“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.

In her testimony, Kathrine explained the unique importance of Wisconsin’s only National Forest and the aggressive logging practices that have threatened the forest’s health in recent years.  Katherine’s testimony outlined steps the US Forest Service can take to manage the forest in a way that balances recreation, natural resources values and logging.

Read Kathrine’s testimony here.

What: House Agriculture Committee Field Hearing on forest resource management in Northern Wisconsin

When: Monday, July 20th, 9:00am

Where: Radisson Paper Valley, 333 W. College Avenue, Appleton WI 54911

Details are also available on the House Agriculture Committee schedule.

This is an exciting and rare opportunity, and you can make sure conservationists have a seat at the table!

Here five easy ways you can help:

1. This hearing is open to the public, and anyone can attend.  Share this information with interested friends in the Appleton area. RSVP by email or phone to ahorn@elpc.org or 608.204.9735.

2. Do you have a blog or a mailing list? Inform other conservationists about this hearing!

3. Can’t attend? Show your support for preserving the CNNF by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.  Contact ahorn@elpc.org if you would like guidance or a template letter that you can personalize and send.

4.  Send a letter to Congressman Kagen, thanking him for drawing attention to this important issue and urging him to protect important natural resource values in the Northwoods.  Personalizing your letter helps you make more of an impact.  

5.  Submit written testimony.  Anyone is free to submit written testimony to the following mailing address:

Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry
Committee on Agriculture
1301 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The agreement requires the Forest Service to consult with ELPC and other stakeholders in Project Year 3, before any logging occurs in the deferred area. The parties will meet to discuss and assess new scientific information, and to determine whether and what kind of supplemental environmental impacts analysis needs to be done. This agreement commits the Forest Service to re-evaluating the Cayuga Project in three years, and it ensures that ELPC will be involved in that re-evaluation process. This exciting development suggests that the Obama Administration is starting to take a fresh look at forest management.

Administrative Proceedings – Camp Four and Grub Hoe
ELPC filed detailed legal and scientific comments in the administrative proceedings on the proposed Grub Hoe timber sale on June 15, 2009. Grub Hoe is located east of Eagle River, immediately adjacent to three other ongoing and proposed sales (Northwest Howell, Long Rail, and Fishel). ELPC recommended that the Forest Service adopt a project alternative that proposes no new road construction and reconstruction in the project area and that limits logging of old-age aspen, particularly in the corridor of the Pine River, which is a candidate for federal designation as a Wild and Scenic River.

On June 5, 2009, the Forest Service approved the Camp Four timber sale, located east of Park Falls, Wisconsin. ELPC and our clients filed detailed legal and scientific comments on the Camp Four timber sale earlier in the administrative process. ELPC hopes to persuade the Forest Service to proceed responsibly on these new sales.

New Appellate Court Lawsuits – Twentymile and Fishbone
In early 2009, a federal district court judge issued final decisions in our challenges to the Fishbone and Twentymile timber sales, both located on the Chequamegon side of the National Forest. Unfortunately, the Court’s opinions deferred to the Forest Service and found that the Forest Service had complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) in approving both timber sales. ELPC has appealed both decisions to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. We are currently engaged in mediated settlement talks in an effort to resolve these cases in a way that balances natural resources protection, recreation, and logging interests.

Temporary Success & Continued Litigation – McCaslin and Northwest Howell
ELPC succeeded in two related lawsuits against the McCaslin and Northwest Howell timber sales in March and August 2005, when the federal court held that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act, granted injunctions and remanded to the agency to go back and do it right. Unfortunately, the Forest Service papered over the record and issued “same old, same old” supplemental environmental impact statements on both timber sales. We are back before the federal court on those two cases, contending that the Forest Service has again failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.

New Timber Sale – Twin Ghost
In November 2008, the Forest Service announced a new timber sale, the Twin Ghost Project, which proposes nearly 12,000 acres of logging immediately adjacent to the now-settled Cayuga Project and the proposed Twentymile Project. In February 2008 ELPC and our clients traveled to Glidden, Wisconsin, to meet with Forest Service representatives to discuss modifications that would improve wildlife habitat, protect clean water, and maintain good recreational opportunities in the project area.

Other Favorable Negotiated Settlements – Boulder and Long Rail
In March and May 2007, we negotiated favorable settlements with the Forest Service to protect key waterways, biodiversity and wildlife habitat that were prioritized by our scientists in the Long Rail and Boulder timber sales. The Forest Service agreed to: (a) not cut designated large old northern hardwood and aspen stands in areas important for threatened species protection and clean water; (b) create experimental 124-acre buffer areas to protect northern goshawk nests; and (c) discuss ways of improving the overall process of evaluating cumulative environmental impacts. ELPC is now engaged in implementing and monitoring the settlements as logging proceeds.

Click here to view a map of the area.

New Activist Tools to Protect the Northwoods

Learn more about the history of ELPC’s work on preserving the CNNF.

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