While the state has its eyes on the circus in the White House, grave things are afoot in the cornfields of the Midwest. Though a national awareness is paramount in an age of tumultuous political changes, attention to local issues is also essential. How many knew about the Iowa Supreme Court ruling on Jan. 27 regarding the Des Moines Water Works case? The court opted to ignore efforts made by Des Moines Water Works to combat the incessant runoff from agricultural operations into the Raccoon River. Chances are, many people missed that. They were probably looking at story after story about President Trump’s executive orders. National decisions are, of course, important, but local decisions such as this one indicate the underlying contentions buried in Iowa’s fertile soil.
I’m not bent on converting everyone into a rabid ecologist or diverting efforts to stay up-to-date on current events. Consider, however, the obvious: Concerns about clean water are concerns about a basic human need. Water quality in Iowa has little to do with environmental disasters humans are powerless to stop. Rather, it’s an issue we Midwesterners can — and should — act upon.

Whether you subscribe to climate change, you drink water numerous times per day. Water is essential to survival — and clean water in Iowa is jeopardized by pollution from immense farms. In the Des Moines Water Works case, CEO Bill Stowe attempted to place stricter limits on what goes into the Raccoon River. But the Iowa Supreme Court decided to subvert such regulatory efforts, effectively encouraging the current levels of contamination by shifting responsibility into the hands of Iowa lawmakers. Justice Thomas Waterman, the author of the majority opinion, stated, “It is for the Legislature to decide.” This is a fair yet evasive ruling.

The Raccoon River is a source of water for 500,000 Iowans. Right now, nitrogen and phosphorus pour into the river from corn fields and concentrated animal feeding operations. This is an example of what Stowe (in a response to the case covered by the Des Moines Register) calls “unregulated agricultural pollution.” He cites “weakness of political leadership” as the primary cause for continued water-quality problems.

Here’s the deal. Government subsidies for corn, amounting to $84 billion between 1995 and 2012, according to an article by Richard Manning in Harper’s, encouraged the mass production of the crop. Thus, monoculture and over-fertilization proliferate. Corn feeds livestock, too, which produce runoff of their own. Check this out:

“There are about 21 million hogs in Iowa, and almost all of them live in hog factories. Each hog produces the waste of about 2.5 people, meaning Iowa bears the [waste] equivalent, from hogs alone, of about 45 million people.” (numbers from Manning, again) Where does all that excrement go? Big Ag is a moneymaking machine; Big Ag also creates massive amounts of waste. The waste must go somewhere, and few legislators or industrial farmers are particularly concerned where “somewhere” is. Thus, pollution goes unregulated into Iowa waterways with minimal attention from people in power. Water quality is Iowa’s dirty little secret — instead of dividing ourselves over the veracity of scientists’ findings on rising sea levels, let’s break the cycle of corn subsidies and rampant water pollution.

To that end, Waterman might have done us a favor. Since the court dumped the case into the Legislature, it’s your responsibility to contact your representatives. Here are the available digits.

Reps. Vicki Lensing (515) 281-3221, Dave Jacoby (515) 281-3221 and Mary Mascher (515) 281-3221.

Sens. Joe Bolkcom (319) 337-6280, Bob Dvorsky (319) 351-0988, and Kevin Kinney (319) 631-4667.

Don’t waste your breath, Midwesterners, on divisive ideological hogwash. Start calling out the hogwash in our water.