Letter to the Editor

I recently attended an Iowa CCI Action Clean Water Lobby Day where we lobbied for a moratorium on factory farms. First of all, I want to thank Senator Ken Rozenboom, Republican from Mahaska County, for agreeing to meet with us. However, Mr. Rozenboom, I feel a little frustrated that you came into the meeting with an attitude, half-truths, and questioning facts the DNR has supplied the public.
He even went as far to say our waterways are cleaner today than ever and that Lake Red Rock is polluted by the large number of seagulls. We’ll never clean up Iowa’s 750 impaired water bodies if we continue to deny that there is a water quality crisis.
All we were asking from Mr. Rozenboom is for him to schedule a sub-committee meeting for SF 2008, the moratorium bill, so this important issue can be debated at the capitol. Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Rozenboom doesn’t believe in open-public debate on issues impacting thousands of Iowans.
If Mr. Rozenboom won’t agree to schedule a hearing, maybe it’s because he and his brother own factory farms housing over 5,000 hogs?
John Lichty
West Des Moines, IA