Iowa

Illegal manure pollution, and cancer, on the rise in Iowa – Investigate Midwest

Published

1 month ago

December 17, 2024

Illegal manure pollution, and cancer, on the rise in Iowa – Investigate Midwest

A new report from environmental watchdog group Food & Water Watch suggests that almost 2 million fish were killed from manure spills in Iowa between 2013 and 2023. The 179 spills occurred throughout the state, with a major hotspot for spills in the northwest corner of the state. Earlier this year, the group reported that Iowa factory farms produce more waste than any other state, at 109 billion pounds of manure annually, based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

The report and accompanying map, released on Dec. 9, designated over 700 segments of Iowa water as “impaired” — not meeting the standards necessary to support aquatic life, public water supplies or recreation. Details include where in the state spills occur, who owns the operation and if they are repeat offenders.

Manure spills in the state of Iowa have contributed to what environmental advocacy groups call a water quality crisis. In the capital city of Des Moines, the local water supply has one of the world’s largest nitrate removal facilities. Nitrate is the resulting chemical of manure that is not absorbed by the soil or crops. Due to high levels of nitrate in water, which can cause blue baby syndrome in children and colon cancer in adults, the Des Moines Water Works has to run its nitrate removal system more frequently as the situation worsens — at a cost of anywhere from $10,000 to $16,000 per day, which falls entirely on utility customers.

“When you think about the nature of what they’re spilling and the quantities of what they’re spilling, it’s the difference between life and death, and people are being strapped down with medical debt and suffering in a prolonged way,” Food & Water Watch Iowa Organizer Michaelyn Mankel tells Sentient.

According to the report, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources fined 171 of the 179 offenders at $635,808 over the ten-year period it studied. That’s less than half of what Des Moines Water Works spent on its nitrate removal system in 2015, at $1.4 million. There are gaps in the state reporting as well. The total volume of the spills is difficult to determine because most reports do not contain information on how much manure is spilled. And in those that do note volume, the range is anywhere from 500 to 1 million gallons.

“The fines that the DNR has leveled against these companies do not represent restitution for the damage that they’re causing to Iowa,” Mankel says. “They also don’t represent a real demand that these corporations change the way that they’re doing business.”

In 2024 alone, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources documented 13 fish kill events, one of which regulators directly tied to animal waste. This one “anthropogenic” spill in northwest Iowa — caused by dairy manure land-applied runoff —killed anywhere from 100,001-500,000 fish.

Many concentrated animal feeding operations operate without the proper discharge permits, rendering their spills more difficult to track. In October, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a petition from 13 groups — including Food & Water Watch — calling for stricter regulation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act. Today, Food & Water Watch is calling for a “Clean Water for Iowa Act” to be passed in the state legislature. The act would require all medium and large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations to get National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.

This report and map are released in the midst of a health crisis in the Midwest, which some observers and critics argue is tied to, or exacerbated by, large-scale industrialized agriculture. Mankel points to cancer incidence in the state of Iowa; it’s the only state in the country with rising cancer rates (though other factors, like obesity and alcoholism rates may play a role).

“We’re paying for it,” Mankel says. “I really want Iowans to understand that these problems are a policy choice, and that we are being burdened with paying the true cost of massive profits that these corporations are reaping from our state, and that’s a very intentional choice on behalf of lawmakers.”

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Iowa

Iowa women fall to Oregon 49-50

Published

4 hours ago

January 20, 2025

Press Room

EUGENE, Oregon (KCRG) – It came down to the wire, but the Iowa women fell just short against the Oregon Ducks in Matthew Knight Arena.

Iowa led most of the game, going into the final 10 minutes with a 41-35 advantage, but a late surge put Oregon ahead of the Hawkeyes. The Ducks were able to hold on and edge past the Hawkeyes 49-50.

Sydney Affolter earned a double-double, scoring 10 points and getting a career-high 15 rebounds. Addi O’Grady had 10 points and 2 rebounds.

Up next, the Hawkeyes travel to Alaska Airlines Arena to play the Washington Huskies on Wednesday, January 22

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Iowa

Top 15 Iowa high school boys basketball power rankings

Published

12 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Here is a look at this week’s High School on SI Top 15 Iowa high school boys basketball power rankings for the week of Jan. 20. To be eligible, you must be ranked in the Top 5 of the class rankings:

