Chuck Gipp at the center of a dispute over Gulf of Mexico pollution

 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released a letter criticizing the State of Iowa's plan to stem runoff pollution into the Mississippi which is blamed for contributing to a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.

But the letter from the federal government brought an immediate response from Iowa DNR Director Chuck Gipp, a Decorah resident, and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

EPA regional administrator Karl Brooks said Iowa's plan lacks details of how the state will measure progress in reducing runoff pollution.  He urged Iowa to come up with a way to measure the results of farm conservation programs, so officials can determine how much pollution is flowing out of the state via the Mississippi River, he added.

Gipp's and Northey's letter of response says the Iowa Department of Natural Resources will be working with large municipal waste water treatment plants and industrial facilities throughout the state to reduce nutrient discharges from these sources to Iowa's waters.  These large municipal facilities treat more than 80 percent of the waste water produced by all Iowa cities and serve 55 to 60percent of Iowa's population.

The letter stated, "For non point sources, the goal is to reduce the statewide nitrogen load by 41 percent and phosphorus load by 29percent.  The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship worked with a science team lead by Iowa State University to quantify the effectiveness of a variety of conservation practices at reducing nutrient losses from the landscape and estimate the load reduction sand cost of implementing these proven practices."

The 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan calls for the 12 states along the Mississippi River to develop strategies to reduce both nitrogen and phosphorus loading to the Gulf of Mexico by 45 percent.  So far, Iowa is only the second state to complete a statewide nutrient reduction strategy.