(Radio Iowa) – Attorneys for three environmental groups are urging Iowa officials to adopt tougher water quality standards. The federal Clean Water Act requires states to hold a public hearing about water quality regulations every three years and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources hosted one this (Thursday) morning. Iowa Environmental Council legal counsel Mike Schmidt says a decade ago federal officials recommended that states monitor water for 94 toxins that could impact human health and it’s shocking Iowa standards still call for monitoring just 50. “Iowa has the second highest cancer rate in the country — one of the only states with a rising cancer rate,” Schmidt said, “and we are concerned that water quality plays a role in that.”

An Iowa DNR environmental engineer says the agency is “potentially looking” at adopting the EPA’s expanded list of toxins to monitor, but is looking into using Iowa data rather than national parameters. Dani Replogle is a staff attorney for Food and Water Watch, a national group that has about 24-thousand Iowa members. She says more stringent standards are needed so Iowa taxpayers don’t have to keep paying to clean up drinking water supplies or get rid of algae from public lakes. “DNR’s under-inclusive and vague water quality standards contribute to the water quality crisis by impeding enforcement against polluters,” Replogle said, “and communication about the true magnitude of the problem in Iowa’s waterways,” Replogle said.

Wally Taylor, legal counsel for the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter, says the state’s voluntary Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy isn’t working and it’s time to set limits on how much nitrogen, phosphorus and manure can used on Iowa farmland. “It’s a no brainer to have numeric criteria for nutrients,” Taylor said, “and to really get a handle on the major problem in Iowa’s waters.” The D-N-R’s water quality resource coordinator says when the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy was adopted in 2013, officials projected it would take many, many years to make progress given the scale of changes required in farming practices and upgrades needed in municipal wastewater plants.