Tell the EPA: Restore the Raccoon River

Nearly 600 rivers and streams in Iowa are contaminated, impacting hundreds of thousands of Iowans. The Raccoon River has been polluted to such an extent that Des Moines Water Works must rely on one of the world’s largest nitrate removal systems in order to provide clean drinking water to over half a million people in the capital city.

For too long, our right to clean water has been ignored in favor of allowing industrial agricultural interests to continue growing their profits. More than 750 factory farms exist within the Raccoon River watershed. The thousands of confined animals within those factory farms create billions of gallons of manure each year. This waste is then spread to excess on Iowa’s cropland where it runs off into our waterways, exacerbating our water quality crisis, fueling the growth of toxic algal blooms, and eliminating recreational opportunities for people living in Iowa.

Join us in demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) take action to reduce the harms the factory farm industry has incurred on the Raccoon River and all of Iowa’s waterways! Iowans’ rights, health, and well-being must come before the interests of multi-billion-dollar corporate agribusiness interests.

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Tell the EPA: Restore the Raccoon River

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Dear Acting Administrator Chu,

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Please address the impairment of Iowa’s Raccoon River. The river, which provides drinking water to over 500,000 people in Des Moines, has become increasingly contaminated by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and industrial agriculture interests upstream. The resulting pollution has caused community water systems within the watershed to struggle to provide clean drinking water to residents. Most notably, Des Moines Water Works has had to invest in one of the most expensive nitrate removal systems in the world — a cost they were forced to pass on to customers.

In addition to drinking water concerns, the watershed provides a critical habitat for multiple species. Oak savanna was once one of the most common ecosystems in the Midwest, but is now exceedingly rare, with less than 0.1 percent of the original ecosystem remaining. In the Raccoon River watershed. This increasingly imperiled habitat provides nesting grounds to nearly one-third of Iowa’s 200 species of breeding birds. Concern over the steady degradation of the Raccoon River has led American Rivers to include it on the list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2021.

The state of Iowa has failed to adequately protect the Raccoon River and the communities, wildlife and ecosystems that depend on it. I urge you to step in and address these critical issues by implementing a study of CAFO runoff from fields in Iowa. The EPA knows that land application of field runoff is a major source of CAFO pollution, but this practice remains virtually unregulated. Research, in tandem with inspections and enforcement actions of CAFOs in the Raccoon River watershed, are critical next steps to improving the impairments of the Raccoon River.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]