Author: Phoebe Galt

For Immediate Release

DES MOINES, IA — Two weeks ago, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a split 4-3 ruling against the plaintiffs in Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Food & Water Watch v. State of Iowa. Today, the plaintiffs filed a petition for rehearing asking the Court to reconsider its decision. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Food & Water Watch believe that Iowans have a right to clean water, that it is the duty of the legislature to protect that right, and that it is the courts’ role to always protect the constitutional rights of Iowans.

The lawsuit and petition were filed by Food & Water Watch and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, who are represented in the action by Food & Water Watch, Public Justice, Roxanne Conlin & Associates, and Channing Dutton, of Lawyer, Lawyer, Dutton & Drake LLP.

The case responds to decades of state inaction as thousands of factory farms and fertilizer runoff pollute Iowa waterways, particularly impacting the Raccoon River, which is essential for drinking water and recreation. For years, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Food & Water Watch have built a grassroots movement in Iowa around legislative reform to pass a statewide factory farm moratorium. Given legislative inaction, the groups sued the State of Iowa in 2019, seeking a legal remedy for the water pollution in the Raccoon River caused by unabated factory farm expansion and industrial agricultural pollution in the watershed.

After the District Court denied the State’s motion to dismiss the case, the State appealed and two weeks ago the Iowa Supreme Court reversed, with a four-justice majority concluding that the groups lack legal standing and the case presents a “political question” best left to the legislature. The groups are committed to exhausting all possible remedies to Iowa’s compounding water and agricultural pollution crises, and are filing the petition to ask the Court to reconsider its decision not only because of the urgency of the water quality crises, but also to ask the Court to revisit the factual and legal analysis in the decision, as the three dissenting justices argued. 

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Food & Water Watch v. State of Iowa will set  precedent that will affect the constitutional rights of Iowans, access to the courts to protect those rights, and the courts’ role to hold the legislature accountable to Iowans, including to ensure the public’s right to use and enjoy navigable waters. In their petition for rehearing, the plaintiffs argue the need for a closer review of the narrowly divided court’s opinion, warning that the new legal barriers the Supreme Court relied on are inconsistent with Iowa law and the courts’ constitutional role to protect Iowans’ constitutional rights. Specifically, because the State never contested the constitutional basis for the right to clean water, the Court should have allowed the case to proceed. The Supreme Court applied a federal limit on access to judicial relief never before applied in Iowa courts. Applying that new limit, the Court concluded that a court could not provide a remedy for water pollution, leaving Iowans a right to clean water without a remedy. 

“As our state flag says, ‘our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain,’” said Emma Schmit, Food & Water Watch Iowa Organizer. “On behalf of our 18,400 members and supporters in the state of Iowa, we are committed to the fight for safe, clean drinking water. We respectfully invite our Supreme Court to reconsider the precedent this case sets and the effects their decision will have on the health, safety and recreational enjoyment of Iowans across the Raccoon River watershed. But whatever the Court decides, we will not rest until we have gained relief from the factory farms and agricultural pollution endangering our drinking water.”

“We maintain that all Iowans have a right to clean water — and that the state has a duty to protect that right. The legislature, Governor, and Iowa’s state agencies have failed to protect Iowans’ right to clean water as provided by the Iowa Constitution. These facts are clear,” said Adam Mason, State Policy Director at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. “With this action today, we pledge that the fight for clean water in Iowa is far from over.”

“The Court has effectively decided that the right to clean water is a right without a remedy,” said Brent Newell, Public Justice Food Project Senior Attorney. “We are all too familiar with the ways in which Big Ag contributes to Iowa’s water pollution and makes Iowans pay for it. As we continue our fight in defending Iowans’ right to clean water, we believe the Court has the opportunity to honor its duty to protect Iowans’ constitutional and property rights. The Court can affirm these constitutional protections by granting this petition and allowing this case to proceed to trial.”

Contact: Phoebe Galt, [email protected]

For Immediate Release

Annapolis, MD — Tomorrow, July 1, Governor Hogan will lift the COVID-19 state of emergency in Maryland, opening up the economy without ever having put mandatory safety guidelines for the essential workers who keep Maryland running. Food and farm workers — who have labored throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to keep grocery stores stocked and put food on the table for families across the state — still have not been afforded the protections needed in the face of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant and risk of future outbreaks.

