President Biden has announced a disaster declaration in Iowa, opening up federal funding for Clay, Emmet, Lyon, Plymouth and Sioux counties, amidst deadly record-breaking flooding. As officials warn against drinking the water, and caution that Northern Iowa rivers and lakes are unsafe for swimming and boating, Food & Water Watch is sounding the alarm on the health risks posed by flooded factory farms in the region.

A Food & Water Watch analysis finds that these five counties are home to over 900 factory farms producing a collective 23.6 billion pounds of animal waste annually — 175 times the counties’ human waste. Floodwaters can breach manure pits and lagoons, flushing animal feces and urine ladened with bacteria, parasites, viruses and nitrates into homes and waterways. Several such discharges have already occurred in Clay, Lyon, Sioux, Dickinson, O’Brien and Osceola Counties.

Humans that come into contact with or consume manure-contaminated flood water are at increased risk of contracting waterborne illnesses including: 

• E. coli infections that can lead to severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea, vomiting and even kidney failure and death.
• Giardia infections that can lead to diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss and long term intestinal complications.
• Drinking nitrate contaminated water is linked to birth defects and several types of cancers.

This has happened before. In 2018, flooding in NW Iowa caused manure overflows at 28 livestock operations. And when Hurricane Florence ravaged eastern North Carolina in 2018, it caused extensive flooding of factory farms, drowning thousands of hogs and causing dozens of manure lagoons to overflow or breach entirely. Floodwaters carried this toxic mixture of hog carcasses and “fecal soup” downstream into flooded homes and neighborhoods, and contributed to a spike in E. coli contamination of private drinking water wells.

Food & Water Watch Research Director Amanda Starbuck issued the following statement:

“Factory farm waste poses a serious threat to public health — especially when it’s flooding your living room. Manure pits and lagoons are disasters waiting to happen; when extreme weather hits, they put everything downstream at risk of serious contamination. Iowans recovering from these devastating floods must remain on constant guard against the threat of animal waste contaminating properties, water supplies and waterways. It takes more than disaster declarations to keep Iowans safe — Governor Reynolds must start regulating this industry’s pollution, and support the Clean Water for Iowa Act to reign in factory farm waste once and for all.”