By Jason Hancock

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) said cuts to the Animal Feeding Operations budget [of the Iowa DNR] leave it with only 13 field officers to regulate and respond to pollution create by thousands of factory farms across Iowa.

“This is a disastrous decision for the state,” said Hugh Espey, executive director of Iowa CCI. “Iowa has some of the most polluted water in the nation, our list of impaired waterways recently doubled, and fingers have all been pointing at us for our contribution to the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s no coincidence that Iowa also has the highest number of factory farms in the country. We need to expand our ability to enforce regulation of factory farms and crack down on polluters – not cut our reach off at the knees.”

CCI member Jayne Clampitt of Independence said last year it took DNR field officers two days to respond to a report she filed about a manure spill that reached a creek flowing through a wildlife conservation area. By then, the evidence had already traveled downstream and no enforcement or clean up action was taken, she said.

Kevin Baskins, communications bureau chief for the Iowa DNR, said the agency had no comment.