Water Quality

• SIERRA CLUB WINS SUPREME BEEF LAWSUIT

• Nutrient Reduction Strategy: Happy 10th Birthday; We’re Removing the Water Sensors

Protecting the Environment

• PHMSA Carbon Pipeline Safety Meeting to Be Held In Des Moines May 31 to June 1

• Interim nuclear waste storage site approved - Iowa to be primary shipping corridor

• Legislative update

Climate Change

• End Coal Pollution that is Driving Asthma Cases

• Utilities Board Acts to Protect Customers From Risks Posed by MidAmerican’s Wind PRIME Proposal

• 3 Cities Seek Climate Planning Grants

Plus

• Join us for interesting and informative Lunch and Learns

• Contribute to the Iowa Chapter

• Volunteer for the Iowa Chapter

• Calendar of events

• To see the archive of previous Iowa Chapter newsletters

• To see the White Pine Needle newsletter

 SIERRA CLUB WINS SUPREME BEEF LAWSUIT

A Polk County District Court judge ruled that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) improperly approved Supreme Beef’s nutrient management plan.  The nutrient management plan is a document that lays out the amount of manure that can be applied to crop fields and identifies those fields, so that the manure can be used by the crops and will not run off the fields into water bodies.

Supreme Beef LLC is a beef cattle feeding operation in Clayton County, housing 11,600 animals.  It operates as an open feedlot because the animals are housed in an unroofed or partially roofed area. DNR regulations say that if the animals are housed in a building that is at least 10% unroofed, it is an open feedlot. In the case of Supreme Beef, the 10% unroofed portion is the feed bunk. So the animals stick their heads out of the buildings to eat.  The cattle never leave the buildings to go outdoors.

Supreme Beef sits near the headwaters of Bloody Run Creek, one of the most treasured trout streams in Iowa.  It is also designated as an Outstanding Iowa Water.

From the very beginning, the Department of Natural Resources had to contort its rules in order to approve the Supreme Beef nutrient management plan.  The net result was that the nutrient management plan allows too much manure to be applied to the crop fields, which will put the trout stream at risk of being polluted by manure runoff.

Now that the Polk County judge has ruled that the DNR improperly approved the nutrient management plan, it is up to the DNR to require Supreme Beef to resubmit a new plan.  Furthermore, the DNR told Supreme Beef that it cannot remove any manure from its storage basins until a new nutrient management plan has been approved.

Regardless of the next steps, the Sierra Club will be there for the duration.

Photo of Bloody Run Creek by Larry Stone.

 Nutrient Reduction Strategy: Happy 10th Birthday; We’re Removing the Water Sensors

In May, 2013, Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy was rolled out.  Now, 10 years later, the Iowa legislators passed, on a party-line vote, an appropriations bill that removed the funding for the network of sensors that measured the nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus – in Iowa’s rivers and streams.  The amount of funding was $500,000.

The goal of the nutrient reduction strategy was that Iowa would reduce its annual contribution of nutrients transported to the Gulf of Mexico by 45 percent.  It is significant to note that Iowa’s goal does not set a timeline for reducing the nutrients. 

Dr. Christopher Jones was responsible for the network of 66 sensors that monitored the presence of nutrients in rivers and streams across that state, as part of his job at the University of Iowa.  The sensors told an inconvenient truth.  Iowa is not doing very well in reducing nutrients flowing in the rivers and streams of the state.  Unfortunately, according to Dr. Jones’ research, “nitrate loss in Iowa has increased more than 70 percent since 2003.” [1]  The source of the nutrients is runoff from farm fields, mostly from the over-application of fertilizer and manure to those fields.  Where there is more fertilizer and manure on the fields than the crops can use, the excess runs off of the fields and into the nearby waterbodies.

Furthermore, the annual reporting about Iowa’s so-called success in implementing the nutrient reduction strategy has ceased.  In a collaborative effort, Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources published a document called “Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy Annual Progress Report”.  This report first was issued with the 2013-2014 report, with the final report issued for 2018-2019.  Data collected by water sensors was part of the annual reporting.

