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Addressing Iowa’s Water Quality Crisis
through Agricultural Accountability
Bill Stowe CEO and General Manager
O
H
H
H O 2
Iowa: “First in the Nation”
Reality of Iowa A persistent problem of unacceptably high pollutants
in Iowa’s surface waters, especially nutrients
“Corn and soybean fields
are the primary cause of
nitrate in Iowa waterways.” - Michael Castellano and Matthew Helmers,
Iowa State University
The Des Moines Register, April 12, 2015
Water in the News
Nitrates on
Long Rise
April 12, 2015
High Nitrate
Levels Plague 60
Iowa Cities
July 5, 2015
Gulf dead zone now as
big as Connecticut and
Rhode Island Combined
August 4, 2015 Des Moines water
supplier to sue
counties over
nitrates
March 10, 2015
All Flint's
children must
be treated as
exposed to
lead
January 16, 2016
DMWW
Service Area
• Urban
• Suburban
• Rural
DMWW Treatment Plants &
Distribution System
3 treatment plants
2 ASR wells (+1 in construction)
1 infiltration gallery
1,360 miles of pipe
Saylorville Treatment
Plant (10 mgd)
McMullen Treatment
Plant at Maffitt (25 mgd)
Fleur Drive Treatment
Plant (75 mgd)
Louise P. Moon ASR
(3 mgd) Nollen Tower
Wilchinski Tower
Tenny Tower
Hazen Tower
Future Polk County ASR
McMullen ASR
(3 mgd)
Fleur Drive Gallery
Iowa’s Water Quality Crisis
Iowa:
• Record “Impaired Waters” in 2015
• Record beach closures in 2015
• Record denitrification: 177 days in 2015
(extra $1.5 million for treatment)
Nationally/Internationally:
• Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone growth
Des Moines’ Top Pollutant Concerns in
Source Water
1. Suspended solids
2. Microbial contaminants (bacteria, protozoa, and viruses)
3. Nutrients: nitrate, phosphorus, ammonia
• Spills
• Total Organic Carbon
• Trichloroethylene (TCE)
• Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM)
• Atrazine and Glyphosate (Roundup®)
• Emerging contaminants: pharmaceuticals and personal care
products, and hexavalent chromium
Nitrate (NO3) in Water
• EPA Safe Drinking Water Standard: 10 mg/L.
• Nitrate levels above the standard are a public
health risk. Particularly at risk are infants below six
months of age who, if left untreated, could become
seriously ill or die.
• Nitrate treatment not addressed through traditional
lime softening/filtration system. Side-stream
treatment is required.
Radical
Changes in
Iowa’s
Hydrology –
Drained Soils,
but Polluted
Waters
I
O
W
A
we
ildlife
n Apology
State of Iowa = State of Nitrogen
Des Moines Lobe
Des Moines
“In 1950, the total
number of farm
animals in the U.S.
was nearly 100 million;
by 2007, that number
was roughly 9.5 billion,
an increase of 9,400%.
Meanwhile, the
number of farmers fell
by 60%.” – Barron’s, July 27, 2015
New Hog
Plant:
Boon or Bane?
March 30, 2016
Iowa Incentives for
Fertilizer Companies
• Orascom (Egypt’s largest company):
Total package nearly $550 million for
165 jobs in Lee County
Expected to produce 1.5-2 million
metric tons of ammonia, urea and
urea ammonium nitrate every year.
• CF Industries (second largest nitrogen
fertilizer producer in the world): $1.5
million forgivable loan, $57 million tax
credits, $13 million sales and tax rebates
Iowa Incentives for Hog and
Chicken Processing Plants
• Hog processing facilities:
State agreed to provide nearly $15
million in incentives to Prestage Farms
About the same amount for the
Seaboard-Triumph plant in Sioux City
• Chicken processing plant in Charles City:
Nearly $2 million approved by Iowa
Economic Development Authority
Des Moines is Unique
Treatment Plant
Recharge Ponds
Drainage Tiling:
Increasing Water
Quantity while
Reducing Water
Quality
Iowa Drainage Districts
Hardin County, Iowa
What’s Unique About Central Iowa?
Mark B. David University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1977-2016 1Q Raccoon River Nitrate
Concentration and Load - University of Iowa IIHR - Hydroscience and Engineering
Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf of Mexico
- USGS
Number of Days Source Waters Above the
10 mg/L Nitrate Safe Drinking Water Standard
Nitrate Treatment Requirements • Nitrate Concentration Maximums
– Raccoon River: 30 mg/L
– Des Moines River: 25 mg/L
• Technology Assessments
– RO/UF
– Ionization
– Constructed wetlands
– Lake treatment
• Costs to Customers
– Capital: $80 million
– Operating & Maintenance: $1.3 million/year
Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy:
Iowa Public Policy Approach
• *Sources not currently regulated account for 92% of the
total nitrogen * Nutrient Reduction Strategy incorrectly labels these as “non-point sources”
• Reduce nutrient pollutants by 45%
No timelines
No commitments to measurement or metrics
No resource commitments to voluntarism
• Regulate 10% of nutrient contributors and pursue
voluntarism (non-regulation) of 90%
Time Keeps on Ticking…
The Legislature Tries, but Stumbles • Degradation of water sources continues
• Planning for capital infrastructure investment continues
(new nitrate removal technology or natural
denitrification facilities)
• All the while, Nutrient
Reduction Strategy
proponents keep asking for
more time
Wasted Resources
• Billions of dollars in federal ag subsidies with
no greater use of conservation practices
• No tie between federal subsidies and long-term
accountability
“Fooling Ourselves:
Voluntary Programs
Fail to Clean Up Dirty
Water,” Environmental
Working Group,
February 2016
In Field
Conservation
Practices
Cover Crops
Bioreactors Saturated Buffer Strips
Crop Rotation
Edge of Field Conservation
Practices
Constructed Wetlands
Sac County, Iowa
No other business besides agriculture
can run a pipe without regulation
into the waters of the state.
Why is agriculture different?
Water Quality Improvement
Considerations
1. Treat pollution at the source: in-field or edge-of-field
solutions.
2. Transparent measuring and monitoring of protection of
public health – NPDES compliance.
3. Agricultural accountability for environmental protection –
Resources follow accountability, not vice versa.
“The clean air and water act is
an invasion of our private property
rights and I am sick and tired of it,
and I know you are.”
– Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation President