New EPA chief pledges to build trust with farmers

In the recent past, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator has not always had the best relationship with farmers and agriculture workers. But new EPA chief Gina McCarthy told an audience in Iowa that she plans to change that. She said, “My commitment to you is that at the end of my term, we will have a stronger, more productive, more trusting relationship between EPA and the agriculture community. Why are we going to do that? It benefits me, it benefits you and it will make this country stronger,” Jennifer Jacobs reports for the Des Moines Register. McCarthy didn't take questions from reporters. (Associated Press photo by Charlie Neibergall: From left, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and EPA chief Gina McCarthy)

"The Iowa farmers in the audience – including those who have chafed at the thought of regulation of farm dust and youth employment and heavy penalties for farm run-off problems – all applauded her warmly," Jacobs reports. Nancy Beyer, a co-owner of Koszta Farm Corp. corn and soybean farm in rural Belle Plaine, told Jacobs, “She’s probably the most on-track EPA director we’ve ever talked to.”

While farmers are happy with McCarthy, environmental activists are not, Jacobs reports. "They say proposed plans for more oversight of Iowa farm facilities are too weak and won’t do enough to stop pollution in Iowa’s waterways. Iowa is in the middle of a long fight over how state officials will comply with the federal Clean Water Act. Environmental groups say lax regulation of pollution by livestock operations has contributed to more manure spills, more manure reaching rivers and streams and higher drinking-water treatment costs."

"Some activists contend that the government officials, including the Republican-led Iowa DNR and [Republican Gov. Terry] Branstad, are too cozy with farm interests in conducting the negotiations for how to provide oversight to prevent pollution from manure," Jacobs writes. Barb Kalbach, a fourth-generation Iowa farmer, told Jacobs, “Iowa already has 628 impaired waterways and nothing is reversing in an industry that’s voluntarily regulated. It won’t work in this state." (Read more)