Is Obama retreating on clean water for Iowa?

President Barack Obama’s top environmental official pledged to build trust with farmers in Iowa and elsewhere who have been roundly critical of federal regulation.

“My commitment to you is that at the end of my term, we will have a stronger, more productive, more trusting relationship between EPA and the agriculture community,” Gina McCarthy, the newly appointed administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Thursday during a speech in Des Moines. “Why are we going to do that? It benefits me, it benefits you, and it will make this country stronger.”

The Iowa farmers in the audience — including those who have chafed at the thought of regulation of farm dust, youth employment and heavy penalties for farm runoff problems — all applauded her warmly.

“She’s probably the most on-track EPA director we’ve ever talked to,” said Nancy Beyer, a co-owner of Koszta Farm Corp., a corn and soybean farm in rural Belle Plaine. “This reception was quite favorable.”

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130816/BUSINESS/308160064/Iowa-farmers-upbeat-after-EPA-chief-s-speech-in-Des-Moines?Frontpage

Iowa ranks 49th for clean water and this is not acceptable any more.