EPA turns up heat on Iowa as Big Sioux suffers chlorine spill

An interview with live audience featured Vice President Walter Mondale today on Minnesota Public Radio. Icymi:

The US Environment Protection Agency is giving the Iowa Department of Natural Resouces five years to ensure that livestock producers clean up their acts; but enviros say the state won't have the resources to inspect suspect polluters and provides loopholes for offenders.

Perry Beeman writes in the Des Moines Register:

The EPA issued a blistering report on July 12, and said a preliminary investigation into the environmental groups’ allegations found that the DNR is not properly permitting, inspecting or fining large hog confinements and other livestock facilities subject to permit requirements. Peter Thorne, director of the University of Iowa’s Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, told the EPA in a letter that each confinement should be inspected once a year — not once every five years as the EPA suggests.

Both Iowa US Senators voted against the fiscal dealio.

Meanwhile, Kelly Thurman reported a multimillion gallon spill into the 13th most polluted waterway in the US. From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

A high level of chlorine can kill fish. Since the water ran into the river the city’s environmental division has done several tests on the water but no fish kills have been detected, said Robert Kappel, the city’s environmental manager.

Robert Perciasepe, the acting director of EPA is considered the likely successor to departing Lisa Jackson after her highly successful term at the agency.