A federal judge has dismissed the Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) lawsuit against three Iowa counties over nitrate pollution from farm runoff. Federal Judge Leonard Strand on March 17 threw out the case against ten drainage districts in Sac, Buena Vista, and Calhoun counties, ruling that the water pollution alleged in the lawsuit is an issue for the Iowa legislature to address.
The case had drawn national attention due to DMWW’s claim that the drainage districts – with their use of field tiles and discharge pipes – should be regulated as point-source polluters under the Clean Water Act, and therefore subject to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) standards and permitting. The federal government currently considers water from farmlands as surface runoff and exempts it from NPDES permitting regulations.
“We hope this decision represents the final chapter on this issue,” said Chris Jahn, president of The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), in a March 20 statement. “While this suit was directed at drainage districts, it was really a counterproductive challenge to Iowa’s farmers. The quest for water quality solutions belongs in the field and with our research institutions, not in a courtroom. The farm economy is facing stiff challenges, so it is particularly unfortunate that the significant financial resources spent on legal defense were not, instead, dedicated to agricultural research on 4R nutrient management practices.”
The dismissal of the lawsuit comes just weeks after an Iowa Senate agriculture subcommittee approved a bill (GM March 17, p. 16) that proposes to dismantle the DMWW in favor of a regional water board. Earlier this year (GM Feb. 17, p. 1), the Iowa Supreme Court also ruled against the DMWW, stating that the public water utility could not sue for damages because state law grants the drainage districts “unqualified immunity” from such claims.