crisis

Iowa CCI continues the fight for clean water

Iowa - Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a 2017 petition submitted by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Food & Water Watch and dozens of co-petitioners, urging EPA to strengthen its factory farm water pollution regulations under the Clean Water Act. EPA’s decision to reject these needed reforms came in response to a lawsuit for unreasonable delay in answering the petition. Instead, EPA has announced that it will form a Federal Advisory Committee subcommittee to study the CAFO pollution problem and make recommendations for the agency. This lengthy process, expected to begin in 2024 and last 12-18 months, means the Biden administration may miss the opportunity to strengthen its factory farm regulations.

Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement support Clean Water Act (CWA) permits because they would create:

Tougher operating standards. CWA permits have fixed five-year plans. That means they’re subject to being reviewed, updated or terminated on a regular basis. We don’t have anything like that right now in Iowa. Factory farms are essentially free to operate as they please, with little oversight by state regulators.
Tougher fines and penalties for environmental violations. State law currently caps penalties at $5,000 per day per violation. Under the Clean Water Act, penalties could be up to $37,500 per day per violation. We need much higher fines, paired with tough enforcement measures, especially for repeat offenders.

"When raising our three sons, we lived across the road from the beach and we swam there many summers with our kids. Unfortunately, swimming there these days is not a safe option for my grandchildren," said Julie Duhn an Iowa CCI member from Hardin County. “The beach at Lower Pine Lake has been on the ‘Swimming not Recommended’ list every single week since the beginning of testing this summer. We need EPA to quit dragging its feet and actually do something to protect our water from corporate polluters.”

There are more than 10,000 factory farms in Iowa that create over 22 billion gallons of toxic liquid manure each year. This manure is dumped untreated across the state, eventually running off into our waterways. Iowa has over 750 polluted waterways across the state – more than triple the number there were 20 years ago.

Iowa CCI members are committed to tackling the water quality crisis at the local, state, and federal level until there are headlines that read “EPA gets serious about water quality”.