MAKE CONSERVATION PAY: YOU CAN WRITE OFF TILE IMPROVEMENTS AND CONSERVATION EXPENSES.'BUT MAYBE INCENTIVES SHOULD BE BIGGER FOR TNNOVATIVE PRACTICES.

摘要

The Des Moines Water Works is going to court, seeking to turn drainage districts in three northern Iowa counties into point-source polluters that need permits under the Clean Water Act. The Water Works board unanimously OK'd its intent to sue at a raucous meeting last winter that drew scores of activists, then approved litigation last month.The case alleges that the drainage districts are transporting groundwater nitrates at four times the safe drinking water limit through pipes and ditches into the Raccoon River, the city's main water source. It could set a national precedent, narrowing an exemption for nonpoint pollution farmers have had since 1972. Farms in drainage districts could be treated, indirecdy, like factories, sewage treatment plants, and big livestock operations already regulated as point sources.