In addition to the sample letter from Iowa Environmental Council, below are
excerpts from the most recent Iowa Sierran:

Some livestock and poultry producers have chosen management practices and
technologies that inhibit overall economic development by endangering public
health, eroding the quality of life in Iowa, reducing property values, and
harming natural resources and public places.

Iowans are demanding that the situation be corrected by  the Iowa
Legislature. Below are (some) policy recommendations that seek to correct
fundamental problems associated with livestock production in Iowa.

Policy Recommendations: Chapter 455 of the Iowa Code should be amended to
achieve these significant goals:
1. Prevention of Major Disasters and Environmental  Responsibility
2. Responsibility  to the Community
3. Necessary Enforcement and Resources

Address growing public concerns about water quality, air quality, and public
health.
-Protect public health and the environment.

Prevention of Major Disasters and Environmental Responsibility
-Prohibit CAFO facilities in 100-year floodplains.
-Ban earthen lagoons.
-Increase fine structures to assure significant disincentives to pollute.
-Expand environmental damage fines to account for damage to all elements of
the ecosystem-not just fish killed. Include aquatic and non-aquatic life,
lost recreational use, and overall water quality.
-Give DNR explicit authority to protect Iowa's Valuable and Vulnerable
resources through siting and permitting of facilities, and manure management
planning.

Responsibility to the Community
-Allow counties to establish standards in the permitting process that
protect resources in their communities.
-Require air monitoring around concentrated animal feeding operations by
2003.
-Incorporate cumulative impacts on air and water in new permit evaluations.
-Require that nutrient management plans be based on phosphorous standards in
addition to nitrogen.
-Increase separation and setback distances for the siting of concentrated
animal feeding operations.
-Phase out aerial spraying of manure.
-Require setbacks for manure injection (to require that manure injection be
a greater distance from wells and other vulnerable areas).

Necessary Enforcement and Resources
-Transfer the costs of the Animal Feeding section of the DNR from taxpayers
to the regulated industry. Set fees to produce sufficient revenues for the
DNR to support such programs and increase the number of FTEs needed to carry
out the work.
-Allocate fines to the DNR for administration and remediation tasks
associated with spills.
-Lower the construction permit threshold to 1000 "animal units."

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