“This is great news for Iowa,” said Brad Klein, Staff Attorney at ELPC. “After years of delay, the legislature made the choice today to protect Iowa’s environment and economy and make this a better place to live.”

A university of Iowa study found that an estimated 11,479 jobs, $242.9 million of income and $424.9 million of gross state product are associated with the spending by visitors to Iowa lakes. The rules provide additional protections for Iowa’s few remaining high-quality waters, for example West Lake Okoboji and several trout streams in Northeast Iowa.

After decades of meetings, letters, delays and, finally, a legal intervention, clean water advocates gathered at the statehouse in Des Moines this morning to witness the final meeting and decision needed to adopt clean water ―anti-degradation rules for Iowa.

Clean water advocates said today that the Iowa rules are long overdue and that they have worked for years to get antidegradation Rules written and passed in Iowa. With the passage of the federal Clean Water Act in 1972 states were required to enact antidegradation rules by 1985 to prevent the further pollution of lakes, rivers and streams. Iowa adopted rules but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency informed Iowa that its rules violated federal law as early as 1997.

Repeated delays in rewriting the rules led a coalition of environmental organizations – the Environmental Law & Policy Center, Iowa Environmental Council, Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association and the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club  – to file a Petition for Rulemaking with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in 2007 requesting that the State act immediately to adopt antidegradation implementation rules.

This action initiated a rule-making process that included several opportunities for public comment and a hearing before the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission, which approved the revised rules in December of last year. Monday’s meeting of the legislative Administrative Rules and Review Committee marked the final step in a decades-long process.

Advocates stressed that the rules will allow Iowa to grow sensibly and sustainably. “These rules will stem the tide of declining water quality in Iowa, protect the outstanding jewels that remain, and serve as an economic engine for those communities with the foresight to protect and leverage the potential of these remarkable waters,” said Shannan Garretson, water program legal analyst for the non-profit Iowa Environmental Council.

The groups have worked with IDEM for years in an attempt to improve Indiana’s water pollution rules, but the regulations still do not meet standards of the federal Clean Water Act. Large coal mines are currently allowed to pollute many of Indiana’s lakes and streams while pollution from industry and agriculture has contaminated over 800 Indiana Waterways with e coli bacteria.

The petition asks EPA to take back the authority for enforcing the Clean Water Act if IDEM does not improve its water pollution control program.

Read ELPC’s press release.

 Read coverage in the Indy Star.

Read the editorial “In Defense of Clean Water” by the Indy Star’s editorial board.

The EPA pledged to begin regulating nitrogen and phosphorous pollution—coming from farms, lawns, and municipal water treatment plants—in Wisconsin’s waters back in 1999.  Nitrogen and phosphorus contaminate drinking water by promoting the growth of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae and also contribute to algal blooms in the Great Lakes and ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wisconsin’s public health has been negatively affected, with the cyanobacteria causing death of pets, rashes, sore throats, and eye irritation, but that is not the only ill-effect the state has experienced.  “Businesses located on waters tainted with toxic algae are really hurting,” said Denny Caneff, Executive Director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin. “They lose customers who flee the stench and the health hazards posed by toxic algae.  EPA needs to act to limit the nutrients causing these algae blooms.”

According to ELPC Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger, EPA needs to take responsibility. “The current Administrator of EPA, Lisa Jackson, is obviously not the one to blame for the decade-long failure to establish standards for controls on phosphorus and nitrogen pollution, but under the Clean Water Act, she is now the one with the responsibility to fix the problem.”

Read coverage in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Daily Reporter and Greenwire (subscription required)

Read the Press Release

ELPC is concerned, in particular, that the proposed rules don’t address nitrogen and phosphorus – pollutants that have created a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico and could have similar effects on Indiana waters.  As ELPC Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger told the Post Tribune, “I don’t think these rules are acceptable because they’re going to exempt very important pollutants that will have a demonstrable effect on waters in Indiana.”

 Read the full article in the Post Tribune

The state’s current anti-degradation rules could allow BP  or another company to increase the amount of ammonia and silty materials it dumps into the lake without examining cleaner alternatives. ELPC Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger and Staff Attorney Brad Klein told the Indiana press about their concerns that another pollution controversy could emerge if the state doesn’t improve its clean water rules.

Read the full story in the Post-Tribune.

ELPC Senior Attorney Albert Ettinger spoke to Chicago Public Radio about how  Chicago is one of the largest single contributors of dead zone pollution and what needs to be done to alleviate the problem.

Listen to the story here

The state halted this practice after ELPC, other environmental groups and the media expressed concerns that it may harm water and wildlife and could be illegal. Recently some areas in North Dakota have resumed spreading the wastewater on roads.  ELPC Attorney Brad Klien was quoted in this Associated Press article expressing ELPC’s concern about the use of this toxic substance.

“I think a lot of unanswered questions remain about the road-spreading of brines,” said Brad Klein, an attorney for the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “We do think the state is on weak legal ground and there are potential Clean Water Act violations.”

Read the full article here

Ettinger said that the bill, proposed by Indiana Senator Beverly Gard, would prevent the Indiana Department of Environmental Management from calculating the amount of pollution entering Indiana’s waters.  The bill could also undermine attempts to improve impaired waters so they could be used for swimming or fishing.

Read the full story here

read the full article here

ELPC gained a big victory last week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed and remanded the U.S. EPA’s approval of Kentucky’s flawed administrative rules in an opinion that will significantly affect state obligations to maintain and protect water quality under the Clean Water Act’s antidegradation policy that is designed to “keep clean waters clean.” ELPC attorneys represented plaintiffs Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Sierra Club Cumberland Chapter, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and Floyds Fork Environmental Association.

In summary, the Court found that the U.S. EPA’s approval was “arbitrary and capricious” because it did not require Kentucky to prove that the multiple exceptions contained in the proposed antidegradation rules would cause only insignificant, or “de minimis,” degradation of the state’s rivers, lakes and streams. Instead, the U.S. EPA merely accepted Kentucky’s unenforceable commitments to protect water quality, even though the plain language of state’s rules gave blanket exemptions to several categories of polluters, including the coal industry.

The Court’s opinion sends Kentucky’s rules back to the U.S. EPA for further review. Kentucky likely will have to significantly revise and improve its rules in order to comply with the Court’s decision. ELPC’s persistent legal and policy advocacy is important to improve water quality and protect our Midwest natural heritage.