LTE: Clean Water Act has done so much

Great letter to the editor in today's Des Moines Register from CCI member Larry Ginter and our allies at Environment Iowa.This landmark legislation did so much to improve our waterways. It's time for bipartisan action to continue to prevent and protect our waters - state and nationally - from polluters.  

Clean Water Act has done so much

 Forty years ago, our nation faced extremely threatening and visible water quality issues: Many of our Great Lakes, like Lake Erie, were declared dead. Pollution contaminated their waters and algae overtook their shores. In Ohio, the thick muck of oil and industrial pollution that was the Cuyahoga River actually caught fire. Across the nation, dumping raw sewage and toxic waste into our waterways was seen as the standard practice.

Out of the 1970s water crisis emerged bipartisan support for the 1972 Clean Water Act — the landmark legislation enacted 40 years ago Thursday through a vote in Congress that overrode President Richard Nixon’s veto.

Today, as a result of the Clean Water Act, much of the discharge of pollution into our waterways is illegal. The Mississippi River doesn’t threaten to ignite; water treatment plants are the norm and we have a vision where all rivers, lakes and streams are swimmable, drinkable and navigable.

Even with these dramatic improvements, our waterways still face serious risks. The Clean Water Act doesn’t regulate the agricultural runoff prevalent from Iowa’s farm lands.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report in July that found the Iowa Department of Natural Resources failed to issue the permits for factory farms and concentrated animal feeding operations that are required by the Clean Water Act. Nine percent of Iowa’s 1,648 concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, had the necessary permits just a year ago.

Manure and nutrients from agricultural runoff contaminate our rivers and streams with bacteria, causing them to be unfit and even dangerous. In the Gulf of Mexico, agricultural runoff has compounded into a dead zone, much like Lake Erie in the 1970s, that approached the size of Massachusetts in 2010.Despite regulations, industrial facilities dump 6.2 million pounds of waste into Iowa’s waterways every year, and that affects 47 of our state’s waterways. The Mississippi River ranks second in the nation for toxic discharges.

But recent Supreme Court decisions pose a threat to the integrity of the Clean Water Act and Iowa’s waterways. The court has allowed loopholes that remove protections from 62 percent of Iowa’s streams, hundreds of acres of the state’s wetlands and the drinking water for 667,000 Iowans.

Once again, threats to our waterways are real and another water crisis looming.

Unlike 40 years ago, Congress is polarized to the point that neither party will take action to restore the integrity of the Clean Water Act and our waterways, despite the urgency. The Obama administration has taken the first steps to restore protections to Iowa’s waterways. But it appears that Congress is ready to shut down any Clean Water Act protections.

On the 40th anniversary of the law, let’s urge the Obama administration and our leaders in Congress and at the state level to again take a stand for water quality. The health and well being of Iowa’s environment and people remains a bipartisan issue.

— Amelia Schoeneman, Des Moines, state associate for Environment Iowa, and

-- Larry Ginter, Rhodes, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement member

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