Des Moines Register
04-22-06
Persistence triumphs on water rules
A determined crew spent years pushing for Iowa to meet federal standards.
PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Stephen Veysey, Susan Heathcote and Rich Leopold can mark Earth Day today
with a celebration of their part in trying to get Iowa regulators to approve new
environmental rules to clean up Iowa streams.
They, and other environmental activists, had spent the better part of a decade
making unsuccessful attempts to persuade state biologists and environmental
regulators that Iowa had to comply with the federal Clean Water Act, even if the
state was one of the last to do so. The law commanded that regulators protect all
streams so people could safely swim in them, canoe on them, and fish in them without getting sick.
This time, activists and organizations like Sierra Club and the Iowa
Environmental Council were prepared to sue to get the job done.
"We were tenacious enough to not let go," said Leopold, director of the nonprofit
Iowa Environmental Council, a coalition of environmental groups and individuals
supporting water-quality improvements and other environmental work. "We had
all the data. We were going to win."
The new set of rules took effect March 22, despite opposition from cities that said
the rules would require exorbitant improvements to their sewage treatment
plants. In the end, the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission approved new
rules and lawmakers let the rules stand.
Leopold said he saw the good, the bad and the clueless among state lawmakers,
but considered it an honor to calmly make his case before them.
Veysey, a fly fisherman and Iowa State University chemist, dogged officials at
virtually every meeting on the subject for eight years. He's not as diplomatic as
Leopold.
"I hate these guys," Veysey said of any state bureaucrats who he considered
slow to accept the need for new limits. "I intensely regret the time I have to spend
working on water-quality policy issues including standards, implementation and
enforcement. I hold serious animus toward politicians, administrators and
bureaucrats who continue to make such a mess of what should be very simple . .
. implementing and enforcing the federal requirements of the Clean Water Act.
"I would much rather be fishing, or actually working in the stream to help Mother
Nature fix the problems we've caused," he said.
Neila Seaman, 51, who runs the Iowa Sierra Club office in Des Moines, worked
with Sierra lawyer Wallace Taylor of Cedar Rapids and lobbyist Lyle Krewson,
62, of Urbandale to push the new pollution limits for cities.
"I still don't understand why it's taken three decades to adopt minimum water
quality standards, but I'm proud to have been involved in moving Iowa toward
compliance," Seaman said.
Krewson said: "Clean water is one of Iowans' highest values. They need it and
they want it, for recreation and good health, as well as aesthetically. I believe
Iowans deserve it. Fighting for the implementation of those new rules was really
one of our simplest fights . . . Iowans understood it, and wanted the result. In the
end, no legislator could resist. They get it . . . now!"
Here are a few of the people who lobbied hard to protect Iowa's rivers.
Rich Leopold
Leopold says he's related to land-stewardship pioneer and Burlington native Aldo
Leopold "only in spirit."
Both championed conservation and environmental protection. Rich Leopold, 41,
of Huxley has worked as a biologist and naturalist for the U.S. Forest Service, the
National Park Service, and the Minnesota and Iowa state governments.
In May 2003, he joined the nonprofit Iowa Environmental Council as
communications director. He was promoted to executive director later that year.
Leopold has seen Iowa's water-quality fight from both the government and
private views. In suit and tie when he'd rather be in outdoor gear, he finds himself
trying to advance environmental protection while negotiating with farm interests
that are closely aligned with those of many state lawmakers. He is soft-spoken, if
direct.
From 1999 to 2002, he coordinated a fledgling program called IOWATER, the
state's growing network of volunteer water monitors. That program greatly
increased the amount of information available about hundreds of Iowa streams
and lakes - data crucial to deciding how to clean the waters.
Susan Heathcote
If Rich Leopold is the suit-wearing diplomat, Susan Heathcote is the policy wonk
ready to beat opponents over the head with a mean stack of spreadsheets.
