By Jared Strong
A mature body of research to reduce farm pollution and land degradation — combined with state and federal funding and guidance to implement practices — will lead to improved conservation for years to come, according to Mike Naig. , the state’s agriculture secretary.
“We’re turning the page,” Naig told a gathering at the Farm Progress Show on Tuesday.
He estimates that in the next three years, Iowa farmers will implement more bioreactors and saturated buffers on the edges of their fields to reduce water pollution from fertilizers “than we’ve built so far.”
Although research has long pointed to plant fertilizers as a significant pollutant in the state’s waterways — and a significant contributor to an area of the Gulf Coast largely devoid of aquatic life — there is resistance. the idea that the farmers are to blame.
That idea was openly debated in 2015 when Des Moines Water Works — the supplier of drinking water to more than half a million people in central Iowa — sued three northwest Iowa counties for nitrate that leaches from the farm into the Raccoon River, is a major source. of drinking water for utility.
Northwest Iowa historically consisted of flat, water-soaked land that is now drained by a vast network of underground pipes that flow into waterways. The new tile lines are still being installed.
They are important in producing the highest yield of crops in those fields, but they are also a direct channel of fertilizer to the rivers of the state.
In a novel legal argument that ultimately failed in federal court, the Des Moines Water Works argued that drainage districts should be regulated in the same way as “point source” polluters such as in waste treatment plants and others. The lawsuit has sparked outrage from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation – which has called the litigation “un-Iowan” – and pushback from farmers who claim that nitrate is a natural substance in the soil and that it’s impossible to tell. whether fertilizers are the cause. .
Adding to the confusion: Pronounced contamination of the Raccoon River depends on heavy rainfall. Des Moines Water Works was forced to activate its nitrate removal system this year for the first time in five years after a very wet spring.
Babies who drink water with high nitrate levels are at risk of having reduced oxygen in their blood. Fertilizer also feeds toxic blue-green algae blooms in lakes and ponds that pose a health hazard to swimmers.
Environmental groups are critical of voluntary state pollution control efforts
“The ‘natural’ nitrate argument is intellectually dishonest and continues to be pushed by big corporations to distract from the real solutions Iowa needs to address our water quality issues,” Alicia said. Vasto, water program director for the Iowa Environmental Council.
The council is a prominent advocacy group that recently released a critical report on the state’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy, a 9-year plan that relies on the voluntary cooperation of farmers to reduce fertilizer use. Based on current progress, the report estimates that the strategy will take more than 22,000 years to achieve some of its goals.
“For decades, Iowa has relied on voluntary and publicly funded conservation measures to achieve nitrogen and phosphorus reduction in our state’s waterways,” Vasto said. “Those voluntary measures are not enough.”
Government officials, farmers opposed the order
But that’s the path taken so far by state and federal officials who are reluctant to impose orders on behalf of farmers. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said this week that voluntary measures are better than government mandates.
“Maybe it’s a slower process than most people would like, but from a farmer’s perspective, I’m risking my ability to stay in business if I make bad decisions,” he said. Roger Zylstra, a Jasper County farmer who has served on the Iowa Corn Promotion Board for more than 40 years and hosted a discussion about soil and water quality on the Farm Progress Show.
He said that the conservation methods promoted by the state’s voluntary strategy were adopted by many farmers because they were improved by the early adopters with the support of the state. He said farmers are now more aware of the effects of fertilizer on water quality and the economic benefits of certain practices.
Recent progress on the strategy is difficult to quantify because an annual report has not been issued by the state since 2019. Instead, that information will be published in online dashboards that are under development. , said Don McDowell, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Management. He said the dashboards will be updated later this year.
“Iowans deserve more transparency on what we’re doing, and why we’re not moving forward faster,” said Michael Schmidt, staff attorney for the Iowa Environmental Council.
Advocates, academics point to excessive use of fertilizer
Schmidt noted that there was little change in farmers’ attitudes to the Nutrient Reduction Strategy in the last published report. According to him the reduction in the use of fertilizers has an immediate effect on the environment. It is also appropriate to reduce the cost of the farmers, especially now that the price of fertilizer is high.
Mike Castellano, an agronomy professor at Iowa State University, said Tuesday that research shows there is an ideal amount of fertilizer that can be applied to farms to maximize crop productivity and maintain healthy soil. Too much fertilizer can lead to less plant root growth, which in turn can lead to reduced soil carbon, he said. He called fertilization “an economic loss but also an environmental cost.”
However, some farmers still do it, to ensure the highest yield of the crop. A northern Iowa farmer was recently fined by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for spreading too much fertilizer on his fields for years.
Naig credits the growing number of wetlands being built in Iowa to filter fertilizers from water before it reaches rivers. He said the production of bioreactors – which are usually trenches filled with wood chips and occupy less space than wetlands – is set to intensify.
He said Tuesday that cover crops are now planted on nearly 3 million acres of land in Iowa. That’s a dramatic increase over the past decade but only accounts for about 13% of total cropland and only a quarter of the state’s goal.
Naig, a Republican, is being challenged in the November election by John Norwood, a Democrat, who wants the state to move faster to improve water quality and cut soil erosion. Norwood describes the Nutrient Reduction Strategy as “a strategy in name only.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a network of similar news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.