And this nightmare is for what? To feed MORE cows, MORE pigs, make corn syrup to add to everything in a package in our grocery stores and to make ethanol. I feel like a lemming for the number of times in my lifetime I have just turned on the tap and assumed I was drinking fresh, clean, safe water.
Chris, you need a Superman cape. Iowa is seeming like a dark place and we need super heroes.
Incredibly 60% of corn grown in Iowa goes to ethanol.... i hope folks will stop using it. It Burns clean but it's incredibly dirty to produce.And of course , the growing of the corn adds a whole other element of dirty
Money, greed, and power have eroded the brains of some so bad that they think, if my investments are doing well, and I can go on three vacations a year( one a cruise,yipee! Big point source of ocean pollution) and my kids are not dead, yet, then nitrate levels in the very thing that keeps us alive are not something we need to be concerned about. It is no wonder they want AI, there is no more intelligence left in strains of Homo Sapien. I believe there are sub species of humans that have evolved with the creation of money that are incapable of reason and logic. The lemmings keep running off the cliff.
Chris calculates that 24 lb/acre of nitrate-nitrogen has gone down and out the the Cedar-Iowa River Basin already this year. That is in line with ISU data that indicate that an average of 30 lb/acre of nitrate leaches from the root zone of both corn and soybean production in Iowa every year.
Iowa grows three things: corn, soybeans, and cancer. Thanks for beating the drum again on a problem that should have been solved, had reasonable people led the state.
With all of the nitrates washing down the drain, so goes our precious topsoil. Estimates show we have 50-55 years of topsoil remaining before they begin applying nitrogen to sand. It will still grow corn, but the Gulf of American Betrayal will turn into the Black Sea of the Amercas. How do our neighbors to the South not scream in disgust? Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi AND Louisiana all are subject to the abuse. Maybe because with the exception of Andy Beshear of Kentucky all are very Red legislative bodies? Maybe the Democrats could get Chick Shumer to write a very strongly worded letter to Rob Sand to light a fire under his platform? Hail the Swine Republic, thanks Chris
Chris - I agree with nearly everything in your article, with one subtle but important exception. TMDLs don’t go away when a waterbody gets delisted or even if it begins to meet WQS. TMDLs are permanent and are intended to ensure the system doesn’t backslide into an impaired condition. They become, in effect, protection TMDLs. So if one was so inclined they could still object to, and even challenge in court, any new NPDES permit issued in one of those watersheds if it “causes or contributes” to the water being impaired again. This is a subtlety of the CWA regulation that few know or understand and of course you’ll never hear of anyone in authority at DNR stand tall and do the right thing if no one from the outside speaks up.
That is part of the farce about what DNR is trying to do. TMDLs are permanent handcuffs and they hate that. That is why what they really wanted to do in the Cedar River was declare the TMDL defective so they could delete it and then drag their feet for decades before they rewrote it. In fact, it is my understanding they never were successful at getting EPA to agree to let them delete it or even rewrite it. I made sure there was enough of a public record at the time with EPA to ensure that was a bridge too far.
"I made sure there was enough of a public record at the time with EPA to ensure that was a bridge too far."
Thank you. Some defenders of Iowa waters will never get the public recognition they deserve. I know a few of them. But their/your valuable work is appreciated, and it matters so much.
Thanks, Chris, for heeding the call and supplying information to the rest of us so we can continue to advocate knowledgeably. I'm sure it's a test of your fortitude and patience but please keep pushing. (And know that for every compliment that you hear, there are 100 others that are expressed but never reach you!)
As a new resident of Iowa City, I intend to ask City Officials why they never objected to this obviously deadly affair! As Phony Joni said, “we’re all going to die.” In this case it’s babies 👶
Also asking MAGAT Repugs, “When did you stop 🛑 following the teachings of Jesus???”
Environmental protection and regulation are declining rapidly under the current regime - removing as many "barriers" as possible to the profit driven exploitation of . . . well . . . everything. Human and ecosystem health are literally being sold down the river.
As Judy Bonds once famously said, "There are no jobs on a dead planet." We need a GDP with its first principle being a healthy planet for ALL of life.
We probably are not going to see that from a bipedal mammal that sees a golf course as the pinnacle of nature and biodiversity.