Most Iowans don't know of Heathcote, who lives in Des Moines. The 53-year-old
research director for the Iowa Environmental Council is the consummate behindthe-scenes worker. She attended the tedious commission meetings and
backroom negotiation sessions that resulted in one of the biggest waterprotection moves of the past three decades - the passage of the rules meant to
get Iowa in line with federal requirements.
With bachelor's and master's degrees in geology and geophysics and 11 years'
experience as a petroleum geophysicist for Mobil Oil Corp., Heathcote
understands the science. She also worked as an environmental consultant in
Iowa before joining the Environmental Council.
Since 1996, she has struck fear in many interest groups that fought the stiffer
regulations. She and her employer, the Iowa Environmental Council, have lost
some battles. But the victories come more frequently.
Stephen Veysey
Veysey works to protect Iowa's waterways in large part because he is an avid fly
fisherman. He is also a trained chemist who works in a laboratory at Iowa State
University.
Veysey, 53, of Ames is coordinator of fisheries and environmental protection for
the Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association. His first battle: Winning concessions from a
hog confinement developer building near trout-rich French Creek in northeastern
Iowa, a battle that went to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Veysey is a Sierra Club conservation co-leader; a member of Iowa Citizens for
Community Improvement and of Iowa Public Interest Research Group.
He's also on a state technical advisory committee on water-quality standards and
the 2003 Governor's Water Quality Task Force.
Water testing
More than 2,000 Iowans make up a statewide network of volunteers who help
monitor water quality. The program, IOWATER, was formed in 1999 and trains
Iowans to collect water samples for chemical analysis and to do some biological
observations. The data are loaded onto a Web site that is accessible to the
public, www.iowater.net.
Brian Soenen, who coordinates the system for the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources, said 2,305 people have taken the training. At least some analysis
has been done at 2,835 stream sites. The volunteers have collected samples for
12,800 chemical analyses and have helped with 2,600 biological assessments
and 2,100 habitat analyses.
Basic training involves 10 hours, spread over two days. It costs $25. Workshops
are planned around the state all year. For details, see www.iowater.net.
Key leaders
Gov. Tom Vilsack's appointments to the Iowa Environmental Protection
Commission have created a nine-member panel more sympathetic to
environment regulation than past commissions. The commission approves
environmental-protection rules, which must also clear a panel of lawmakers. It
also oversees the part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources that
enforces environmental regulations.
During most of the past three decades, the commission was dominated by
people with close ties to agriculture. Those commissioners favored voluntary
programs and few regulations. Current panel members include an organic
farmer, the former head of an environmental group, and a lawyer-accountant with
a history of lake-preservation work:
• Donna Buell, 45, a Democrat and Spirit Lake lawyer, was appointed in 2003.
She formed and worked on several water quality groups in the Iowa Great Lakes
area.
• Lisa Davis Cook, 36, a West Des Moines mother and Democrat, was appointed
in 2000. She is the former director of Iowa Citizen Action Network, which
supported environmental protection projects.
• Darrell Hanson, 51, is a Republican and extension education director at Iowa
State University. Hanson, of Manchester, is a former state lawmaker and a board
member of the Iowa Environmental Council. He was appointed in 2000.
• Henry Marquard, 51, of Muscatine, is a Democrat and a lawyer. He was
appointed in 2005 to represent business and commerce on the commission.
• Suzanne Morrow, 52, is a Democrat and health care administrator from Storm
Lake. She was appointed in 2005
• Jerry Peckumn, 53, is a Republican and a farmer from Jefferson. He was
appointed in 2002. His farm has won soil conservation awards and he has been
an officer in the Iowa Sportsmen's Association.
• David Petty, 53, is a Republican and a farmer from Eldora. Appointed in 2005,
his farm has won environmental awards.
• Mary Gail Scott, 49, of Cedar Rapids is not affiliated with a political party. She is
environmental health and safety director of Rockwell Collins Inc. and has
degrees in zoology and civil and environmental engineering. She was appointed
in 2005 to represent the manufacturing industry on the commission.
• Francis Thicke, 55, is a Democrat and an organic farmer from Fairfield.
Appointed in 2003, he has degrees in soil science, agronomy and soil fertility.