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News Brief

May 16, 2025

Iowa's oversight on commercial farms can cause catastrophic effects

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports a recent dairy farm manure spill in the northeast part of the state killed at least 100 thousand fish. This isn't the first time the operation has been cited for causing environmental damage. The DNR received two phone calls from locals in March about dead fish in a 10-mile stretch of Dry Run Creek near the Dale Humpal Dairy in Winneshiek County. Iowa Food and Water Watch attorney Dani Replogle says the state's lack of commercial farm oversight is a big part of the problem, and after a spill occurs, efforts to stop the damage are often too late.

"There is nothing that you can do on this timeline that these living creatures need as far as remediation to prevent the major harms that we are seeing to the ecosystems from the spills from the facory farms.", says Replogle.

The Iowa Legislature has been considering clean water legislation that would work alongside federal guidelines, but so far, lawmakers have not passed it.

The Clean Water for Iowa Act would set water quality permitting standards for medium and large animal confinement operations. Replogle says it would also increase monitoring of those facilities.

"So that we have a better understanding of where these facilities are spilling pollution and what steps need to be taken going forward to protect the enviorment.", says Replogle. 

In addition to polluting ground and surface water, the EPA reports manure management is responsible for roughly 9 percent of methane emissions in the nation.