Editorial: People will notice

The death of the East Nishnabotna River in Southwest Iowa, first by a massive fertilizer leakage and then by a fuel spill, recently caught the public notice. More than 750,000 fish, including many passels full of channel catfish, were exterminated by two massive toxic shocks.

It should not be viewed as mere coincidence that Iowa is the only state with a rising cancer rate, and ranks second behind Kentucky for per-capita cancer incidence. We are immersed in anhydrous ammonia, liquid manure, glyphosate and dicamba. Our surface water is the most polluted in America. The Mississippi and Raccoon rivers have been listed as among the most endangered in America, but you could include the Des Moines and Little Sioux and Rock and any other river in the same state. Our lakes, including Black Hawk and Storm Lake, are imperiled and not fit for their intended use, according to the latest state compilation.

People are paying attention. They voted to amend the state constitution a decade ago to devote a permanent stream of revenue to natural resource protection, including water quality. The legislature has refused to appropriate the fractional sales tax approved by more than 60% of voters.

Voters wonder about the connections between this chemical bath, our water and the rising rates of breast cancer and prostate cancer. Studies also have shown a link between concentrated livestock production and higher rates of respiratory illness especially in children.

Widespread concern hasn’t spread to the legislature, but many have the feeling that it is about to.

Repeated polling shows that air and water quality are among the top public concerns, particularly among centrist voters. At this point, the Republican Party in control is steaming in the opposite direction. Immunity is offered to chemical companies if they obscure the dangers of their products. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is being dismantled. Water quality monitoring has been cut back. IDNR facilities are in disrepair. The latest plan is to eliminate state park rangers. The state livestock confinement coordinator was eliminated. Nobody really knows what is going on out there until the call comes in from Shenandoah.

If your pickup were full of channel catfish you just netted from the river, the state would write you a ticket into bankruptcy if not jail. If you spread anhydrous or spray herbicide, you can do whatever you please. If you kill the river, you will pay a fine that might skin your knees but certainly not break your bank.

Eventually folks pick up on how the costs of corporate excess are borne by the water consumers in Des Moines, Storm Lake and Shenandoah. Those costs include higher water rates, higher cancer rates, fewer independent farmers and weakened rural communities. It is propped up, aided and abetted by a political system that is owned and controlled by out-of-state corporations that pollute our water, degrade our soil and kill our people. Elections have consequences, they say, and the public might not be as apathetic and ignorant as the profiteers assume. People alarmed directly by cancer will force the minority Democrats out of their stupor to develop a message that resonates: We are poisoning ourselves for the sake of the consolidators and the chemical conglomerates.