External Costs and Public Health Threats from Nutrient Pollution in Agriculture Watersheds

Bill StoweCEO and General Manager

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Iowa: “First in the Nation”

Reality of IowaA persistent problem of unacceptably high pollutants in Iowa’s surface waters, especially nutrients

Agriculture Myth: The Family Farm that “Feeds the World”

Approximately 90,000 Iowa farmsNearly 90% of Iowa’s food is imported

Radical Changes in Iowa’s Hydrology – Drained Soils, but Polluted Waters

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we ildlife n Apology

Des Moines is Unique

Des Moines’ Top Pollutant Concerns in Source Water1. Suspended solids2. 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

Treatment Plant

Recharge Ponds

Drainage Tiling: Increasing Water Quantity while Reducing Water Quality

Iowa Drainage Districts

Hardin County, Iowa

Tragedy of the Commons: Free use of water resource

to move waste

What’s Unique About Central Iowa?

Mark B. DavidUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Raccoon River January 2016 Nitrate Load - University of Iowa

IIHR - Hydroscience and Engineering

Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf of Mexico

- USGS

Des Moines Water Works Lawsuit in Response to EscalatingNitrate Concentration Risks

Number of Days Source Waters Above the 10 mg/L Nitrate Safe Drinking Water Standard

Lawsuit Key Points/Basic Legal Premise• High nitrate effluent from artificial drainage tile is not agricultural

stormwater discharge but groundwater rapidly removed from the soil by means of the drainage infrastructure.

• Artificial drainage systems in portions of Sac County transport concentrations of nitrate greater than 10 mg/L into surface water streams.

• Subsurface drainage systems that transport nitrate from the field to a navigable body of water are point sources by definition but have been erroneously considered exempt from regulation under the Clean Water Act.

• If successful, this lawsuit would put agricultural drainage systems on the same regulatory footing as other point sources.

Sac County, Iowa

“The costs of impacts are external to agricultural systems and

markets for products. They are borne by society at large.”

– “External Costs of Agricultural Production in the United States”

Michael D. Duffy, 2004

Costs to Water Treatment Facilities At Farm vs. Downstream

Des Moines Denitrification Costs2015 O&M Costs $1,500,000Estimated Cost for Denitrification Facilities Upgrades $80 million

Paid for by ratepayers

$1.50-$22.00 per pound on the farm $15.00-$47.00 per pound at municipal treatment plant

– NACWA

Costs to Quality of Life (Future Research Topics)

• Increased public health risks• Recreation – closed beaches, impaired water ways• Gulf Hypoxia

Agricultural sources have been responsible for nearly three times more degradation of lake and reservoir acreage on average

than have municipal sources.– NACWA

Costs to Taxpayers• 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

Solutions for Water Quality Improvement1. 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.

4. EPA enforcement of Nutrient Reduction Strategies for Iowa and other Mississippi River Basin states

____ THINK DOWNSTREAM ____