1. West Des Moines Valley (10-2)

Previous rank: 5

Next game: Jan. 21 at Ankeny Centennial

2. Cedar Rapids Kennedy (9-2)

Previous rank: 4

Next game: Jan. 21 at Dubuque Hempstead

3. Clear Lake (10-0)

Previous rank: 3

Next game: Jan. 20 at Algona

4. Grand View Christian (13-0)

Previous rank: 6

Next game: Jan. 21 at West Marshall

5. Linn-Mar (9-2)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 21 at Iowa City High

6. Cedar Falls (11-1)

Previous rank: 1

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. Iowa City Liberty

7. MOC-Floyd Valley (10-2)

Previous rank: 7

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. West Lyon

8. West Lyon (11-1)

Previous rank: 8

Next game: Jan. 21 at MOC-Floyd Valley

9. Madrid (13-0)

Previous rank: 9

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. Woodward-Granger

10. Bellevue Marquette (13-0)

Previous rank: 10

Next game: Jan. 21 at Prince of Peace

11. Ballard (10-0)

Previous rank: 12

Next game: Jan. 21 at Boone

12. Grundy Center (12-0)

Previous rank: 13

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. South Hardin

13. Council Bluffs Lincoln (10-0)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 20 vs. Gretna

14. Western Christian (11-2)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 20 vs. Remsen St. Mary’s

15. Storm Lake (9-1)

Previous rank: Not ranked

Next game: Jan. 21 vs. Spirit Lake

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Iowa

Kim Reynolds offers remedies, but her diagnosis of Iowa has holes | Opinion

Published

20 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Kim Reynolds offers remedies, but her diagnosis of Iowa has holes | Opinion

But so long as state government denies forms of health care and casts suspicions on members of certain demographics, efforts to sell Iowa will have a ceiling.

The Register’s editorial
| Des Moines Register

Iowa doesn’t have enough people. Job openings are too hard to fill, particularly ones for medical professionals. Child care options are scarce enough that some people who would like to work or work more choose not to.

Gov. Kim Reynolds and her Republican colleagues in the Legislature note those problems accurately. On Tuesday, the governor proposed a few innovative investments and policies to attack them. But the state’s GOP leaders aren’t articulating the entire picture of why there’s a shortage of people who want to live and work here. Specifically, they aren’t looking in the mirror.

It was no surprise that the governor’s sales pitch for the state focused on tax reductions and national rankings while omitting mention of laws that make people feel unwelcome or even endangered in Iowa — people who fear whether they can find adequate care during pregnancy in light of a strict ban on abortions. People who could face scrutiny based on their appearance under harsh immigration laws. People who see the state formally labeling information about their or their family members’ sexual orientations and gender identities inappropriate for schoolchildren.

It is indisputable that the state’s aggressive income tax reductions make living here more attractive. Pumping money into rural recruitment problems and chipping away at preschool and child care burdens would make a positive difference, too.

But so long as state government denies forms of health care, casts suspicions on members of certain demographics, and refuses to take meaningful action to protect the state’s soil and water, those efforts to sell Iowa will have a ceiling.

Policy ideas range from terrible to adequate

Many of Reynolds’ policy proposals during her annual address to lawmakers were less sweeping than the “flat tax” or “school choice” unveilings of previous years, but their potential impact on the state is still great. A few highlights, and lowlights, deserve notice:

MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS: Reynolds insists that now is the time to try again on a bad and tired idea: requiring some prospective Medicaid recipients to work in order to receive health care coverage. Or, to put it another way, putting obstacles between health insurance and a small, small slice of low-income Medicaid recipients (those who are not children or retired or disabled or already working). Or, to put it another way, creating a costly new apparatus of bureaucratic red tape using money that could instead pay for needed care for Iowans. This popular Republican idea has progressed furthest in Arkansas and Georgia, and neither state’s experience is in the least encouraging. Georgia’s rules have not led to increased employment, which is, you know, the point.
NUCLEAR ENERGY: Reynolds said she’d set up a task force to explore bringing nuclear power generation back to Iowa. A robust debate on this topic over a decade ago ended with MidAmerican Energy declining to pursue the idea beyond a study. Reynolds is correct that the massive electrical demands of data centers, especially for artificial intelligence, counsels an open-minded look at the state’s energy mix.
CANCER RESEARCH: Iowa’s cancer statistics are among the nation’s worst, and Reynolds says she wants to spend $1 million to launch a new research team to better understand what’s happening. That’s a start, to be sure. Almost no investment would be too much, and the task force should have freedom to investigate and deliver, if necessary, unpleasant answers or hypotheses about what contributes to cancer in Iowa.
GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: Nobody is against government efficiency. Reynolds’ remarks about copying the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency weren’t particularly amusing to people like Democratic state Sen. Zach Wahls, who sarcastically and correctly wrote on X about Reynolds “inventing” … the office of state auditor, the real-life version of which the Legislature keeps kneecapping.
ATTRACTING MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS, IMPROVING CHILD CARE: Reynolds’ overall state budget proposal would increase spending 5.4% over the current year, with tax revenue continuing to fall. Large chunks of new money will go to educating savings accounts for private school students and to cover a projected $174 Medicaid shortfall. Reynolds also says Iowa should put millions of dollars into projects to bring more physicians and nurses to rural Iowa and to fill gaps parents face in managing preschool and child care. Those are solid proposals, though a bigger and better swing would be expanding state-paid universal preschool to full days for 4-year-olds and at least some subsidy for 3-year-olds.

Iowa has reasons to be proud and to stay, and reasons to run away

Reynolds opened her address by taking a deserved victory lap for state and local government success in 2024: responding meaningfully to natural disasters and providing for recovery and implementing her far-reaching state government reorganization. Iowa does have plenty to be proud of, plenty of reasons to stay, plenty of reasons to come. The governor and the Legislature need to realize that they have also given people reasons to flee. Until that changes, they aren’t doing all they can to solve Iowa’s worker shortages.

Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board

This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register’s editorial board: Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.

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