The taxpayers have already spent money on nutrient reduction.  Tracking levels of nutrients in waterbodies is a means of determining the effectiveness of the strategies in reducing the pollutants.  Without the network of sensors and without the annual reports, the citizens of Iowa are left in the dark about the nutrient reduction strategy.  Perhaps, this is willful blindness that the legislators intended.

The state clearly has enough money to pay for the network of real-time sensors, with almost 4 billion dollars sitting in the taxpayer relief fund and all of the state’s rainy day funds filled to the limits.

It is not an accident that Iowa’ rivers, streams, and lakes are polluted.  Iowa’s elected officials have not invested in efforts to truly reduce the nutrients in Iowa’s waters.  The action by the legislature continues this lack of investment by removing a reliable set of statistics that point to how polluted our water really is.

And now the backstory of removing the water sensors

Dr. Christopher Jones was a research engineer for IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa.  His research focused on water quality and agriculture, water monitoring, and nutrient and sediment transport – all important scientific pieces related to nutrients entering Iowa’s waterbodies.

Additionally, he authored a blog about water quality issues.  It was laced with humor, insight, creative representation of data, and pointing at the source of Iowa’s water quality issues.  It was read far and wide.  And some of the readers were upset at how candid Dr. Jones was.  As the story unfolded, State Senator Dan Zumbach and State Senator Tom Shipley went to the university’s lobbyist and complained about the blog, and laid out threats about university funding.  This led to higher-ups at the University pressuring Dr. Jones to discontinue his blog on April 2.  He then put in his notice to leave the University.

That still did not resolve Senator Zumbach’s and Senator Shipley’s anger.  The next step was to remove the funding for the network of sensors.  The Republican majority completed that task in May during this legislative session.

This is not the first time that Senator Zumbach has thrown his weight around with respect to polluting versus protecting Iowa’s waterbodies from manure.  Senator Zumbach went to Kayla Lyon, the head of the Department of Natural Resources, and insisted that the Department approve a manure management plan for his son-in-law’s Supreme Beef cattle confinement near the Bloody Run Creek trout stream in Clayton County.  This resulting manure management plan would have put the trout stream at risk.  Sierra Club recently won a court case that is forcing the DNR to modify the manure management plan, to better protect the trout stream.

Two of the water sensors were placed on Bloody Run Creek.  Dr. Jones has blogged about the risks Supreme Beef places on Bloody Run Creek.

What you can do

Each and every one of us need to demand that the legislators restore funding for the network of sensors that track nutrient pollution in Iowa’s water bodies.  More importantly, we need to expand the sensor network.  Then we need to get serious about reducing the pollution.

Sources

Robert Leonard, “Iowa Water Quality Monitoring in Peril - A conversation with Dr. Chris Jones”, Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Substack, April 28, 2023

Todd Dorman, “Sensors indicate another attack on environment”, The Gazette, April 30, 2023

Todd Dorman, “Our leaders have failed on water quality”, The Gazette, May 14, 2023

Erin Jordan, “Senate OKs budget that may cut water sensors”, The Gazette, April 27, 2023

Randy Evan’s “Keeping Iowa in the dark on water quality is not acceptable”, Bleeding Heartland, May 2, 2023

Todd Dorman, “Pressure washes away water blog”, The Gazette, May 2, 2023

Jared Strong, “University of Iowa researcher says senators sought to silence him with funding threat”, Iowa Capital Dispatch, May 3, 2023

Christopher S. Jones, “Elephants in the room”, The Gazette Iowa Ideas, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, August 25, 2019

For the Nutrient Reduction Strategy materials, see www.nutrientstrategy.iastate.edu/documents and

https://nrstracking.cals.iastate.edu/

Footnotes

[1] Christopher S. Jones, “Elephants in the room”, The Gazette Iowa Ideas, August 25, 2019

Photo below is Bloody Run Creek, by Pam Mackey Taylor.

PHMSA Carbon Pipeline Safety Meeting to Be Held In Des Moines

Show up to help stop the carbon pipelines!

