Since the atrocities of Flint’s water crisis, my father’s occasional saying to me as a child, “get the lead out,” has taken on a new meaning. While lead exposure has been found in 18 Iowa public water supplies, nitrates are the major problem in 260 of Iowa’s 880 municipal water systems (30 percent).
For example, the Des Moines Water Works spent $1 million to remove nitrates for its 500,000 customers, and it anticipates spending an additional $180 million.
Nitrates affect more than Iowa’s drinking water. Iowa’s landscape touches 5 percent of the Mississippi River yet contributes 25 percent of the nitrate pollution to the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone.
The EPA has ruled that farm waste is toxic if it comes out of a pipe. With 40 percent of Iowa’s farm land being underpinned with drainage pipes, we indeed have a problem.
Besides chemical fertilizers creating a problem, the disposal of livestock manure also affects our water quality. Iowa’s 20 million hogs, 60 million laying chickens, and 3.9 million cattle produce the manure equivalent of 178 million people. Let’s face it, we are in deep doo-doo.
Ag experts have espoused that if Iowa’s 30 million acres of fertilizer run-off and 977 tons of livestock manure would flow into permanent wetland pastures, the litany of problems would be dramatically mitigated.
Numerous authorities note that 3 acres of wetland can effectively treat the toxic runoff from 100 acres of land. But, there’s a political side to a somewhat easy solution.
Eighty percent of Iowa’s 90,000 farmers collectively received $1.3 billion in farm subsidies last year; No. 2 in the United States. Currently, there are 1.8 billion bushels of excess corn in storage. USDA forecasts that American farmers will utilize more chemical fertilizer and manure to grow 2 million acres more corn this year than previously. It’s obvious why the “volunteer” Nutrient Reduction Strategy by farmers to mitigate fertilizer use and manure runoff isn’t working. As long as subsidizing continues, look no further than the farmer’s billfold.
Another political problem is that the Renewable Fuel Standard mandates ethanol production. Since 40 percent of America’s corn goes to gas tanks, no longer can one assert that agriculture is about food. When you hear ethanol mogul Bruce Rastetter, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Ag Summit attendees, Eric Branstad (director, Iowa Renewable Future), and Gov. Terry Branstad poo-poo Iowa’s statewide water problem, remember they don’t want any voluntary cutback in the production of corn as that would hurt their purse.
Gov. Branstad continues to call for city folk and farmer collaboration. In reaction to Branstad, Bill Stowe, the director of the Des Moines Water Works, says “What we see every time we hear collaboration is buying time, a defense for the status quo. The status quo will ultimately bankrupt our rivers and seriously jeopardize the public health of our consumers.”
I tip my hat to those farmers who have incorporated wetlands into their farm waste-reduction program. I hope their neighbors will peek over the fence to view holistic farm and production management as a model to emulate.
Kudos are also extended to the smart farmers who are planting cover crops after the harvest season, because this reduces erosion, suppresses weeds, increases carbon and nitrogen in the soil, and provides a 5 percent yield gain.
Be reflective the next time you draw a glass of water. Without immediate intervention, a line from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” will come to fruition: “water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
Steve Corbin,
professor emeritus of marketing, University of Northern Iowa