Iowans tell DNR to do its job at Carroll hearing

Ten members of Iowa Citizens of Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) attended a Department of Natural Resource (DNR) public hearing Tuesday in Carroll to demand that the DNR stand up for clean air and water and crack down on factory farm polluters.

The DNR has an open public comment period until August 16 to consider a proposed rule by the largest corporate lobby group in the state, the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI).  ABI’s proposed rule, if passed, will gut enforcement of Iowa’s environmental laws and weaken DNR’s ability to crack down on factory farm polluters with stiff fines and penalties.

Iowa CCI members have led a statewide fight-back by everyday people against the bad ABI rule and have mobilized dozens of Iowans from across the state to speak out at public hearings in Carroll, Des Moines, Iowa City, and Mason City.  Iowa CCI members have submitted more than 700 comments to the DNR opposing the bad rule.

“Iowa waterways are not a sewer,” Jan Craig, a CCI member from Panora, said during Tuesday’s public hearing in Carroll.  “The water belongs to all of us, not just the corporate few who use it as their own private dumping grounds.”

Factory farm construction has skyrocketed across Iowa this year, and CCI members across the state are leading the fightback with 37 campaigns in 25 counties.  Iowa CCI members have successfully stopped eight factory farms from being constructed in six different counties this year.

Iowa has more than 572 polluted waterways, and there have been more than 800 manure spills in the last 15 years, according to DNR and CCI records.  A 2007 study by the Iowa Policy Project stated that factory farm manure “may be the largest agricultural polluter of Iowa’s streams and lakes”.

58% of Iowans say “we need stronger laws to stop factory farms from polluting our air and water,” according to an April 24-26 telephone poll of 633 active voters conducted by Public Policy Polling.