“Food and farm workers in Maryland may seem invisible, because many live in rural areas and in employer-provided housing,” said Leila Borrero-Krouse, organizer and immigration Specialist for CATA Farmworker Support Committee. “But they are essential! Sadly, our state government has been treating them as expendable during this pandemic. These workers still lack basic protections, and face difficulties accessing vaccinations and transportation to COVID-19 testing. They are often afraid to speak up about these conditions for fear of losing their jobs or immigration status. It is shameful that the Hogan administration is lifting the state of emergency having done nothing for them.”

Maryland’s eastern shore counties, home to the state’s extensive agricultural and fishing industries, have some of the state’s lowest vaccination rates. The workplace struggles facing frontline food and farm workers have been extensively detailed, with everything from lack of medical leave to whistleblower retaliation limiting the ability for these workers to receive the protections they need to stay safe.

“These workers, largely excluded from basic workplace safety protections, will be laboring in fields and factories in communities with low vaccination rates while the incredibly infectious Delta variant spreads,” said Dr. Gwen DuBois, President of Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Without protective standards in place, their employers will be required to provide nothing to protect them. For food and farm workers, this pandemic is far from over. They will be exposed to this deadly virus, hot weather conditions, and pesticides – further weakening their ability to be safe. Since Maryland is collecting no data on their rate of infection, hospitalization and death, this injustice will be hidden from the public.”

Despite consistent advocate pressure, Governor Hogan has failed to enact a comprehensive plan to protect frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. After nearly a year of inaction that put thousands of workers at risk, the legislature passed the Maryland Essential Workers’ Protection Act to safeguard workers during the state of emergency. With the lifting of the state of emergency, the bill’s most critical protections will not be enacted.

“We should not reopen Maryland without a comprehensive plan to safeguard food and farm workers,” said Lily Hawkins, Food & Water Watch Maryland Organizer. “If we want to return to business as usual, we need to double down on ensuring that our most essential workers are kept safe. As Governor Hogan continues to fail workers, the General Assembly should prioritize passing legislation to establish permanent workplace protection standards for airborne disease transmission.” 

“Maryland’s food and farm workers deserve and need protection in order to keep themselves, their families, and our communities safe,” said Amy Liebman, Director of the Environmental and Occupational Health Programs for the Migrant Clinicians Network. “And our state needs to step in to ensure that the workers who put food on our tables are protected and provided a safe place to work.” 

“Governor Hogan has once again abdicated his duty to essential workers in Maryland,” said Chloe Waterman, senior program manager at Friends of the Earth. “By ending the state of emergency and unemployment benefits without any mandatory workplace safety standards, Governor Hogan is putting essential workers and our economy at risk.” 

Contact: Phoebe Galt, [email protected]WWatch.Org

For Immediate Release

Des Moines, IA — Today, the Iowa Supreme Court split and ruled 4-3 against the plaintiffs in Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Food & Water Watch v. State of Iowa regarding a lawsuit against the State of Iowa for failing to protect the public use of the Raccoon River. The lawsuit focuses on a well-known water crisis in Des Moines and Polk County: the polluted Raccoon River.

For years, industrial agriculture within the watershed has contaminated the Raccoon River with toxic levels of nitrates, landing it on this year’s Most Endangered Rivers list. And, this year is the third in a row where the Des Moines area has experienced algae blooms in its waterways due to that unabated runoff. Just this week, the Des Moines Water Works asked residents of the capital city to ration water consumption, given the water crisis.

The lawsuit was filed by Food & Water Watch and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, who are represented in the action by Food & Water Watch, Public Justice, Roxanne Conlin & Associates, and Channing Dutton, of Lawyer, Lawyer, Dutton & Drake LLP.

Motivated by concern for the Raccoon River, whose watershed provides drinking water to 500,000 Iowans in the greater Des Moines area, the groups sued the State of Iowa in March of 2019 for failing to protect the public’s use of the river. In September 2019, Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hanson denied the State’s request to dismiss the case. The State appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, and today the Court’s four-Justice majority decided that a favorable decision would not remedy the harm from pollution in the river and that the case raised political questions that the legislature, not the courts, should resolve. As a result, although the Court recognized that the case seeks to address “a real environmental problem,” the lawsuit will not proceed and unabated agricultural water pollution will continue to pollute the Raccoon River.

