(Des Moines) An Iowa House subcommittee advanced a bill Thursday that would require water use permits be evaluated on a case-by-case basis in terms of “beneficial use.”
Representatives and supporters of the bill cited the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas, and the associated hardships, as a reason for the bill.
Rep. Cindy Golding, who helped author the bill and chaired the subcommittee, said the past four years of drought conditions in Iowa and the things she has heard from friends and family in Kansas, showed her that water use in Iowa needed to be addressed.
“Water is a real problem,” Golding, a Republican from rural Linn County, said. “And not wanting Iowa to get (like Kansas), I’d like us to have a process in place before we get there.”
House File 480 would remove the definition of beneficial use from current code and redefine it so the Department of Natural Resources would determine beneficial use in a “case-by-case basis” that is not based on the applicant’s category of use.
Iowa Code holds that beneficial use includes that “waste or unreasonable use” of water resources be prevented and the “conservation and protection” of water resources is “required.”
The DNR’s interpretation of beneficial use has been central to an ongoing fight between water advocates and landowners in northeast Iowa over a water use permit renewal for a cattle operation near Bloody Run Creek.
In November, an administrative law judge remanded the DNR’s decision to renew the permit and said the department needed to evaluate quality, as well as quantity when determining beneficial use.
Wally Taylor, legal chair of the Iowa Chapter of Sierra Club, said Iowa Code as written has “conflicting definitions of beneficial use” but that the bill would clear up the definition to be in the interest of the people.
“With the several years of drought that we’ve had, that makes it even more imperative that we take precautions to make sure that we’re not willy nilly granting permits to withdraw water from our aquifers,” Taylor said. “It’s a public resource that needs to be protected for the public.”
Iowa’s relation to groundwater was an issue at the Statehouse last year as well, when the Legislature voted to allocate $250,000 to research the condition of the state’s aquifers.
The proposal advanced with unanimous support. Other lobbyists registered, including DNR, took an undecided stance.
