Iowa is not going to meet a December deadline set by the federal government to implement changes to the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency revised its regulations controlling the discharge from factory livestock farms in 2008 and gave states two years to comply. The head of the Iowa D-N-R’s environmental protection division, Wayne Gieselman, says he warned the E.P.A. Iowa would likely miss the deadline.
“Our rules making process here takes about six months at racehorse pace. So it was just a deadline that was not really physically possible for us to meet,” Gieselman says. Gieselman says the timeline was tight because legislators had to first pass a bill giving the D.N.R. authority to adopt federal standards.
“We told E.P.A. that months ago. We promised them we would have them out for public notice by that date, but at that point we have to respond, listen to people’s comments,” he says. The deadline for implementing the changes is December fourth, but Gieselman says he promised E.P.A. officials the regulations would be ready for public comment by that date.