EPA confirms: Branstad invited corporate ag lobby groups to a secret DNR/EPA Clean Water Act meeting
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 officials confirmed at an open-door meeting with CCI members that last week’s secret meeting with Iowa Governor Branstad’s office, the EPA, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) also included representatives from all of the largest corporate livestock commodity groups – including the Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa Pork Producers Association, Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, Iowa Poultry Association, and the Iowa Turkey Federation.
During a meeting at the Iowa CCI statewide headquarters, EPA Region 7 Counsel David Cozad, EPA Region 7 Water Branch Chief Leslie Humphrey, and Water Branch Specialist Karen Flournoy confirmed that EPA would again meet with DNR and factory farm industry officials directly following the meeting with CCI, and that the corporate ag lobby groups would now be present at all future EPA/DNR “work sessions”.
CCI members were quick to counter the fact that state and federal government were now actively collaborating behind closed doors with one of Iowa’s most polluting industries to write new guidelines, procedures, and rules that were meant to crack down on illegal pollution.
“Governor Branstad, DNR Director Chuck Gipp, and EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks are making a mockery of democracy,” said Larry Ginter, an independent hog farmer and CCI member from Rhodes, Iowa. “The undue political influence of the factory farm industry is what got us into this mess in the first place and giving corporate polluters a seat at the table is guaranteed to guide this process into the ground.”
“Iowa CCI members do not accept this process and demand that EPA and DNR immediately sign a strong and binding workplan agreement that mandates the inspection and permitting of every factory farm in the state of Iowa.”
Government officials in last week’s secret DNR/EPA meeting
Branstad chief of staff Jeff Boeyink and staffer Julie Vande Hoef
DNR Director Chuck Gipp and Deputy Director Bruce Trautmann
EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks
Industry groups in last week’s secret DNR/EPA meeting
Christina Gruenhagen, Government Relations Counsel, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation
Cody McKinley, Director of Public Policy, Iowa Pork Producers Association
Matt Deppe, CEO of Iowa Cattleman’s Association
Bill Couser, Chair of Iowa Cattleman’s Association “Business Issues Committee”
Kevin Vinchattle, Executive Director, Iowa Poultry Association
Greta Irwin, Executive Director, Iowa Turkey Federation
The Iowa DNR and U.S. EPA have been negotiating a work plan agreement to bring the state of Iowa into compliance with the Clean Water Act after EPA released a scathing report on July 12, 2012 finding the DNR’s factory farm enforcement program does not meet federal requirements. The July 12, 2012 EPA Report said DNR:
Has failed to issue permits to factory farms when required,
Does not have an adequate factory farm inspection program,
Frequently fails to act in response to manure spills and other environmental violations,
Does not assess adequate fines and penalties when violations occur.
The EPA intervention was a response to a 2007 de-delegation petition filed by Iowa CCI members, the Environmental Integrity Project, and the Iowa Sierra Club. The petition called on EPA to strip the Iowa DNR of its regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act for its failure to enforce federal law against factory farm polluters.
Iowa’s water quality has never been worse than now, with 628 polluted bodies of water, and manure and other fertilizer runoff so high that Des Moines Water Works has kept the world’s most expensive nitrate removal system running non-stop for months, costing 500,000 ratepayers in Central Iowa as much as $7,000 per day.
Des Moines Water Works director Bill Stowe will speak about Iowa’s water quality crisis at the CCI statewide headquarters in Des Moines at 6:30pm on Tuesday, August 6.