EPA failing to protect Iowa from farm pollution in drinking water supplies, lawsuit alleges
US regulators illegally backed away from responsibilities related to pollution-laden waterways in Iowa after meeting with officials from the state’s powerful farm lobby, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed by advocacy groups Food & Water Watch, Iowa Environmental Council and the Environmental Law & Policy Center, focuses on a July 2025 decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allowing for the elimination of seven waterways from a list of “impaired” waters under the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The petition seeks a court order requiring the EPA relist the waterways.
A listing as “impaired” is important because it obligates state officials to create and implement plans to control pollution and return waters to unimpaired status.
The EPA had previously determined that segments of the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon, and South Skunk Rivers were contaminated with toxic levels of nitrates in excess of federal safety thresholds and should be listed as impaired. These waterways supply drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people, and the nitrates polluting those waters are linked to cancer and other health problems, posing a public health threat.
But the agency stance publicly changed just days after agency officials met with the state’s top Farm Bureau representatives for the stated purpose of discussing the impaired waterways list, documents show. The Farm Bureau has been an opponent of listing the waterways as nitrate impaired.
The meeting took place last year on July 1 and the EPA took its action backing away from including the seven waterway segments on the impaired list on July 11.
The lawsuit comes at a time of heightened concerns in Iowa and amid a charged political debate over how to balance the benefits of Iowa’s important agricultural economic interests and the citizen concerns around agricultural pollution. Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the nation and is one of only three states with rising cancer rates.
“Trump’s EPA is enabling an enormous public health crisis in Iowa,” Food & Water Watch staff attorney Dani Replogle said in a statement. “While factory farms pollute hundreds of thousands of peoples’ drinking water with dangerous levels of toxic nitrates, EPA is hanging Iowans out to dry — we cannot allow that to happen. EPA’s irresponsible about-face on Iowa’s nitrate pollution crisis will not stand in court.”
A scientific report released last year found that agricultural operations across Iowa are a leading cause of significant water pollution problems in the state, and that most of the nitrates contaminating key waterways stem from farming operations, including corn growers and livestock operations.
Adding to the concerns, a recent Iowa Environmental Council and Harkin Institute report found that Iowa has the nation’s worst waterway nitrate contamination.
“Iowans in cities, towns, and rural areas face worsening health problems due to nitrate contamination,” Iowa Environmental Council general counsel Michael Schmidt said in a statement. “Pretending the problem doesn’t exist is not a legal option. Instead, EPA needs to protect Iowans and follow the Clean Water Act by acknowledging that nitrate contaminates drinking water sources across the state.”
The EPA said it does not comment on pending litigation.
Featured image by Niko Vassios for Unsplash.
