Study details Iowa waterway pollution concerns

DES MOINES – Environment groups that studied the federal government's toxic release inventory issued a report Thursday indicating that industrial facilities discharged – both legally and illegally - more than 6.2 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Iowa's waterways in 2010.

“Iowa's waterways are embarrassingly polluted right now,” said Samantha Chadwick, a preservation advocate with Environment Iowa - which co-authored the 2012 report with the Frontier Group.”Our waterways shouldn't be industry's dumping ground. Our rivers are too important to the health of the state and for our quality of life.”

According to the report, Iowa ranked 15th in the nation for waterway discharges. Nationally, about 226 million pounds of toxic chemicals were discharged into 1,400 waterways, data indicated in the report called “Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act” (available online)

The report, which Environment Iowa issued at an Izaak Walton League facility near the Raccoon River, summarizes discharges of cancer-causing chemicals, chemicals that persist in the environment, and chemicals with the potential to cause reproductive problems ranging from birth defects to reduced fertility. Among the toxic chemicals discharged by facilities are arsenic, mercury, and benzene.

According to the groups' analysis of federal data, the Mississippi River ranked second for total toxic discharges nationally, with 1,874,430 pounds of toxic materials released in Iowa and overall 12.7 million pounds dumped from facilities all along its course through 10 U.S. states. The Beaver Channel, which runs through Clinton along the Mississippi River, was ranked 39th in the country with 6,912 pounds of cancer-causing chemicals that were discharged – much from industrial operations processing food, chemical, and other products in the area, according to the report's authors.

The Missouri River ranked seventh nationally with nearly 4.9 million pounds released from the five U.S. states through which it flows – including 104,311 pounds discharged in Iowa.

The Des Moines River ranked second in Iowa for toxic releases with 1,140,998 pounds, followed by the Iowa River with 981,225 pounds, the Cedar River with 721,163 pounds, the Raccoon River with 384,042 pounds, Silver Creek with 364,758 pounds, and Hecker Creek with 340,668 pounds.

Overall, there were 47 Iowa waterways where some level of discharge was reported in the 2010 toxic release inventory data. Three of Iowa's watersheds ranked in top 30 for most polluted in the nation -- the Blackbird-Soldier watershed along the Nebraska border ranked sixth with 4.7 million pounds, the Flint-Henderson watershed along the border with Illinois ranked 27th with 1.8 million pounds, and the Lower Iowa watershed, which includes Iowa City, was 30th with 1.7 million pounds, according to the report.

Jerry Peckum, a Greene County corn and soybean farmer who serves as board chairman for the Iowa Rivers Revival group, said farmers need to be more responsible in preventing nutrients that grow fish-choking algae, polluting pesticides and valuable topsoil from fouling Iowa waterways. He said it likely will require a mix of voluntary action and government regulations achieve.

“We know the standards and rules are far too weak,” he said. “It is time we all accept responsibility, work to find solutions and accept the standards and rules that we must have to achieve the goals of clean water envisioned in the Clean Water Act enacted more than 40 years ago.”

Peckum said he was disappointed that clean water wasn't a topic “that the Legislature has cared to deal with” this session.

Steve Roe, president of the Raccoon River Watershed Association, called the discharge levels “frightening” in urging more investment in processes and systems to clean up water that would have a two-fold benefit of creating jobs and improving the environment. “We need to put those two together and make it profitable for companies not to pollute rather than dump easily into our rivers that cause problems that create terrible expenses and terrible health consequences for the public,” he said.

Chadwick urged industries to voluntarily switch from using toxic chemicals to safer alternatives in their production processes. She also advocated for strict enforcement of the Clean Water Act and issuing permits with tough numeric limits for each type of toxic pollutant being discharged into waterways. Also, she urged the Obama administration to finalize guidelines and conduct a rulemaking to clarify that the Clean Water Act applies to all waterways -- including the 44,432 miles of streams and drinking water systems in Iowa.