Hello
HSB 267 is 23 pages long, single spaced. The bill makes changes to
37 separate sections of the Iowa Code disbursed in the following
chapters:
331 355 362 427 441 459 455B 456B 462A
With legislation of this sort, the devil is always in the details,
especially when the bill is well intentioned. It is
impossible to protect the implementation of the bill
without carefully scrutinizing the effect of every change to every
existing Iowa Code section referenced in the bill. Forces opposed
to the bill will attempt to insert particular language, seemingly
innocuous, at key places in the bill. They have lots of paid staff
who are very good at this.
For example, the bill provides a special separation distance of 5280 feet
to "high quality" water resources in the state that are not
tourism destinations, and 10560 to "high quality" water
resources that are tourism destinations. Sounds good and quite
encompassing, but there are two problems. First, only tourism
destinations specifically "designated" by DNR qualify.
Since there are no rules in place for DNR to use, these will have to be
developed from scratch (against great opposition) before any "high
quality" water resource will receive the two-mile protection.
Which brings up the even greater problem. The "high
quality" designation as assigned in our water quality standards
includes only 50 stream or river segments totalling only 342 miles (Iowa
has about 25,000 miles of perennial rivers and streams). Of the 50
streams, 47 are B(CW).... trout streams!!!... which this bill
exempts from the protection!!! Only three short
segments of the Turkey River would receive the one mile or two mile
protection afforded by this section of the bill.
In addition to the 50 streams, there are 7 lakes designated as "high
quality", covering 10,249 acres. Of these seven, five of them
are the Iowa Great Lakes. The other two are very small spring fed
impoundments, one in Jackson and one in Winneshiek. And by the way,
there are no DNR procedures in place to allow additional
water resources to be designated as "high quality".
So this section of the bill accomplishes little except to perhaps
neutralize the local control voices in Dickenson county by giving extra
separation distance protection to the Great Lakes.
Period.
Every section of the bill needs to be scrutinized in this fashion, along
with every change negotiated along the way. It is
always about how the language translates to actual
implementation.
Steve Veysey, Conservation Co-chair
Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club