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is holding a carbon pipeline safety meeting in Des Moines on May 31- June 1 to gather input from the public to new safety rules.  We need to make it loud and clear that there should be a moratorium on all carbon pipeline projects until the safety rules are complete and we need the strongest rules possible. 

In February 2020, a carbon pipeline in Satartia, Mississippi ruptured and sent a cloud of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) towards the town of Satartia.  Over 45 people were hospitalized and more than 300 were evacuated.  Some victims fell unconscious, others were “walking around like zombies” and some became stranded when their vehicles stopped working.  (Read the “Gassing of Satartia” article by Dan Zegart for an alarming account of what happened in Satartia.)

CO2 is a toxicant and an asphyxiant.  It is odorless and colorless. It is heavier than air so it displaces oxygen and travels to low-lying areas.  This is not the CO2 in your pop can or in the air you’re breathing right now (0.04% CO2 in the atmosphere).  The CO2 in carbon pipelines is over 98% pure and highly pressurized so the gas becomes a liquid.  If the pipeline ruptures, the liquid CO2 has a phase-change back into the gas form of CO2 causing a violent rupture. (Watch a test rupture of a carbon pipeline here.)

Carbon pipelines are dangerous.  They pose grave risks to our friends, neighbors and communities.  There are currently NO federal setback distances from carbon pipelines to homes, schools, hospitals, towns, and more.

After the rupture in Satartia, PHMSA did an investigation into what happened and issued its second largest civil penalty to Denbury, the pipeline company.  Heavy rains caused a landslide which caused a girth weld to fail in the pipeline.  PHMSA found three general areas of wrongdoing - all things that could happen right here in Iowa.

• An inadequate geohazard (shifting earth) detection and mitigation
• Inadequate communications by Denbury to local first responders before and during the rupture
• Use of an inadequate computer model which incorrectly predicted that a rupture of Denbury’s pipeline would not put Satartia at risk

PHMSA also determined that they need safety rules for carbon pipelines.  That’s why they are holding this carbon pipeline safety public meeting here in Des Moines on May 31 and June 1.  They want to hear from you and from experts about the risks posed by carbon pipelines.

Summit, Navigator and Wolf are trying to build over 1,780 miles of carbon pipelines in nearly every corner of Iowa.  Their pipeline routes go right into our communities, within 300 feet of peoples’ homes, and eerily close to schools. They want to get their pipelines approved before PHMSA issues any safety rules. 

Right now 6 counties have put zoning ordinances in place to keep the carbon pipelines away from schools, hospitals, homes, city limits, etc.  (11 more counties are considering ordinances.) But Summit and Navigator have sued 4 of the counties to throw out their safety ordinances.

On top of that, Summit, Navigator and Wolf are fighting to withhold Risk Assessments, Plume Modeling and Emergency Response Plans from the Iowa Utilities Board and public. 

We can’t let these carbon pipelines run roughshod across Iowa.  We need to show up and speak out against these dangerous carbon pipelines.  Can you join us to deliver a strong message to PHMSA that we want the strongest rules possible and that there should be a moratorium on all carbon pipeline projects until the rules are completed?

PHMSA Carbon Pipeline Safety Meeting

Wednesday, May 31 - Tuesday, June 1, 2023 at 8am-5pm

Downtown Marriott Hotel, 700 Grand Ave, Des Moines

Press Conference & Rally on Wednesday, May 31 - more details to follow

RSVP Now

Photo: pipeline activists at the Iowa Utilities Board meeting

End Coal Pollution that is Driving Asthma Cases

Event on World Asthma Day Underscores Link Between Coal Plants and Asthma

May 2, 2023 - On World Asthma Day, organizations and Iowans gathered in Muscatine to talk about the health effects of air pollution, and to plead with MidAmerican Energy to close its coal-burning power plants by 2030, as many coal plants around the country have promised to do.

