Iowa clean Water act

I received this email and wanted to pass it on

Quote:

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Dear friend of Clean Water,

The next two months may be critical to the future of clean water for Iowans. Your quick action can prevent pollution from being dumped into rivers and streams that are used for recreation and drinking water.

In January the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) approved Clean Water rules that mark a new commitment to make our rivers and streams safe and healthy for recreation and for fish and other aquatic life.

But now the DNR’s Clean Water rules are in danger. Opponents are telling our legislators that Clean Water will cost too much and that we must accept dirty water as a fact of life in Iowa. We disagree. We believe most Iowans want clean water and expect stronger laws to protect this precious resource.

We urge you to take action yourself AND to urge 2 or 3 friends or family to take action also. Spread the word! Together we will create a WAVE of public support for clean water that will sweep through the state.

Please tell your legislators how you feel. They will decide the fate of the DNR Clean Water rules in the next few weeks. Tell legislators:

– You want clean water NOW! Ask them if they really support dirty water, especially untreated human waste entering our streams.

– You support the DNR’s Clean Water rules, and oppose any legislation that would block or weaken these rules.

– Any legislation should focus on providing financial aid or technical assistance to help communities and businesses reduce pollution and meet the Clean Water rules. The DNR rules should not be overridden.

– It is time for Iowa to follow the federal Clean Water Act that requires all waters of the nation to be safe for recreation and aquatic life.

To find your legislators and to get information on how to contact them, go to:

http://www.legis.state.ia.us/FindLeg/

For more information:

Visit the Iowa Environmental Council website at http://www.iaenvironment.org or contact:

Susan Heathcote at the Iowa Environmental Council 515-244-1195 [email protected]

Adam Schnieders at the Iowa DNR 515-281-7409 [email protected]

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Thank you for posting this. In an earlier thread were discussing a noticed drop in the smallmouth pop. on the Cedar around Waterloo, I think this will help in reversing that.

This will definitly help the smallmouths. I noticed a huge decrease in the pop. over 1 years time. Worst part is it seems all of the bigger fish are the ones that died off, at least up this way.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misunderstanding about this topic. This proposed action will do very little to reduce pollution in Iowa streams and rivers. One of the main intents of this is to clamp down on municipal wastewater treatment plants and require stricter discharge limits. This is all fine, but well over 95 percent of stream and river pollution is from agricultural sources. The IDNR has admitted this, but they have no control over agricultural practices, so believe they can impose their will on the cities, whom they do have control over. Many of these cities have relatively new treatment plants which do a very good job and discharge a safe effluent, however with the new discharge limits, these cities will be required to spend hundreds of thousands (or more) of dollars (our tax dollars) to upgrade their plants, all for little or no actual value to the aquatic life in the receiving streams. I am sure the poster of this thread has good intentions, but this proposal does not deserve our support. Instead, lets voice our opinions on the true source of the stream pollution and get some regulations on agricultural practices. I am as concerned about stream pollution as anyone, as I have caught thousands of smallmouth bass from the Cedar River and want to continue to do so for a very long time. This proposal by our state government is just not the answer.

you are right about the the runoff from farming, but this can be a step toward that direction, My understanding is IA should get federal money for passing this bill. I agree that this isn’t and end all, just a start. If more farmers would follow what farmers in NE IA did it would be a tremendus help. either way the links are there for everyone to talk to our legislators about all water quality issues.