The groups’ suit relied on the Iowa Constitution and the Public Trust Doctrine, which require the state to protect Iowans’ right to use and enjoy Iowa’s lakes and rivers.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Food & Water Watch issued a joint statement:

“Iowans have the right to clean water. According to the Public Trust Doctrine, which has been Iowa law since Iowa became a state, it is the State’s duty to protect that right. The legislature failed to protect Iowans’ right to clean water as provided by the Iowa Constitution. The Iowa Supreme Court has decided that a favorable decision in our case would not remedy the harm from pollution in the Raccoon River and that the lawsuit raised political questions that the legislature, not the courts, should resolve. Until further action is taken, industrial agricultural runoff will continue to pollute the river unimpeded, and Iowans’ right to clean water will remain a right without a remedy. We speak for many people across the state of Iowa when we say that we are deeply disappointed.”

Despite the Court’s split 4-3 decision, Iowa’s water is worth fighting for. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Food & Water Watch, and partners across the state will continue harnessing the grassroots power that brought us here today to seek real, actionable solutions to Iowa’s water crisis.

We are considering all options moving forward, and absolutely believe that all Iowans have a right to clean water — and that the state has a duty to protect that right. The fight for clean water in Iowa is far from over.

Contact: Phoebe Galt, [email protected]

For Immediate Release

Dover, DE — This afternoon, advocates, experts and impacted residents representing Food & Water Watch, Concerned Citizens Against Industrial CAFOs, the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project and the Sussex Health & Environmental Network held a virtual press conference to sound the alarm on Delmarva’s factory farm biogas threat. Today’s press conference marked the anniversary of the first factory farm biogas project in the region’s contract with Chesapeake Utilities to provide the “renewable natural gas” to the regional energy grid — a project advocates see as a harbinger of what is to come.

Factory farm biogas, termed “renewable natural gas” by the natural gas and industrial agriculture industries, is a false climate solution seeing increasing investment from industries posturing toward “greener” revenue sources. Approved by the Sussex County Council last month, Bioenergy DevCo’s facility in Delaware is set to be the first poultry factory farm biogas project in the region, should the state environmental agency issue the slew of pollution permits the facility would require. Recent investments and the market potential indicate that this project is only the start of a regional buildout threat on the densely concentrated poultry-producing peninsula.

Advocates highlighted the criticality of proactive state policy in preventing biogas, fossil fuel and factory farm entrenchment in the region, citing public health, environmental justice and climate concerns with the dirty practice. Greg Layton, Delaware Organizer with Food & Water Watch said:

“By creating a market for waste and monetizing its production, factory farm biogas incentivizes the buildout of more factory farms and processing plants, deepening our economic reliance on the destructive and deadly form of agriculture that is daily spurring on the climate crisis. The project moving forward in Delaware is a canary in the coal mine for what is to come should biogas buildout continue unchecked in Delmarva — Governor Carney must pursue proactive state policy to check the buildout of this dirty industry before it’s too late.”

“Where does it stop? When will the voices of a community be heard? Residents are saying no to diseases, hydrogen sulfide and the potential for explosions in their community,” said Monica Brooks, an organizer and local leader with Concerned Citizens Against Industrial CAFOs. “This is not about green energy — it is about justifying the overproduction of poultry on the peninsula. This is about forcing residents to endure and pay for the consequences of a choice that they never made. The voices of frontline, disenfranchised communities of color matter.”

“Factory farm biogas is just another assault on the public health of Black and brown communities and the right to breathe clean air and drink pure water,” said Maria Payan, Senior Regional Representative for Socially Responsible Agriculture Project and co-founder of Sussex Health and Environmental Network. “To bring other states’ factory farm processing waste into Sussex County’s poor minority communities is reprehensible. This isn’t ‘clean energy’ — it’s an ugly scheme to benefit industrial poultry polluters despite opposition from hundreds of local residents.”

A press packet to accompany the event, including relevant research is available at the following link. For a recording of the event, please reach out to Phoebe Galt.

Contact: Phoebe Galt, [email protected]