Iowa City and Clean Water

An event

I was about 20 hours into Ron Chernow’s “Washington: A Life” when I finally arrived in Iowa City last Thursday. The entire audio of the Washington biography is about 48 hours. I’ve been listening on airplanes and gardening and on long road trips across the Midwest.

At this point, there is little I don’t know about George, Martha, or the Custis kids. I studied slavery at Mount Vernon in 2019 after I won a scholarship, so I already have sort of a wealth of Washington information. I like to do something productive with my long drives, and I have already read Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, so this was my next deep dive into a founder. And with Chernow…I mean deep.

I quickly noticed that Chernow is more than gracious with his retelling of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the many farms Washington owned. I’ve seen those cabins, and I know Washington sent a few enslaved people to the West Indies, which was a likely death sentence.

It’s hard to mesh that knowledge with the Washington I learned about in middle school. The cherry tree was a lie, but I’ve learned that he had a set of dentures procured from an enslaved man — I’ve never forgotten that or just how that procurement likely happened. He and his wife owned other human beings and forced them to labor. I also know he was a loving stepfather and a war hero and a founder. The first President — a man of stoicism.

These juxtapositions all tangle up when studying our nation’s history.

The last two hours of my drive were broken up into 30 minute stints. I had driven over something on the way up and I had a slow leak in my tire. A light in my car alerted me to the low tire and I was able to keep driving, but it was an annoyance to stop four times for air.

I was to speak with Dr Chris Jones at an event about clean water and rural decline. I couldn’t be late, so I dealt with the tire every half hour. As soon as I pulled into Big Grove Brewery, a man was waiting from roadside to put on my donut spare which meant I was going to be staying the night in Iowa City. No big deal. I could get the tire patched in the morning.

I changed for the event in the bathroom, per my usual, and walked into the back room for the event. IT WAS PACKED. I mean, a few folks even stood against the wall at the event after all of the seating was taken.

Chris Jones is well known in this town, as he should be. He was a professor at the University of Iowa. He’s a scientist. He’s a prolific writer on clean water and big ag and corporate farming and the biggest taboo topic: growing corn for ethanol in Iowa.

If you’re not from the corn belt, you may not understand just how “radical” his words are. He says the things most are unwilling to say and he is bipartisan in his efforts and his ire. He is willing to tell Republicans and Democrats the same thing: don’t take campaign money to look the other way while corporations poison Iowa water.

From Keith Schneider:

…the path to farm prosperity is dirtied by how law and practice enables scandalous mismanagement of Iowa agriculture’s gargantuan waste stream. Jones has elevated that scandal to statewide attention. He’s taken on the biggest and most influential players in Iowa agriculture who countenance the accelerating degradation of state waters and human health – the ultra conservative Legislature now dominated by MAGA lawmakers. The Iowa Farm Bureau. The state’s weak regulatory agencies.

Chris left his position at the University to prevent a few angered lawmakers from defunding his department. Chris wrote for years on Iowa water quality and knew the consequences and he did it anyway. Chris speaks truth to power.

He’s exactly the sort of company I like to keep.

The Iowa City event was 1.5 hours of constant energy and information and questions. This is the 4th event I’ve done with Chris, and at first I was a little confused about my role in the event. I speak to crowds to teach organization and motivation to oppose lawmakers who won’t listen to constituents…to tell folks about my run in rural Missouri and ask them to consider running in their own community. I speak to remind people of what a supermajority does to a state and how it doesn’t matter the political party if no one will listen to their constituents. Especially about clean water and education and health care.

That’s the thing. It’s all interconnected. It’s intersectional. It all blends into a narrative of wealthy and well-connected people and corporations harming the rest of us with the help of state houses across the country.

After we spoke, there were many who gathered to ask more questions or tell us their own stories. I met several women with cancer. I heard so many stories about cancer…family members and children and parents and neighbors.

According to the 2024 Cancer in Iowa report, Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the United States and the fastest-growing rate of new cancers.

Iowa is the only state where the rate of new cancers has increased.

Chris Jones and many other scientists point directly at farm chemicals and runoff and overspray. They point to rampant fertilizer and pesticide contamination in the water.

I spoke on political activism. I answered a man who wondered what to do when Iowa lakes and streams are so polluted that he won’t allow his children to swim in the same lakes and streams he grew up swimming in.

I spoke to librarians who are alarmed at the new book bans in Iowa. So far, over 3,000 books have been pulled from Iowa public school libraries.

I spoke to a Special Ed teacher who pointed to the defunding of Iowa SpEd support systems known as Area Education Agency networks. These AEAs facilitate services for children and some adults with disabilities.

I spoke to a woman who has served on a school board for over a decade and is thinking of running for higher office. I encouraged her to do it. No one understands the needs and the funding mechanisms of public schools more than a school board member.

I spoke to candidates for the Iowa House. I talked to so many people who are justified in their anger over water quality and rural decline and the fact that lawmakers will not listen much less act.

The event was a success in that a few attendees left feeling called to run for office.

But, I’ll leave you with a story that Chris told toward the end of our event that nearly took my breath away.

The America Needs Farmers game is held each year at Hawkeye Stadium. It began in 1985 in the midst of the Farm Crisis that claimed thousands of Iowa farms. This game is now sponsored by the Iowa Farm Bureau. *I invite you to do your research on the Farm Bureau and just exactly who they support.

Because of the pollution in the Iowa River, the University has its own treatment plant that removes the nitrates from the water to make it suitable for drinking. The water hydration stations at the University of Iowa stadium are sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association…the same group who opposes regulations on certain farming practices and chemicals.

During this game and others, there is a beautiful tradition at the football stadium in which, after the end of the first quarter, fans turn toward the Children’s Hospital overlooking the stadium and wave at the sick children and their parents watching the game from their hospital rooms.

Chris asked a question to the audience that still haunts me…

“Will we ever connect the dots and think about why some of those children are in the hospital in the first place?”

~Jess