The Environmental Integrity Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocates more effective enforcement of environmental laws, released a 74-page report last week accusing the Iowa Department of Natural Resources of not having the authority or resources to adequately enforce the Clean Water Act.

The federal Clean Water Act states that large animal feeding operations must have an operating permit.

Gene Tinker, animal feedlot operation coordinator for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said approximately 1,500 of Iowa’s larger feeding areas need an operating permit, but just 42 permits have been issued, and only to open feedlots.

Kari Carney, rural organizer for the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, said producers are violating the law without having a permit. The Iowa DNR needs to issue these permits so it can check on them and make sure the producer is doing a good job of maintaining manure storage facilities, Carney said.

But no producer without a permit is breaking the law yet, Tinker said. In accordance with Federal Animal Feeding Operations and Confined Animal Feeding Operations regulations, all animal feedlots holding more than 1,000 animals must have a permit issued by the Iowa DNR and be in compliance by 2006.

Producers must have a manure management plan indicating how, where and how often they will spread the manure collected. Tinker said this has greatly helped and reduced the number of spills that have occurred.

Better storage facilities have also helped control spills, said Jeff Lorimor, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.

“The situation 30 years ago was that less animals were in open feedlots. Every time it rained, manure was washed off and away, possibly reaching a water source,” Lorimor said.

Now manure can be stored under an animal confinement in a concrete or earthen pit or in a lagoon that holds the manure just outside the confinement. Open feedlots also have to collect the manure runoff in some confined area.

Spills can still happen in a number of different ways, Lorimor said, such as if a storage facility has a leak or too much manure is being applied to a field and the manure washes away.

These spills result in an estimated 2.6 million dead fish a year and can contaminate drinking water, causing health problems.

The Iowa DNR needs to hold producers more accountable for spills, Carney said. Currently, offenders are only being fined, even with repeated offenses.

“We want the DNR to establish more of a zero-tolerance and take stronger actions against these producers,” Carney said.

For now, Tinker said, the Iowa DNR is working on issuing permits so feedlot owners are in compliance by 2006.