[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's environmental law news, the Iowa Administrative Rules Review Committee [official website] has agreed to allow a set of water quality rules [backgrounder] to go into effect on March 22. The rules will bring Iowa into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) [PDF text]. Amongst other differences, Iowa laws had been operating with a presumption that some waterways could not be brought into compliance with pollution levels, whereas the CWA presumes that all waterways can be cleaned unless shown otherwise. The Des Moines Register has more.

In other environmental law news…

• The Idaho state Senate [official website] passed Resolution no.131 [text] Monday that would cap the state's mercury emissions level at zero until at least January 7, 2007 and calls on the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality [official website] to produce a report on the current levels and sources of mercury in the state. The resolution could stall a proposed coal-fired power plant from being built in southern Idaho. The Twin Falls Times-News has more.
• Environmentalists and dairy farmers clashed at a public meeting Monday in the San Joaquin Valley of California. The meeting is part of a series of public workshops [PDF press release] about an air pollution rule) [draft rule 4570, PDF] being proposed by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District [official website] which would apply to dairies with at least 1,000 milking cows. The rule would apply to over 230 farms in the district, and would require many of those created before 2004 to retrofit or modify their current practices. The rule is designed to allow the District to meet state and federal Clean Air Act [text] standards for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a primary smog component. The Fresno Bee has more.