When the captive customers of MidAmerican Energy pay for their power, they may not realize that pollution from the coal-fired power plants producing their electricity jeopardizes their lives and health. Yet, MidAmerican’s refusal to transition to a true clean-energy future results in 90 premature deaths of Iowans every year according to the Sierra Club’s recent “Out of Control: The Deadly Impact of Coal Plant Pollution” report.

“The Muscatine community has carried enough of the burden of air pollution from coal fired power plants. With new incentives from Congress, the time is now to transition to a cleaner energy future,” said Katie Rock, Iowa Campaign Representative for Beyond Coal, Sierra Club.

The American Lung Association’s new “State of the Air'' 2023 report highlights how year-round exposure to particle pollution, from sources such as coal plants, is linked to a wide array of serious health effects at every stage of life, from conception through old age. These health impacts include:

• Reduced lung development and impaired lung function in children 

• Higher likelihood of children developing asthma

• Increased risk from existing cardiovascular and respiratory disease in adults, including a worsening of heart disease, atherosclerosis and COPD

• Higher likelihood of adults getting lung cancer and of dying from it

The State of the Air report also includes asthma total is several counties that have MidAmerican coal plants, including:

• Muscatine County: 598 pediatric asthma cases and 2,968 adult asthma cases out of a population of 42,688

• Pottawattamie County: 1,258 pediatric cases and 6,552 adult cases out of population of 93,304

• Scott County: 2,361 pediatric cases and 12,281 adult cases out of population of 174,170

• Woodbury County: 1,592 pediatric cases and 7,235 adult cases out of population of 105,607

Iowans gathered near a coal plant in Muscatine to call for an end to MidAmerican’s pollution that is endangering the lives of Iowans. Speakers at the event included Katie Rock with Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Iowa, Karin Stein of Moms Clean Air Force, Dr. Robert Blount, MD from the University of Iowa, and Alyson Glynn who has been impacted by asthma in a coal community.

Photo of World Asthma speakers Katie Rock, Alyson Glynn, Karin Stein, and Dr. Robert Blount.

"Coal-fired power plants are an infamous source of toxic pollution.  They spew mercury and 80 other dangerous air pollutants, from arsenic to acid gases to the carbon dioxide that is warming our planet.  A disproportionate number of people of color in the United States live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant.  That is true in Muscatine, as well as in some other places in Iowa where MidAmerican coal plants operate.   Statistics aren’t statistics.  Statistics are people’s lives.  Let’s never forget that", stated Karin Stein of Moms Clean Air Force.

Utilities Board Acts to Protect Customers From Risks Posed by MidAmerican’s Wind PRIME Proposal

The Iowa Utilities Board issued an order setting conditions for MidAmerican Energy’s ability to move forward with the Wind PRIME project, which includes 2,042 megawatts (MW) of new wind and 50 MW of new solar development.  Importantly, the Board found solar generation is better situated to meet MidAmerican’s reliability needs and that the utility’s application did not adequately consider whether more solar and storage would have been better for customers. Further, the Board found that while the project would help meet state goals of reducing carbon intensity, the lack of coal plant retirements limits that benefit.

Sierra Club Beyond Coal was an intervenor in the Wind Prime proceedings before the Utilities Board.

The Board approved the project only because the utility promised the project would provide significant economic benefits to customers. As a result, the Board found that MidAmerican should bear the risk of the $3.9 billion project under-performing and so placed strict conditions on the utility’s right to recover the project costs from customers.

If MidAmerican decides to proceed with the Wind PRIME project under the Board’s new conditions, it must also conduct a public planning process before any future clean energy development. MidAmerican must let the Board know whether it plans to proceed with Wind PRIME within 20 days of the decision.   MidAmerican asked the Board to reconsider its ruling. 

Sierra Club, along with the Iowa Environmental Council, Environmental Law & Policy Center, provided independent expert testimony based on a detailed modeling analysis of how MidAmerican could best achieve its “net zero” carbon emissions goal. That modeling found that customers would save money if MidAmerican planned for a phased retirement of its coal plants and invested in battery storage and solar to round out its wind fleet. In contrast, the modeling found that Wind PRIME does little to advance the transition to carbon free electricity due to its continued reliance on coal burning.

