Iowa Row Crops

This week, the State of Iowa called three public meetings on Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy to take and answer questions about the program. Here is the information about the meetings:

Dec. 17, 6:30 p.m., Boulders Conference Center, Denison.
Dec. 19, 10 a.m., South Ballroom, Memorial Union, Iowa State University, Ames.
Dec. 21, 10 a.m. Ramada Waterloo/Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center, Waterloo.

Rep. Chuck Isenhart of Dubuque had previously called for an extension of the 45 day comment period until Feb. 4, to allow the legislature and the Watershed Planning Advisory Council to weigh in but there has been no response to the request from either Iowa Department of Natural Resources Director Chuck Gipp or Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey. As it stands today, the comment period ends Jan. 4, 2013.

At their annual meeting in Des Moines, Dec. 4 and 5, the Iowa Farm Bureau presented on the Nutrient Reduction Strategy. President Craig Hill said, “Farm Bureau is committed to making Iowa nutrient reduction strategy a success.” Farm Bureau urged members to read the documents and comment on the strategy, sharing the conservation practices members already adopted and some they are considering adopting in the future.

This week, the Environmental Working Group released a report titled, “Murky Waters: Farm Pollution Stalls Cleanup of Iowa Streams,” by Craig Cox and Andrew Hug. According to the report, “forty years after the Clean Water Act became law, the data are clear: Iowa’s rivers and streams are still murky. The pollution that continues to degrade them has become a case study on the consequences of the most serious flaw in this historic and otherwise effective federal law: It does little or nothing to address agricultural pollution.” The report suggests the distinction between point source and non-point source in the nutrient reduction strategy released in November is less important than that agricultural polluters do something to mitigate nutrient runoff. The Farm Bureau was quick to respond to this report.

It is time for Iowans who care about the runoff that creates hypoxia zones in the Gulf of Mexico to consider the Nutrient Reduction Strategy and weigh in. To learn more, click here. To read my previous posts, click here and here.