I think too many people believe the DNR is just something that provides fancy license plates, operates campgrounds, identify trees, and lead bird walks.
what in the name of sanity is going on here? i used to think california was a tad over wrought with zealous restrictions on all things essential. i'm now guessing maybe we should also start leaning a little more to the cautious side instead of lyon throwing caution to the wind(into our rivers), great work once again young chris, keep up the righteous fight. and after we clean this state up, maybe just maybe we could turn the dead zone back into one of the worlds greatest marine estuaries again.
Consider how little authority is brought to bear against the life-jackings in a toxic-authoritarian nation. No guardsmen or sentinels posted at the life-gates. Such is the paradox of the dangers to life of "open-borders".
Chris, thanks for your sentinel citizenship, bringing much light to our state of industrial capture, with no state borders. The reach of capture spans wide across the vast corn horizons. All our lives un-shielded from their big loads, widely spread and "lost" to the world at no cost to the spreaders upstream. Such is life as it sucks in the state of capture. Thanks for your citizen-sentinel protest about this! Asinine Swine Republic it is!
Thank you, Chris. Your work is not only highly informative, infuriating, and entertaining (in a darkly amusing way), but also motivating. After reading this post, I spent two hours doing some amateur informal water education, including a letter to an editor. I'm sure you inspire other readers to do water work also.
Of course my motivation also sometimes comes from weird water statements like the one by Senator Ken Rozenboom in the DES MOINES REGISTER today. But it feels so much better to be motivated and inspired by water sanity, and when it comes to water, this blog is one of the brightest sanest lights in Iowa.
For years, there has been a split between urban and rural politics in Iowa. In recent years, there has been open antagonism to the more Democratic cities in Iowa and their needs. Thus, I am not surprised DNR would not pay much heed to Cedar Rapids problems.
Of course, DNR does nothing to help with water quality in rural Iowa.
Chris, I realize how exhausting it must be for you continuing to provide us "out here" with relevant, factual, easy to understand information that is SO BADLY NEEDED!
Hope you are able to "get out of the game" once in awhile and stay rested...we all need ya badly on this subject in the fourth quarter.
- Let us know if you'd consider that Ag Secretary run...I believe we could get you in there.
- Fire in the belly, the sign of a true champion Chris, thx, john
And this nightmare is for what? To feed MORE cows, MORE pigs, make corn syrup to add to everything in a package in our grocery stores and to make ethanol. I feel like a lemming for the number of times in my lifetime I have just turned on the tap and assumed I was drinking fresh, clean, safe water.
Chris, you need a Superman cape. Iowa is seeming like a dark place and we need super heroes.
Incredibly 60% of corn grown in Iowa goes to ethanol.... i hope folks will stop using it. It Burns clean but it's incredibly dirty to produce.And of course , the growing of the corn adds a whole other element of dirty
Money, greed, and power have eroded the brains of some so bad that they think, if my investments are doing well, and I can go on three vacations a year( one a cruise,yipee! Big point source of ocean pollution) and my kids are not dead, yet, then nitrate levels in the very thing that keeps us alive are not something we need to be concerned about. It is no wonder they want AI, there is no more intelligence left in strains of Homo Sapien. I believe there are sub species of humans that have evolved with the creation of money that are incapable of reason and logic. The lemmings keep running off the cliff.
Chris calculates that 24 lb/acre of nitrate-nitrogen has gone down and out the the Cedar-Iowa River Basin already this year. That is in line with ISU data that indicate that an average of 30 lb/acre of nitrate leaches from the root zone of both corn and soybean production in Iowa every year.
Iowa grows three things: corn, soybeans, and cancer. Thanks for beating the drum again on a problem that should have been solved, had reasonable people led the state.
With all of the nitrates washing down the drain, so goes our precious topsoil. Estimates show we have 50-55 years of topsoil remaining before they begin applying nitrogen to sand. It will still grow corn, but the Gulf of American Betrayal will turn into the Black Sea of the Amercas. How do our neighbors to the South not scream in disgust? Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi AND Louisiana all are subject to the abuse. Maybe because with the exception of Andy Beshear of Kentucky all are very Red legislative bodies? Maybe the Democrats could get Chick Shumer to write a very strongly worded letter to Rob Sand to light a fire under his platform? Hail the Swine Republic, thanks Chris
Chris - I agree with nearly everything in your article, with one subtle but important exception. TMDLs don’t go away when a waterbody gets delisted or even if it begins to meet WQS. TMDLs are permanent and are intended to ensure the system doesn’t backslide into an impaired condition. They become, in effect, protection TMDLs. So if one was so inclined they could still object to, and even challenge in court, any new NPDES permit issued in one of those watersheds if it “causes or contributes” to the water being impaired again. This is a subtlety of the CWA regulation that few know or understand and of course you’ll never hear of anyone in authority at DNR stand tall and do the right thing if no one from the outside speaks up.