In addition to the planning process, the order requires that in future proceedings, MidAmerican must provide “a robust analysis of the need for the project” similar to the one presented by the environmental groups’ experts that compares the proposal to clean alternatives like solar and battery storage, and shows how the new resources affect the rest of MidAmerican’s portfolio. This was because the IUB found “testimony submitted by MidAmerican is noticeably deficient” in assessing the impact on its other generation resources.

The order pointed to MidAmerican’s Zero Emissions Study, which MidAmerican sought to keep confidential. Environmental groups argued to make the conclusions of the study public, which MidAmerican released on the eve of the hearing only after ordered to do so by the IUB. That study revealed that the company knows solar is the most affordable way to increase renewable energy and that its coal plants were uneconomic.

Environmental groups criticized MidAmerican’s proposal for not addressing the need to retire and replace any of MidAmerican’s six coal plants, the last of which will not be retired until 2049, even though MidAmerican’s own internal studies showed that several of the coal plants are losing money. A plan proposed by the environmental groups’ independent modeling experts would have retired coal plants more quickly. The IUB found that “MidAmerican does not meaningfully show how or why the Wind PRIME project would be better than feasible alternatives, including for example the Environmental Intervenors’ proposal for less wind and more solar and storage."

Photo below: George Neal North coal plant near Sioux City, by Emma Colman.

Interim nuclear waste storage site approved - Iowa to be primary shipping corridor

Holtec now has a license to ship the country's entire store of radioactive nuclear waste from power plants by rail to New Mexico, some of it through Iowa.  Sierra Club policy is that this waste should be held in the closest, safest location until a permanent repository is operating.  But as of now this supposed interim facility will become a de facto permanent facility.

Holtec plans to build an interim storage site near Hobbs in southeast New Mexico.  Iowa will be serving as a primary corridor for shipping the spent fuel to New Mexico.

Wally Taylor, Iowa Chapter legal chair, is representing the national Sierra Club in seeking judicial review of the issuing of this license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Three Iowa cities and their surrounding metro areas are now eligible to participate in a grant process that would fund climate change pollution reduction - Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Iowa City.  Each city will be eligible for a $1 million grant to engage in planning.  Next year, additional money is to be available to implement the plans. 

This money became available when the state of Iowa rejected a $3 million grant to plan for climate pollution reduction.  The money was being offered to every state by the federal Environmental Protection Agency through its Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, which was part of the Inflation Reduction Act.  Iowa joined Florida, South Dakota, and Kentucky in refusing to participate in the program. 

When the state rejected the money, the federal government then offered the money to the cities to engage in climate planning.  When the cities undertake the planning for greenhouse gas reductions, the neighboring counties will also be included.  For Cedar Rapids, that includes Linn, Jones, and Benton counties.  For Iowa City, it includes Johnson and Washington counties.  For Des Moines, it includes Polk, Dallas, Guthrie, Jasper, Madison, and Warren counties.

Source

Erin Jordan, “C.R., Iowa City, Des Moines to seek $1 million climate planning grants”, Cedar Rapids Gazette, April 29, 2023

Legislative update

The legislature adjourned earlier this month.  The highlights are

• Legislation related to limiting the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines failed in the Senate.  We are disappointed that this bill did not pass.

• The legislature passed a budget bill that removes the funding for a network of water sensors measuring the nutrients in Iowa's rivers and streams.  The bill also reduced the budget of the Department of Natural Resources.  Furthermore, it removed the stated goal that 10% of Iowa's land should be preserved as open spaces.  The Sierra Club did not support the changes made in the appropriations for the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the Department of Natural Resources.  This bill is awaiting the Governor's signature.

• A government reorganization bill that passed makes the Consumer Advocate, who represents consumer interests in utility cases at the Utilities Board, will be subject to more political pressure as the position is  given a set term of four years, with the attorney general given the authority to terminate the person before the end of the four-year term.  The Governor signed this legislation.  The Sierra Club opposed this legislation.

