Des Moines Register


  Don't back down: Protect our water

The Register's editorial • February 11, 2010

This state long took it for granted that farm-field runoff would pollute 
our waterways. Then the 2009 Legislature passed a bill that prohibits 
spreading manure on snow-covered or frozen ground. It has flaws, but 
acknowledges the need for better stewardship.

Now, two bills in the 2010 Legislature aim to weaken the 2009 law. House 
File 2324 and Senate File 2229 would exempt confinement feeding 
operations built before last July 1 - and not expanded after that - from 
having to construct or expand a manure storage structure to comply with 
the law. That would, in effect, allow some producers to spread manure on 
snow-covered ground during the ban from Dec. 21 to April 1.

Lawmakers should reject this effort to undermine the 2009 law.

Rules the Iowa Department of Natural Resource proposes to put the 2009 
law in place would require all larger producers without sufficient 
manure storage capacity to look for alternatives - such as a neighbor 
with an empty pit. But they somehow would have to come up with 
sufficient capacity to get through the winter, said Wayne Gieselman, 
Iowa's environmental protection chief.


Arguing the other side, Eldon McAfee, an attorney for livestock 
interests, said the bills should pass because some older operations, 
primarily dairy, don't have enough storage to get through the winter 
without applying manure. They had no way of anticipating the 2009 law, 
he said. Eventually they want to build adequate storage, but many cannot 
afford to do it now.

And state Rep. Ray Zirkelbach, a Monticello Democrat, noted if producers 
pollute waterways, they would be held responsible.

About 5,500 confinements in Iowa - hog and dairy operations - are 
affected by the law.

Gieselman said 43 have asked for permission to spread manure on frozen 
or snow-covered ground for a variety of reasons. Every request has been 
authorized, recognizing they may need time to adapt to the law.

That also suggests the number of operations that will have problems 
meeting the 2009 law is relatively small.

But even if it were large, the Legislature should keep its commitment to 
reduce pollution in rivers and lakes.

One of many reasons: Overloading the Mississippi River Basin with 
nitrogen and phosphorus robs the Gulf of Mexico of oxygen, strangling 
aquatic life in the "Dead Zone."

"Spreading on snow-covered ground is a horrible ... practice," said 
Gieselman. "If you ever drove by a snow-covered field with liquid manure 
on it, the snow melts off it about three days faster than usual. Very 
little of the nutrients are preserved."

It's fair to give producers a grace period so they have time to come up 
with adequate manure storage capacity.

It's wrong to back away from sound environmental policy.

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