Impact will be to make attorneys a lot of money, he says
John Torbert, executive director of the Iowa Drainage District Association, has updated the boards of supervisors in the member counties for 14 years. This year, his update has more interest due to the lawsuit filed by the Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) against Buena Vista, Sac, and Calhoun counties.
Torbert visited with the Greene County supervisors June 8. He said the 2015 legislative session is Iowa was “successful, even with distractions.” The legislature approved funding for agriculture drainage well closure and to continue the current nutrient reduction strategy.
He spoke briefly about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) proposal. Torbert said WOTUS would extend the regulatory authority of the EPA. The initial version (2014) could have potentially impacted every water in the country, including drainage districts, Torbert said. The final proposal will be published soon, he said. The 297-page rule is better than the original rule, but is still not clear as to what waters would be regulated and what permits would be needed. He thinks national agriculture groups will work to have an injunction put in place before the rule can be implemented.
Torbert went on to talk about the DMWW lawsuit. He said it could take 7-10 years before all appeals are exhausted.
Torbert explained the lawsuit: ”Essentially what the lawsuit says is that you, as trustees for your districts, are going to have to go to the state agency and get a permit the agency says it can’t issue that you don’t need to regulate people that you don’t have the authority to regulate. That’s what it boils down to.”
He said it will be a multi-year, multi-million dollar process. “That’s unfortunate, because it’s not going to have the impact that the proponents think it will in terms of having any impact on what happens with water or nitrates or anything else. It just is not going to have that impact other than to make a lot of money for attorneys and spend a lot of time in courts, as opposed to doing the conservation practices on the ground which is where the effort should be,” Torbert said.
Greene County drainage clerk Michelle Fields asked Torbert how the lawsuit could affect ag land not in drainage districts. “It could affect a lot of stuff that is not directly drainage-district involved,” he answered. “Whatever the court decides is going to have an impact on Iowa. And depending on where this goes, if it goes up to federal district court or goes up the U.S. Supreme Court, a decision rendered n the U.S. Supreme Court could have potentially national implications in terms of the impact.”
“If you talk about processes of moving water and water conveyances…. there are many water impacts that could take place, that I don’t people have even thought of. It’s hard to say. It all depends on how narrowly the court decides this. Worst case scenario, it could have a very wide impact.
Torbert said that ag industries and commodity groups have provided both technical and financial assistance in fighting the lawsuit already.