• Two new utilities board members were confirmed - Erik Helland and Sarah Martz - and a new consumer advocate - Lanny Zieman - was confirmed.

  

Photo of the Offices of the Iowa Utilities Board and the Consumer Advocate.

Lunch and Learns

Every Friday at noon, we do a Lunch and Learn livestream.  See us on Facebook at "Sierra Club Iowa Chapter".  These will be recorded so you can watch them anytime.  Topics will be selected based on what is happening during the week and will be announced the day before the livestream.  During the legislative session, we cover issues coming before the Iowa legislature.

In case you missed our past webinars and lunch and learn sessions, you can still see them.  

• See "Nutrient Reduction Strategy: Happy 10th Birthday & We're Removing the Water Sensors", May 19, 2023
• Learn about "Victory! Supreme Beef Update", May 5, 2023
• Watch "Two Big Events: IUB Meeting & PHMSA Safety Meeting", April 28, 2023
• Listen to "Big Changes at Iowa Utilities Board and Office of Consumer Advocate", April 21, 2023

Volunteer for the Iowa Chapter

Almost everything we do is done by volunteers like you.  If you would like to volunteer for the Iowa Chapter, please let us know by sending an E-mail to Iowa.chapter@sierraclub.org.  Or sign up by using the online form.  There are many opportunities for you to make a difference:

• making phone calls

• developing graphics for banners and flyers

• working on legislative issues

• working on elections

• fundraising

• organizing events

• joining an issue committee 

If you would like to join our legislative action team, sign up here.  Keep on top of what is happening at the Iowa legislature.  Be alerted when you should contact your legislators about pending legislation.

Sierra Club - working every day on Iowa’s environmental problems

Sierra Club is Iowa’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization.  Not only that, we are the best bet in the state for achieving bold solutions to Iowa’s environmental problems.

We work in the courts, before Iowa’s public agencies, and in the halls of the legislature.  The Iowa Chapter's effort to protect the environment takes financial support.  The Chapter receives very little financial support from the national Sierra Club.  Can we count on you for a donation to ensure even more victories?  Your contribution will be put to work here in Iowa on issues that affect every day Iowans – water quality, clean air, protection of Iowa's soil, parks and natural areas, and a strong democracy.  The Iowa Chapter is relentless in fighting back bad legislation that affects every one of us. 

Your non-deductible contributions make it possible for us to fight bad legislation and to promote good legislation.  We appreciate your past and on-going support of these efforts.  You can make a non-deductible donation with a credit card.   A non-deductible donation supports the Chapter's effective, citizen-based advocacy and lobbying programs.  If you prefer, a non-deductible check can be written to the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter and mailed to:

Treasurer
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter
PO Box 1058
Marion, IA 52302

You can also make a tax-deductible donation with a credit card.  Tax-deductible activities are limited to public interest education, research and legal actions.  A deductible check can be written to the Sierra Club Foundation with “Iowa Chapter” written in the memo line.

Thank you for your support.

Photo is tall bellflower, which will bloom in the late summer.

Donate your used vehicle

As the Sierra Club Foundation's Iowa Chapter continues to raise charitable funds to support its work in Iowa, won’t you consider participating in our vehicle donation program?  Our partners over at CARS have made the process of donating your unused or unneeded car, truck, motorcycle, boat or RV easy, efficient and secure.  They’ll take care of everything from picking up your vehicle to sending you a tax receipt for your generous gift.  To learn more about The Sierra Club Foundation's Iowa Chapter vehicle donation program, please call 844-674-3772.  Or visit our webpage to get started today!

Sierra Club Foundation promotes climate solutions, conservation, and movement building through a powerful combination of strategic philanthropy and grassroots advocacy. The Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of Sierra Club’s charitable environmental programs.

For more information 

Planned giving . . . naming the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter in your will 

Ensure your environmental legacy by naming the Iowa Chapter in your will or trust. These gifts cost you nothing now. You can hold onto your assets for as long as you need them.

Thank you for supporting our work!