Letter to the Editor: On November 3rd, cast your vote with confinement operations in mind

(The following Letter to the Editor is submitted by Kevin Lee of Decorah):

"According to USDA's National Ag Statistics Service, Iowa has 25 million plus head of swine. According to the Iowa DNR database, there are over 10,000 large-sized factory farms, which are facilities with over 2,499 head.

The Iowa population in 2020 is estimated to be 3.18 million. Most of this human population has treated waste. In contrast, swine waste that is put upon the land is untreated.

Iowa's water suffers from all this untreated hog waste. In 2016, Iowa's final EPA approved list of water quality issues showed that there were 608 segments with 818 impairments to Iowa's waters. For all impaired Iowa segments, there are 767 bodies of water with 1,110 impairments. These impairments threaten the safety of our drinking water, our ability to use our waterways for recreation, and our ability to continue growing safe food for generations to come.  The 2016 combined impaired waters contained 750 bodies of water with 1,096 impairments. These are serious issues that will not be solved with voluntary programs.

The 2016 list is now four years old. Impairments are much greater today.
A real solution is implementing a moratorium.

Please vote to halt this negative advancement. Your vote for our local government is just as important as your vote for state government. Vote for those that understand this issue and are committed to making a real change to protect our water."