DES MOINES, Iowa (CN) - Three environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Des Moines federal court Thursday challenging the agency's decision to remove seven Iowa rivers from its list of "impaired waters" despite evidence of increased agricultural pollutants.
"Iowa has a water quality problem," Food & Water Watch, Iowa Environmental Council and the Environmental Law & Policy Center say in their complaint. "Every year, manure and synthetic fertilizers from Iowa's massive industrial agriculture sector wash into surface water and groundwater, contaminating drinking water sources with dangerous concentrations of nitrate and nitrite pollution. A growing body of scientific research links nitrate pollution to a variety of adverse health conditions, including thyroid disorders and colorectal cancer."
The EPA in late 2024 determined that segments of the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon and South Skunk Rivers - sources of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Iowans - are impaired with harmful levels of nitrate and nitrite that exceed state water quality standards. Then, just a few months later, the agency reversed course and delisted seven impaired waterways from Iowa's impaired waters list in a two-page letter to the state environmental officials.
"This unreasoned decision relieves [the Iowa Department of Natural Resources] of the obligation to develop and implement much-needed interventions to protect the river segments that supply drinking water to hundreds of thousands of Iowans," the environmental groups claim. Although the EPA said it intended to reevaluate its decision to delist the Iowa waterways, it has not done so as of the filing of the complaint.
Food & Water Watch attorney Dani Replogle said in a statement Thursday that President Donald Trump's EPA "is enabling an enormous public health crisis in Iowa. While factory farms pollute hundreds of thousands of peoples' drinking water with dangerous levels of toxic nitrates, EPA is hanging Iowans out to dry - we cannot allow that to happen. EPA's irresponsible about-face on Iowa's nitrate pollution crisis will not stand in court."
The EPA press office said in statement Thursday, "In keeping with longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on pending or current litigation."
A recent independent analysis of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers prepared for the Polk County Board of Supervisors found that more than 80% of those rivers' nitrates stem from industrial agriculture, including factory farms and the intensive row cropping.
The Central Iowa Water Works, which provides drinking water for more than 500,000 residents in the capital city region, announced recently that it may limit or ban lawn watering for the second summer in a row due to high levels of nitrates in the raw water. The watering limit, or ban, would be needed because of limited alternative sources of raw water with lower nitrate levels.
The environmental groups say in their complaint that the EPA violated the Clean Water Act by failing to provide a rational justification for removing seven waterways from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' impaired waters list. The groups ask the court to order that EPA relist the waters or at very least issue a final determination that explains the delistings.
Source: Courthouse News Service
