The USEPA Region 7 Nutrient Criteria Stakeholders Meeting took place in Kansas City, Kansas yesterday.

The goal of this program is to stop the growth of the area of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico below Louisiana and eventually to eliminate it.  Nutrient criteria that are to be tracked through this program are Total Nitrogen, Total Phosphorus, Chlorophyll a and sediment. The process that has already been initiated will identify benchmark lakes & reservoirs by December 2000, benchmark streams and rivers by December 2001.  State and tribal Criteria Implementation plans are to be submitted by December 2003.

A speaker for the Central Plains Center for BioAssessment outlined their role in taking the data that has already been generated, organizing and making it accessible to the people who will need it.

There were maps of the identified benchmark streams for Iowa.  French Creek, which has three Iowa DNR designated manure disposal fields in it's watershed, and which is the subject of a combined suit by Sierra Club and Hawkeye Flyfishing Association, is one of Iowa's designated benchmark streams.

Susan Heathcote of the Iowa Environmental Council spoke of the need for data, and suggested that meetings allow more interaction between participants.

Rick Robinson of the Iowa Farm Bureau representative indicated that nitrate levels in Iowa are equivalent to nitrate levels in the 1940s before the use of chemicals.  He or another speaker said that the levels of nutrients have not decreased even though chemical use has decreased due to best management practices.

Craig Volland, representing the midwest office of the Sierra Club, asked that municipal treatment plants be required to remove nutrients from their effluent.

Mary Lapin of KCMO Water Treatment spoke about the difficulty of complying with mandatory standards, citing instances of vandals stuffing carpets down manholes and the difficulty of finding a leak in miles of pipeline.

A Missouri farmer told about the destruction of his cattle herd and the rare disease his grandson contracted from drinking water contaminated by lagoon leakage from a Continental Grain facility that moved into his formerly healthy watershed.

There was discussion of how to bring in more stakeholders.  Only one Tribe was represented, a scattering of environmental groups, the rest being officials and academics.  Future meetings may be designed to accommodate more diverse groups.

The comments of speakers as well as the information available to participants in this meeting will be  made available at the following sites: http://www.cpcb.ukans.edu and http://www.epa.gov.ostwater/standards/nutrient/html.

Peggy Murdock