Addressing Iowa’s Water Quality Crisis

through Agricultural Accountability

Bill Stowe CEO and General Manager

O

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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