Auditor: Iowa’s DNR violates some air and water rules

Sand says provision of Clear Water Act being ignored

The state auditor says Iowa’s Division of Pure Assets is violating legal guidelines meant to guard the state’s air and water.

In a report issued final week, the Workplace of Auditor of State famous three provisions the Iowa DNR seems to be violating.

Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand (The Gazette)

For instance, the auditor says the division has not complied with a legislation requiring it to create and make appointments to a compliance advisory panel that’s mandated by the federal Clear Air Act Amendments of 1990.

That panel is to include two folks appointed by the governor, 4 folks appointed by the management of the Iowa Legislature, and the director of the Iowa DNR or its designee.

In response, the division admits none of these appointments have been made and the panel doesn’t exist.

By the use of clarification, the Iowa DNR says solely that “the necessities had been established within the 1990 federal Clear Air Act amendments,” including that it’ll convene the panel as soon as the appointments are made — though it offered no timeline for doing so.

Auditor of State Rob Sand mentioned Friday the response seems to recommend {that a} lengthy file of non-compliance with the 1990 necessities could also be seen by some within the Iowa DNR as adequate motive to proceed alongside that very same path. “It’s definitely not one thing which means we’re going to change our findings,” he mentioned.

The auditor’s report additionally notes that the Iowa DNR is required by legislation to develop and implement a program for the acquisition of wetlands that end result from the closure of agricultural drainage wells. The division, the auditor says, has by no means applied such a program.

In response, the Iowa DNR says it “is at all times fascinated about working with prepared landowners to revive wetlands … Nonetheless, buying extremely productive farmland, both by easement or payment easy, may be very costly. Extra sources of funding can be crucial for the profitable implementation of this program.”

As well as, the auditor’s report says the Iowa DNR has not complied with a authorized requirement to stock the wetlands and marshes of every county after which designate which of these lands constitutes a “protected” space.

In response, the division says this program was by no means established “as a result of the present federal rules exceed the safety” provided by this particular requirement. The Iowa DNR provides that this provision of the legislation speaks solely to “pothole-type wetlands,” somewhat than forested wetlands and sedge meadows.

The auditor’s report additionally makes word of the truth that the Iowa DNR mistakenly understated “unearned income” — a phrase that usually refers to legislative appropriations, versus charges and fines — whereas overstating, by $356,000, the income it had collected from the Federal Emergency Administration Company.

As well as, the report factors out that the Iowa Legislature appropriates “a big sum of money” every year for the Iowa DNR’s Lake Restoration Program, however the annual experiences of the Pure Useful resource Fee are inconsistent within the reporting of how that cash is used.

To reinforce transparency and public accountability, the auditor says, the Iowa DNR and the fee ought to develop a constant methodology of reporting each the variety of contracts awarded for lake restoration and the full greenback quantities related to every undertaking. The division has agreed with that advice.

This text first appeared within the Iowa Capital Dispatch.