Iowa State Sen. David Johnson this week introduced a suite of 15 bills that would together increase oversight of animal confinement operations in the state. Sen. Johnson, an independent from Ocheyeden, is calling for a moratorium on building or expanding concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, until the state’s water quality improves, reports the Des Moines Register. The move is supported by local environmental groups and follows complaints from about 20 Iowa counties about how confinement operations are regulated.
The state’s number of contaminated waterways reached 750 in 2014. Contaminants include heavy loads of bacteria, nitrogen, and other nutrients that wash into waterways as a result of nearby animal agriculture. Iowa residents have called for more stringent regulations around where CAFOs are located. Sen. Johnson’s bills intend to give local residents more control over those decisions, and to increase the distance required between large-scale operations and their neighbors. Under his legislation, the moratorium would not be lifted until the number of contaminated waterways falls to fewer than 100.
The Iowa Pork Producers Association does not support the bills, and contends that Iowa’s pork industry is already heavily regulated. Several other states have seen regulatory battles over agriculture-related waterway pollution, including Washington, Maryland, and North Carolina.