Discharge of Millions of Gallons of Animal Waste into Iowa Rivers and Streams Overlooked; Clean Water Act Compliance Non-existent for Iowa's 2,100 CAFOS.

DES MOINES, IOWA AND WASHINGTON, D.C.///September 20, 2007///Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project held a live news conference on the steps of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) in Des Moines today to announce that they have filed a formal legal petition urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strip the IDNR of its authority to issue factory farm operating permits to the state's growing number of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Specifically, the petition argues that Iowa DNR authority to issue National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits should be revoked by U.S. EPA because of the State of Iowa's continuing violations of the Clean Water Act and its implementing regulations.  The petitioners have asked that EPA formally respond in writing by notifying the State of Iowa that it is not administering the permit program for CAFO discharges into the waters of Iowa in accordance with the Clean Water Act, and to initiate a public hearing on the matter. 

Iowa has become the nation's number one producer of both hogs and eggs, and is home to more than 2,100 large CAFOs.  The state's livestock produce more than 50 million tons of waste each year, and since receiving Clean Water Act authority, IDNR has allowed CAFOs to illegally discharge millions of gallons of manure into hundreds of rivers and streams, killing millions of fish and contributing to widespread water quality impairments.

Vern Tigges, small family farmer from Carroll, IA and member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement commented on the petition:  "Our petition is based on the proposition that livestock production in Iowa is increasingly an industrial process, dominated by large facilities that confine thousands of poultry, swine, and dairy or beef cattle in animal feeding operations or CAFOs.  The largest of these operations in Iowa confine more than 5 million chickens, 24,000 swine, and 10,000 cattle on a single site.  Operating permits for these huge factory farms (NPDES permits) must contain pollution controls, as well as monitoring and reporting requirements, to ensure that discharges do not harm water quality or have negative health consequences for our communities."

Pam Mackey-Taylor, chair, Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club said: "In our view, Iowa's current enforcement program does not adequately enforce the NPDES regulations because IDNR more often than not fails to act on permit and program violations; fails to seek adequate enforcement penalties or collect administrative fines when imposed; and fails to inspect and monitor CAFOs subject to Clean Water Act regulation.  We have formed this citizens' coalition with legitimate grave concerns about the health of our families and our environment to petition the U.S. EPA to initiate formal proceedings to end this abuse and withdraw this authority from IDNR."

Environmental Integrity Project Counsel and CAFO Expert Karla Raettig said, "In addition to defects in its statutes and regulations governing CAFO NPDES permits, Iowa's operation of the program fails to comply with the Clean Water Act.  IDNR has failed to issue permits to the majority of CAFOs that require them, and has repeatedly issued NPDES permits that do not conform to federal requirements, including the public participation requirements.  These defects have been brought to IDNR's attention but have not been fixed.  Because Iowa fails to demonstrate sufficient authority and willingness to carry out the NPDES program, the citizen groups are petitioning EPA to withdraw its approval of Iowa's NPDES delegation and to assume administration and enforcement of the program."

Despite repeated attempts by EPA and citizen groups to spur IDNR to action, IDNR has resisted making any meaningful progress to bring CAFOs into compliance with the Clean Water Act. After years of notice from citizens and EPA, IDNR has issued no NPDES permits to confinement dischargers, and has issued permits to only a fraction of open feedlot dischargers.

BACKGROUND

Since IDNR received authority to implement and enforce the Clean Water Act in 1978, its program has failed to keep pace with dramatic changes in Iowa's livestock industry. IDNR is aware of its failure to regulate CAFOs under the Clean Water Act, and even acknowledged that "the most obvious threat to maintaining good chemical water quality in Iowa surface waters is the recent expansion of the confined animal feeding industry."

The Clean Water Act allows citizens to petition EPA to withdraw the power of a state to issue Clean Water Act permits.  EPA regulations outline the relevant criteria and this petition demonstrates that EPA should withdraw Iowa's authority to issue CWA permits to CAFOs. 

CONTACT:  Patrick Mitchell at (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com; or Lisa Whelan, for Iowa CCI, at (515) 360-7664 and lisa@iowacci.org. 

ABOUT THE GROUPS

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement consists of thousands of Iowans from all walks of life who talk, act and get things done on issues that matter most.  From factory farms moving in next door ruining quality of life to shady lenders taking advantage of families, CCI has been tackling tough issues and getting things done for 32 years. The mission of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is to empower and unite grassroots people of all ethnic backgrounds to take control of their communities; involve them in identifying problems and needs, and in taking action to address them; and be a vehicle for social, economic, and environmental justice. To learn more visit:  www.iowacci.org

The Sierra Club is a national nonprofit organization of approximately 780,000 members dedicated to exploring, enjoying, and protecting the wild places of the earth; to practicing and promoting the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; to educating and enlisting humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to using all lawful means to carry out these objectives. The Sierra Club's concerns encompass the protection of the environment from pollution caused by animal feeding operations. The Sierra Club has approximately 6,000 members in the state of Iowa. (iowa.sierraclub.org)

The Environmental Integrity Project (http://www.environmentalintegrity.org) is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization established in March 2002 to advocate for more effective enforcement of environmental laws.  EIP was founded by Eric Schaeffer, who was director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement.  He resigned in 2002 after publicly expressing his frustration with efforts of the Bush Administration to weaken enforcement of the Clean Air Act and other laws.