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Iowa creates plan to reduce pollution due to agricultural run-off
Sep. 15, 2014
During the last week in August attention to the issue of water quality and the need to reduce the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus from entering US waterways moved from Ohio and the Chesapeake Bay to Iowa and its contribution to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. On Monday, August 25, 2014, the Iowa Soybean Association, the Iowa Corn Growers Association, and the Iowa Pork Producers Association announced the formation of the Iowa Agricultural Water Alliance.
According to their website, “the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance is a nonprofit organization committed to advancing the success of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy by increasing farmer awareness of the initiative and their adoption of science-based practices proven to have quantifiable environmental benefits.”
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy was developed as Iowa’s response to the 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Plan that called for the states bordering the Mississippi River to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus reaching the gulf by at least 45 percent. The strategy was prepared by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and released in May 2013.
The Strategy is not limited to agriculture but includes elements to deal with both point and nonpoint sources of pollution. In Iowa the point sources of nitrogen and phosphorus include 102 major municipal wastewater treatment plants and 28 industrial facilities. These facilities are required to obtain a discharge permit before they can release polluted water into Iowa’s waters.
“For the first time, discharge permits issued to these 130 facilities will require implementation of technically and economically feasible process changes for nutrient removal. These changes are designed to achieve targeted reductions of at least two-thirds in the amount of nitrogen and a three-fourths reduction in the amount of phosphorus from levels currently discharged by these facilities.
“If successful, this strategy will reduce by at least 11,000 tons per year the amount of nitrogen and 2,170 tons per year the amount of phosphorus discharged annually by municipal facilities alone. These figures represent a 4 percent reduction in nitrogen and a 16 percent reduction in phosphorus in the estimated statewide amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged to Iowa waters from both point and nonpoint sources.”
Source: University of Tennessee
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