A new study published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics reveals that 2003 Clean Water Act regulations, while effective for their intended targets, ultimately had little to no impact on water quality in Iowa due to the shift it caused in the structure of the state’s hog industry.
The research, conducted by Chen-Ti Chen and Gabriel E. Lade of The Ohio State University, John M. Crespi of Iowa State University, and David A. Keiser of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, investigated the effects of federal regulations on water quality downstream of large hog animal feeding operations (AFOs) in Iowa. Iowa is the nation's largest hog-producing state, raising about a third of all U.S. hogs. The study linked historical regulatory records of AFOs to nearby, downstream water pollution monitors from 2000 to 2012 to determine the regulations' impact.
"When these updates to the Clean Water Act were passed, the EPA estimated that the regulations would lead to valuable improvements in downstream water quality that would justify the permitting and construction costs they impose on animal producers," said Dr. Gabriel Lade, Associate Professor and C. William Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy. "Our study set out to see if those benefits were realized."
Source : osu.edu