How close should a factory farm be able to build by your house?
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reviews factory farm rules only once every five years. Now is our chance to strengthen the rules.Why do we want stronger rules? Iowa is in a water crisis because voluntary compliance isn’t working. Factory farms produce 22 billion gallons of manure every year in Iowa and that manure is polluting our water. This is an opportunity to hold factory farms accountable and help us achieve a clean water Iowa IF these rules are strengthened. Take action to hold factory farms accountable for their water pollution here! We’re demanding the DNR close the following corporate factory farm loopholes as part of the rule strengthening.How close can a factory farm build from your house? That depends on how the DNR measures the distance between a factory farm expansion and your house. Right now, if a factory farm expands the DNR says you should measure from the nearest corner of the NEW building – even if the existing building is closer. The distance should be measured from the nearest corner of the nearest building to the nearest corner of your house.The loopholes don’t stop there. The current set of factory farm rules the DNR is considering omits a lake (clean water crisis, anyone?) as a public use area. Public use areas cover the docks, shelters, beaches, around the lake but fails to cover areas surrounding the lake that don’t have any structures. That means our lakes are not at all protected from factory farms.We need to strengthen these rules.One big way to give some teeth to the factory farm regulations is to require a $5,000 minimum fine for any and all manure spill violations. Factory farms have gotten off the hook for violations with a slap on the wrist for too long. We know the only way to deter future pollution is to issue tough fines and penalties. Factory farms need tough regulations that hold them accountable to us and the environment. We know this model of agriculture is unsustainable but it has existed and grown because the externalized costs fall on the backs of everyday people. Click here tell the Iowa DNR to close corporate factory farm loopholes by strengthening the factory farm rule! We need 1,000 comments by June 3 – let’s do this! We're suggesting 11 ways to strengthen the rules.
Read more by clicking on the following links: Should Iowa close factory farm loopholes?
22 billion gallons of manure: who's responsible, where does it go?