For months, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has stalled on signing a work plan agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin cracking down on factory farm pollution.
We’ve always suspected Governor Branstad and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation were behind the delay, and now we have proof.
News broke this week about a letter Branstad sent to EPA headquarters in Washington D.C. on May 20, proudly proclaiming his opposition to Clean Water Act enforcement and demanding a meeting between the governor’s staff, state and federal regulators, and agribusiness leaders here in Iowa.
Branstad doesn’t say which business leaders he’s thinking of, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario that doesn’t include the Farm Bureau – the largest big-money corporate ag lobby group in the state.
We know they are also involved because the same cache of FOIA documents includes correspondence between DNR Director Chuck Gipp and Christina Gruenhagen, one of the Farm Bureau’s chief lobbyists. They mark up all kinds of objections to EPA’s oversight proposals, many of which appear to have been incorporated in later drafts of the work plan.
Gruenhagen was also quoted in a March 15 Wall Street Journal story titled “Livestock waste lands Iowa in hot water”, and her stated objections are nearly identical to the same arguments Branstad made in his May 20 letter to the EPA, specifically opposing inspections for factory farms large enough to require a Manure Management Plan.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. But it will take a mass movement of everyday people and hardworking families to force Branstad to clean up it up – clean up our water of factory farm pollution, and clean up our state government of corporate corruption.
That’s just what Iowa CCI members plan to do.
Click here to read a press release detailing Governor Branstad’s letter.
You can view Governor Branstad’s letters here, here, here, here, and here.
Join the Fight!
Help make the message clear – Governor Branstad and Iowa DNR Director Gipp must sign a workplan to bring Iowa into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act.
2013 is shaping up to be another record-breaking year in the fightback against factory farming and for clean water. Already, we’ve seen the corporate ag industry push bad bills at the statehouse, setting our state up for another influx of corporate hog manure. We need your help in fighting back, and here are five easy ways you can join the fight:
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