Installing drain tile. A well-tiled river valley in Iowa is the focus of a lawsuit filed by the Des Moines Water Works that seeks to regulate nutrient runoff from farms. (DTN file photo) |
ROCKWELL
CITY, Iowa (DTN) -- Iowa farmers and ag groups would much rather work
things out with leaders at Des Moines Water Works over a beer and lock
details in with a handshake.
Instead,
the water utility's legal action, which seeks to regulate nutrient
runoff from farms, likely will take years to resolve and has more
farmers willing to dust off their boxing gloves.
The utility's board of directors moved in
March to file a federal lawsuit against 10 drainage districts in Buena
Vista, Calhoun and Sac counties, all of which are northwest of Des
Moines and part of the Raccoon River watershed. The lawsuit also names
county supervisors.
If successful, the legal action could lead
to regulating agriculture as a pollution point source in Iowa and
perhaps across the country if legal fever spreads. It could require
farmers to pay for expensive permits for normal farm practices, as well
as restrict the use of fertilizer or other farm chemicals.
At the center of the issue is the extensive
subsurface tile drainage that helped turn the Raccoon River watershed
northwest of Des Moines into one of the most productive cropping and
livestock areas in the country. The tiling also allowed farm nutrients
to move down stream. The lawsuit specifically declares tile drainage
pipes and ditches operated by the drainage districts as "point sources
which transport high concentration of nitrates contained in
groundwater."
The Raccoon River drains 3,625 square miles,
including some 2.3 million acres in west-central Iowa. Portions of 17
counties supply the river. Row crops including primarily corn and
soybeans account for about 85% of the land area in the North Raccoon
River, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Some 77%
of that land is tiled-drained above Sac City. In the South Raccoon River
area some 61% of the land is row crops with about 42% of it
tile-drained north of Redfield.
The rich soil in the region is part of the
water-quality challenge. Soil mineralization and nitrogen fertilizer
contribute to at least half of the total nitrates ending up in the
water. Livestock in the watershed account for anywhere from 13% to 17%
of the nitrates.
Des Moines Water Works wants tighter
regulations to limit runoff. Iowa's voluntary nutrient reduction
strategy lacks any timeframe for reducing nutrient runoff and declines
to set any standards or require certain conservation practices.
The litigation leaves farmers concerned
about the regulatory risks they may face. Calhoun County Farmer Randy
Souder wants to install a bioreactor in one of three counties where
drainage districts and county supervisors have been sued. The bioreactor
is a large pit filled with wood chips or similar material that filters
tile drain waters before they enter a stream, reducing nitrate levels in
the process. It is promising technology that could help solve the
state's nutrients runoff problem. Now Souder questions the investment.
"Right now I'm going to put it on hold until
we know a little more about what is going on," Souder said. "If we're
going to go through a bunch of regulations and stuff do I want to dump
30, 40 grand into something?"
An Iowa State University study from 2012
found farmers in the Raccoon watershed region could reduce nitrate loads
by 45% to 55% using the combination of nitrogen rate management and
wetland restoration. Nitrogen management alone could reduce loads by
18%, according to the study.
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