An action alert went out on the Iowa Sierra Club list this morning:

From: Lyle Krewson

Subject: HF2688 up for Senate debate

The Senate Majority Leader  gave the list of bills for today. It includes HF

2688, the Odor Control Bill–please contact your State Senator now!

We do have amendments being offered but no amendments were included during

House debate last week.

ACTION NEEDED:

We need you to contact your State Senator to vote NO on HF2688. Below is a

sample email that you may personalize–always be sure to include your name

and mailing address on an email to a Legislator.

You may find your Iowa State Senator by going to this weblink and using your

address or 9-digit ZIP code: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/F…

If you wish to call your State Senator, the switchboard # is: 515-281-3371.

The rest of the alert, which includes more details about this bill and some talking points for you to use, is after the jump.

From Lyle Krewson, lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Iowa:

The ODOR CONTROL bill seeks to:

Provide for the establishment and administration of efforts to mitigate odor

emitted from livestock operations involving swine, beef or dairy cattle,

chickens, or turkeys. The bill is divided into a research effort to reduce

the impact of odor and an evaluation effort to assist in siting new

livestock operations. The efforts are to be conducted by Iowa state

university in consultation with the department of agriculture and land

stewardship and the department of natural resources.

       – IT DOES NOT, however, require research into the health effects of

the odor or air pollution from the facilities.

One purpose of the bill is to accelerate the adoption of affordable and

effective odor mitigation technologies and strategies by livestock

producers.

       – YOU as a neighbor may not see this research result, which as a

taxpayer you may be asked to fund.

A second purpose of the bill is to develop a livestock odor mitigation

evaluation effort which determines the potential odor exposure to persons

who would be a neighbor to a new livestock operation as proposed to be

constructed. The bill provides that the effort is contingent upon moneys

being appropriated to the university to conduct the effort.

       – THE CAFO INDUSTRY wants you as a taxpayer to fund the research and

install the technologies at their facilities to be used from then on.

The livestock odor mitigation evaluation effort provides for three levels of

possible participation by a person who requests the evaluation,

corresponding to the complexity of the proposed site of construction, and

provides for an increasing degree of involvement by the person and the

university.

       – THE RESEARCH is good, but you pay! I n other states the industry

has been required to pay all or part of similar research, research we could

be applying in Iowa NOW.

SO…taxpayers could be funding the research, they get the technology, and

you may not get the research results. And in the end, after the research

there is still no requirement that the results actually be required, or made

applicable in the future!

Any questions may be referred to our lobbyist  at lylekrewson@mchsi.com  .

Sierra Club has an established policy against the proliferation of

improperly regulated CAFOs, and has sought for years to improve the

monitoring and regulation of air pollution and its health effects. In Iowa

that has been a continuing and difficult, not yet fully achieved, struggle.

A top priority policy principle for the Sierra Club is that the polluter

should bear the primary cost of mitigating pollution from their actions or

operations. This is a long-standing position. We seek that on this issue

too.

SAMPLE LETTER or Email – please re-phrase it into your own words!

Dear Senator:

Please oppose legislation that would encourage further development of

inadequately regulated Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Iowa.

The industry is already heavily subsidized by pollution equipment tax

credits and liability shielding those facilities from ‘nuisance lawsuits.’

If HF 2688 is enacted as it passed the House, it

       – Does not require research into the health effects of the odor or

air pollution from the facilities.

       – As a neighbor and concerned Iowan, I may not be able to see this

research result, nor is it required to be implemented in the end.

       – and as a taxpayer, the CAFO industry wants me a to fund the

research, and install the technologies at their facilities to be used from

then on.

In other states the industry has been required to pay all or part of similar

research, research we could be applying in Iowa NOW.

SO…I fund the research, they get the technology, and citizens do not get

the research results. And in the end, after the research there is still no

requirement that the results actually be required, or made applicable in the

future!

Your NO vote on HF2688, the ODOR CONTROL bill this year is critical.  This

is so important to Iowa and our future; and important to me as an Iowan. I

do not want further delay in protecting Iowans from the health effects and

odor of emissions from confined animal feeding operations. And I do not want

my tax dollars paying an operator to fix a problem that operator created.

Sincerely,

(Your Signature block)