(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club is petitioning the EPA to remove a state agency’s authority to enforce the Clean Water Act. The group claims the Department of Natural Resources has failed to enforce the federal law for years. The petition says over 450 Iowa cattle feeding and industrial operations are dumping waste into waterways, despite expired permits.

Wally Taylor, the chapter’s legal chair, says the DNR has also failed to prioritize protecting the state’s highest-quality rivers and streams. “Many of the streams that should be top priority are down in levels three and four, which are the lowest priority,” Taylor says. “That includes ‘Outstanding Iowa Waters,’ which include trout streams in northeast Iowa.”

Waste permits must be renewed every five years, though he says some haven’t been renewed since the early 2000s. Taylor says while DNR funding has gone down over the years, he believes failure to enforce the Clean Water Act has been deliberate. “Over the years it’s been a lack of will,” he says, “and in the past few years, it’s been – I think – a definite intent not to enforce the Clean Water Act.”

Taylor adds that the Sierra Club has supported additional funding for the DNR in the past to make clean water enforcement more feasible.

(contributed by Grant Winterer, Iowa Public Radio)