- Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds resists calls for regulation of industrial agriculture despite water quality concerns and a lawn-watering ban in Central Iowa.
- Protesters gathered outside an event she was attending, demanding action on agricultural pollution and linking it to high cancer rates in the state.
- Reynolds defended farmers, and said they are already implementing conservation practices.
As the Des Moines metro labors through its first-ever lawn-watering ban, Gov. Kim Reynolds underscored her support for voluntary conservation practices, insisting “regulation is hardly ever the answer” for Iowa’s dangerous nitrate levels in its drinking water.
Asked about a recently released Polk County water-quality report that largely blamed agriculture runoff for high nitrate levels, Reynolds said Thursday, June 10, that it would be best to leave conservation measures to farmers.
The report said nitrate levels in central Iowa are among the highest in the U.S. and routinely exceed the health-based drinking water standard, a study finds
Regulation “is a killer in most instances — it takes out innovation,” Reynolds said as she joined Italian-American Cultural Center of Iowa leaders at a groundbreaking ceremony at the Butler Mansion in Des Moines. “I can’t control Mother Nature. They can’t control Mother Nature. So, that’s just a component that they have to work with. But mark my word: They’re working every single day to implement conservation practices, because they know it benefits everybody.”
Reynolds’s comments came as nearly a dozen activists from Food & Water Watch Iowa and allied groups protested outside the event, carrying signs that said “Clean Water Now” and “We’re #1 (On Cancer and Polluted Water Sheds).”…