Iowa pigs. Photo Credit: Des Moines Register
The Sisyphean Task of Holding Iowa Pig Farmers Accountable by Shirley Whiteside
This article first appeared as an op ed in the Independent Bulletine Journal on October 1, 2023
My husband Byron Plumley and I attended a meeting August 10 at the Floyd County Fossil and Prairie Center, organized by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) members. EPA Region 7 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division Director David Cozad came up from Kansas City to meet with the group. People testified about how their well water is no longer drinkable, how it was no longer safe to swim or even kayak in many bodies of water historically enjoyed. Visual aids for the group’s presentation included a map of the week’s beach closures, the Iowa DNR (Department of Natural Resources) most recent (2018) map of swine operations which maps the locations of over 7000 hog farms of over 500 animals at a given time, translating to 26 million •total swine units. A graph was presented (using DNR sources) documenting impaired waterways in Iowa tripling in number, from about 250 in 2002 to about 750 impaired wate1ways in 2022. This data shows the leading cause of pollution in waterways is bacteria, often associated with waste from animals and people.
We learned that “factory farms” act with impunity; that despite stated rules and guidelines. The DNR has not issued even one clean water permit. Corporations are not being held accountable for what is presumed to be manure disposal and use that has impacted our waterways, affecting rural wells where people are forced to buy bottled water, and urban treatment centers where so many chemicals are added to water to make it safe to drink, that it tastes bad. Iowa public health data from 2023 ranks rising cancer rates, second in the nation only to Kentucky.
CCI members are asking factory farm corporations, not Iowa taxpayers, to pay to clean up Iowa’s water.CCI members are asking factory farm corporations, not Iowa taxpayers, to pay to clean up Iowa’s water.
Iowa’s own DNR recommends testing wells yearly, yet almost two-thirds of wells were tested just once between 2002 and 2017. (A map illustrating this data by county can be reviewed at https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2019_iowa wells/map/) One small farmer at the meeting we attended testified that she requested her well be tested as a baseline when she learned a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) was expected across the road from her; only to learn her water was already undrinkable, due to the overall unregulated pollutants in her watershed. Present day Iowa sources estimate CAFO operations create 22 billion gallons of unmonitored, untreated manure, People at the meeting bristled when EPA Director Cozad suggested that people want cheap meat, but he is correct. They do, and they are paying less at the supermarket, but the cost is Iowa streams and lakes become dead zones, and rural America becomes just another population to dump on. Let’s support those farmers who are trying to farm their land in sustainable ways that honor creation, but who are not subsidized by the false economies of cheap meat and ethanol production.
What gave me hope at the meeting was one person’s testimony about their growing up in the Shell Rock watershed. The Shell Rock is fed from Lake Albert Lea inside the Minnesota border, and when this person was growing up at some point the River nearly died. It was discovered that a meat packing plant in Albert Lea was dumping directly into the watershed. When-the 1972 Federal Clean Water Act passed, it became illegal to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained. The river was saved once, (so it’s possible!) but present data shows lack of regulation for CAFO waste disposal have rendered it endangered once again.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) is working on this issue. Alone we are easily ignored, united our voices are more likely to be heard. For more information or to add your voice: https://www.iowacci.org/ https://www.iowacci.org/
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