That is part of the farce about what DNR is trying to do. TMDLs are permanent handcuffs and they hate that. That is why what they really wanted to do in the Cedar River was declare the TMDL defective so they could delete it and then drag their feet for decades before they rewrote it. In fact, it is my understanding they never were successful at getting EPA to agree to let them delete it or even rewrite it. I made sure there was enough of a public record at the time with EPA to ensure that was a bridge too far.
"I made sure there was enough of a public record at the time with EPA to ensure that was a bridge too far."
Thank you. Some defenders of Iowa waters will never get the public recognition they deserve. I know a few of them. But their/your valuable work is appreciated, and it matters so much.
Thanks, Chris, for heeding the call and supplying information to the rest of us so we can continue to advocate knowledgeably. I'm sure it's a test of your fortitude and patience but please keep pushing. (And know that for every compliment that you hear, there are 100 others that are expressed but never reach you!)
As a new resident of Iowa City, I intend to ask City Officials why they never objected to this obviously deadly affair! As Phony Joni said, “we’re all going to die.” In this case it’s babies 👶
Also asking MAGAT Repugs, “When did you stop 🛑 following the teachings of Jesus???”
Thanks, Chris, for your words of wisdom!
Thanks as always Chris!
Environmental protection and regulation are declining rapidly under the current regime - removing as many "barriers" as possible to the profit driven exploitation of . . . well . . . everything. Human and ecosystem health are literally being sold down the river.
As Judy Bonds once famously said, "There are no jobs on a dead planet." We need a GDP with its first principle being a healthy planet for ALL of life.
We probably are not going to see that from a bipedal mammal that sees a golf course as the pinnacle of nature and biodiversity.
I think too many people believe the DNR is just something that provides fancy license plates, operates campgrounds, identify trees, and lead bird walks.
what in the name of sanity is going on here? i used to think california was a tad over wrought with zealous restrictions on all things essential. i'm now guessing maybe we should also start leaning a little more to the cautious side instead of lyon throwing caution to the wind(into our rivers), great work once again young chris, keep up the righteous fight. and after we clean this state up, maybe just maybe we could turn the dead zone back into one of the worlds greatest marine estuaries again.
Consider how little authority is brought to bear against the life-jackings in a toxic-authoritarian nation. No guardsmen or sentinels posted at the life-gates. Such is the paradox of the dangers to life of "open-borders".
Chris, thanks for your sentinel citizenship, bringing much light to our state of industrial capture, with no state borders. The reach of capture spans wide across the vast corn horizons. All our lives un-shielded from their big loads, widely spread and "lost" to the world at no cost to the spreaders upstream. Such is life as it sucks in the state of capture. Thanks for your citizen-sentinel protest about this! Asinine Swine Republic it is!
Thank you, Chris. Your work is not only highly informative, infuriating, and entertaining (in a darkly amusing way), but also motivating. After reading this post, I spent two hours doing some amateur informal water education, including a letter to an editor. I'm sure you inspire other readers to do water work also.
Of course my motivation also sometimes comes from weird water statements like the one by Senator Ken Rozenboom in the DES MOINES REGISTER today. But it feels so much better to be motivated and inspired by water sanity, and when it comes to water, this blog is one of the brightest sanest lights in Iowa.
Thank you Cindy!
For years, there has been a split between urban and rural politics in Iowa. In recent years, there has been open antagonism to the more Democratic cities in Iowa and their needs. Thus, I am not surprised DNR would not pay much heed to Cedar Rapids problems.
Of course, DNR does nothing to help with water quality in rural Iowa.
For immediate news release
Persons living in contaminated nitrate watershed areas have perished. No comment from those responsible.
Chris, I realize how exhausting it must be for you continuing to provide us "out here" with relevant, factual, easy to understand information that is SO BADLY NEEDED!
Hope you are able to "get out of the game" once in awhile and stay rested...we all need ya badly on this subject in the fourth quarter.
- Let us know if you'd consider that Ag Secretary run...I believe we could get you in there.
- Fire in the belly, the sign of a true champion Chris, thx, john