Mike Delaney: I have watched the Raccoon River get sicker and sicker
"I have devoted the last ten years of my life trying to improve the water quality in Iowa and the Raccoon River. However, the Des Moines Waterworks has had to run the Nitrogen plant for a record breaking 111 + days this year to make their drinking water safe for consumers.
I have worked with the DNR, IDALS, legislators and the governor’s office. I have sat in meetings with the Farm Bureau, Soy Bean Association, Corn Growers, Pork Producers and Cattlemen to address meaningful practices to improve water quality.
In my last meeting with the Water Planning Advisory Committee the Farm Bureau representative demanded that a consensus be reached before the committee sends recommendations to the legislature. This would effectively give veto power to one individual on the committee.
I have watched the Raccoon River get sicker and sicker. Soil and Water Districts are moving water off the land through their subsidized tile systems at the highest rate ever. The surging water is gouging out soil, and nutrients from the banks and dropping ever more trees at every turn of the river. Nitrate and phosphorus concentrations are at record-breaking levels. Antibiotic bacteria are in the water. Live mussels are hard to find. Fishing for Walleye and Smallmouth has deteriorated. Tubers and paddlers are floating through foam induced by hog manure. The river is chocolate brown from soil runoff. The frogs, snakes and turtles are disappearing. The eagles and herons are staring into the opaque river trying to find food.
However, the Farm Bureau has created “Iowa Partnership for Clean Water” and is running a $157,000 ad campaign to convince Iowans that “Iowa waters are the cleanest they have been in 20 years?” They even recruited prominent Iowans Patty Judge, Christine Hensley and Ron Corbett to advocate on their behalf. And, they block monitoring to even determine if there has been a change in water quality.
As a result there is no accountability for taxpayers tens of millions of dollars given to farmers for conservation practices. The Iowa Partnership for Clean Water calls for cooperation. I have given ten years of my life, full-time, in an attempt to cooperatively improve water quality in the Raccoon River. It is not working as demonstrated by the recent demand by the Farm Bureau to veto plans that would improve water quality in the Raccoon River!
Enough is enough! There is some hope for our waters provided by the overwhelming public support for the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust fund. The Iowa Soy Bean Association supports the effort, however, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation registered against funding the trust fund this year during the legislative session even though over half of the $150 million or so generated by a small increase in the sales tax would go to farmers for conservation.
The public wants clean water. The public voted for the trust fund, yet our politicians will not fund it. Gas tax- yes. Trust fund, no. Why? The Farm Bureau supported the gas tax. We need politicians who will represent the public’s interest in clean water and a healthy outdoors."
We are at a crisis moment in Iowa’s Clean Water Fight, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wants to hear from you about it.
Take action for clean water now!
Iowa now has 725 polluted waterways, according to a draft of the DNR’s 2014 list of polluted waterways. Nearly 60% of all of the waterways they tested are polluted. This means that the number of Iowa’s polluted waterways has increased 15% in the past two years.
Everyday Iowans know factory farm manure pollution is part of the problem, and the DNR must act now, crack down, and clean it up!
Tell the Iowa DNR they must act for clean water.
Learn more
Why do we want Clean Water Act permits issued to factory farms?
Timeline of how CCI members pushed DNR to come into compliance with the Clean Water Act