Design Moines lawsuit again

I went to Des Moines yesterday and after the post last week was watching the
fields and just seeing the common practices. On the drive along I80 from Omaha
I noticed that the hills are steeper than in the counties that the lawsuit
affects so practices are probably somewhat different. The first thing I
noticed was all of the grass waterways on the creases and valleys of the
hills. Another thing that surprised me was the amount of waterways that
actually had buffer strips along them. A couple hundred miles west in my neck
of the woods it is a different story. The terrain and soil are similar but I
can only think of 1 grassed waterway in the area. The idea of buffer strips is
almost non existent and I can only think of one place where I see it. I
realize not everything is the same and that could account for some of the
differences. Another thing is terraces. They have been almost completely torn
out around here but were in abundance there. Between the larger machinery and
no till practices these are gone.
Basically there is a lot of contour farming there, while there is next to
none here which I have noticed in my drives along Iowa highway 20 also. So if
there is a lawsuit and it says that these practices are not enough would this
also apt to groundwater runoff from streets and parking lots in Design Moines
too? I realize the lawsuit applies mostly to tiling practices that allow this
stuff to get into the water without being filtered out by the soil and then
running down the raccoon river to Design Moines.

What the lawsuit is centering on is point source pollution, meaning the water that comes out of farm drainage tile. Farm drainage tile have been exemped from the point source rule. Industrial discharge pipes are monitored and must be clean but not farms. Nitrogen leaches down through the soil and ends up in the drainage tile and ultimately ends up in a river. I am in one of the counties named in the lawsuit and ironically the Raccoon river, the river the Des Moines water works draws its water from runs through the flatter part of my county. We in the flat region probably have more drainage tile than the hillier areas. Last summer we had record amounts of rainfall in this area and that probably moved more nitrogen down into the tile lines. Im still not chear on who will pay the bill if the DMWW wins. They are suing the drainage districts. Who exactly is the drainage district? The landowners? The farmers? They are going after the board of supervisors but they arent in control of the water that drains into the drainage districts. All they control is the maintenance of the drainage. Lots of loose ends here.

My county is split almost down the middle by a continental divide. The west approximate half drains to the Missouri river and the east half drains to the Mississippi, via the Raccoon river. The missouri doesnt come anywhere close to Des Moines. I dont see how the west half of the county can be included in this lawsuit.

Good explanation.

My understanding, after following this argument for several years, is that DMWW reached the end of their rope. As that editorial I linked mentioned, they're using a blunt instrument to try to effect change.

The suit is not the expected solution, they're just trying to get the attention of the people upstream who have said for many years they'd do something but the problem never gets better.

One reason I've watched is this local problem is not unique to Des Moines. Repercussions will be widespread.

Mostly what it is all about is. The Agenda 21 and ICLEI: The UN Plan for Global Control
You can google the Agenda 21 Land Grab and find several books to better understand what is going on.
Also there is a book, Protecting Rural America from Agenda 21 Takeover.

Tools for Freedom, knowledge is Power

(quoted from post at 15:48:28 03/29/15) Mostly what it is all about is. The Agenda 21 and ICLEI: The UN Plan for Global Control
You can google the Agenda 21 Land Grab and find several books to better understand what is going on.
Also there is a book, Protecting Rural America from Agenda 21 Takeover.

Tools for Freedom, knowledge is Power

Click to expand...

Harvey2 has it right. I wish Reagan had destroyed the UN before he left office but they are too entrenched now to get rid of.

I do not think soil is as much an issue as fertilizer runoff, the rivers in Iowa are terribly polluted with fertilizer.

You are living in dream world my friend, no UN agenda.

You don't have to take my word for it.
There are several sources to find about it, if you aren't afraid of the truth.

This is about CONTROL, and this is the instrument they are using to take a little more control over you and your ground. Remember earlier this spring the move to try and establish the EPA as the sole source control over ALL waters of the US. Well your meandering creek would in a sense belong to them and YOU would be required to do whatever they deemed acceptable. The water and water way would belong to the king. Check with you ascs office see how much money(tax money) is being used to continue the tiling of ag land. This lawsuit will drag on for years. And in the meantime where does Dead Moines Water works put the nitates they removed. Back in the river I believe for the downstream users to treat.

David I usually agree with you most of the time but in this case I do not. Where is your PROOF that the rivers are terribly polluted by farm land run off???? I see nothing about every small town sewer plant dumping their waste water into the river up stream????

Like Tom said this is all about CONTROL!!! The tree huggers in Des Moines can't get the votes at the ballot box to actually control everyone else in the state so they will try to get some abundant judges to get themselves control.

I think that cities should become their own states when they get so big so they have ZERO control of the rest of the state. Look at how Chicago and New York control the rest of their states politics.

Des Moines is not quite big enough to totally control the entire state of Iowa but they sure want too. IF you live in Iowa, an personally know any elected representative that is in the state, asked them how most bills and laws are pushed in the chamber by the Des Moines faction.

The Des Moines faction sees money that they want from the working farmers and landowners they think they can steal!!!!

(quoted from post at 18:59:54 03/29/15) Like Tom said this is all about CONTROL!!! The tree huggers in Des Moines can't get the votes at the ballot box to actually control everyone else in the state so they will try to get some abundant judges to get themselves control.

I think that cities should become their own states when they get so big so they have ZERO control of the rest of the state. Look at how Chicago and New York control the rest of their states politics.

Des Moines is not quite big enough to totally control the entire state of Iowa but they sure want too. IF you live in Iowa, an personally know any elected representative that is in the state, asked them how most bills and laws are pushed in the chamber by the Des Moines faction.

The Des Moines faction sees money that they want from the working farmers and landowners they think they can steal!!!!

Click to expand...

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I do know that the urban areas of NY and Illinois dominate the politics of their states. But they also have the most people, and they pay most of the taxes. I suspect the same is happening in Iowa.

Don't have a dog in the fight, but don't know what law is the basis of a lawsuit against farming or farmers. Could be a violation of a confined livestock law specific to Iowa, I guess. A grain farmer could have non point pollution leaving their farm on sloping fields in the form of sediment or fertilize attached to sediment runoff. Don't know of any law governing that non point source pollution. There is supposed to be a conservation plan in operation on all hel classified ground by the FSA office. Maybe that is a defense for those farmers if they go to court and have a plan in place from Fsa. Seems like some loose ends. If water at the filter plant has nitrate higher than normal how you gonna prove whose farm it came from or if it even came from a farm. Have noticed in our area in IN there is some rills in sloping crop fields after this winters rains & snows, so that soil that was in those rills has gone somewhere.

I don't have any vested interest nor desire to be in this. If you look at most of the ground in other states around the western lands. Like MT,KS,SD,And such. Most of the land with similar slopes to those in IA would not have been broke out for farming. Most of IA should have been left in sod for cow pasture. Just look at the slopes along I-80,and south along I-35 to see what I mean. This does not mean I agree with the land grab of the city, or cities of such tactics.

I grew up on the section of land where the Raccoon River originates. The problem is Corporate Ag and the so called "Farm Program". Prior to the 1970s, 30-40% of the farm ground was in pasture, hay ground and grass grains such as oats. Now it's all roll crop without grassland filtration. This coupled with an over population livestock confinement operations have created the problem.
Now the Governor and Ag want the taxpayers to pay for cleanup at the user end instead of addressing the source of the problem.
Corporate Ag has control at all levels government. Is a program that is designed to depress the market of farm products through over production really a "Farm Program"? Taxpayers subsidized farmers to keep them from going bust, while Corporate Ag rakes in the profits and payoff their politicians.