Press Release

December 11, 2025

Iowa’s US Reps Vote Yes to Repeal Clean Water Protections with the PERMIT Act

“The PERMIT Act would dramatically narrow Clean Water Act protections that Iowans have relied upon for more than 50 years to safeguard Iowa’s rivers and lakes”

 

DES MOINES – Today, all four Iowa members of Congress’ House of Representatives voted in favor of the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act (“PERMIT Act,” H.R. 3898). The PERMIT Act would “PERMIT” more pollution to be discharged into Iowa’s waterways, threaten the health of Iowans, and remove protections from wetlands and small streams that filter out pollution and reduce flooding. This legislation now heads to the U.S. Senate to be considered.

“Given Iowa’s ongoing and severe water pollution issues, it is disappointing to see Iowa’s U.S. Representatives support legislation that would increase water pollution in the state,” said Matt Ohloff, Policy Advocate with the Environmental Law & Policy Center’s Des Moines office. “The PERMIT Act would dramatically narrow Clean Water Act protections that Iowans have relied upon for more than 50 years to safeguard Iowa’s rivers and lakes. We depend on those waterways for drinking water, for swimming and boating, for businesses that need clean water, and to support thriving fish and wildlife populations.”

The PERMIT Act would gut the Clean Water Act by allowing the following:

• Allow pesticides, already harming water quality in Iowa, to be discharged into Iowa’s rivers without Clean Water Act permits.
• Protect polluters who discharge toxic “forever chemicals”, known as PFAS, into Iowa’s waters, without notifying Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which issues permits.
• Allow US EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove wetlands and other waterways from Clean Water Act protection, leaving downstream rivers and streams and drinking water sources completely unprotected from upstream pollution.
• Iowa waterways could also end up with polluted waters flowing in from other states whose Clean Water Act protections have also been diminished. And fewer wetlands means less filtering of pollution, less protection from flooding, and harm to wildlife.
• Limit the authority of Iowa and its tribes to make decisions to protect waterways from oil and gas and carbon pipelines.
• Allow wetlands destruction permits to be issued for projects that would kill or harm endangered species, including the barn owl, piping plover, and yellow mud turtle.

“Our faith calls us to protect the life-giving waters that sustain our communities and the ecosystems that depend on them,” said Deaconess Irene DeMaris, executive director of Iowa Faith & Climate Network. “We are deeply disappointed that today’s vote undermines that sacred responsibility, putting Iowa’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands at greater risk. We will continue to stand for clean water as a moral and public imperative for all Iowans.”

“With this vote, Iowa’s Representatives have shown they care more about corporate ag and billionaire interests who want to plunder our natural resources than everyday Iowans and our health,” said Barb Kablach, 4th generation family farmer and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement member from Adair County. “At a time when Iowa is 2nd in the nation in new cancer diagnoses, we shouldn’t be making it easier for polluters to dump toxic substances in our waterways.”