Four Iowa officials, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, this week submitted comments praising a new water-quality rule that is especially controversial among farmers, while 155 nongovernment organizations called the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal the “Dirty Water Rule.”

Reynolds, Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig, Acting Iowa Department of Natural Resources Director Bruce Trautman and Iowa Department of Transportation Director Mark Lowe wrote in joint comments: “The new [Waters of the United States] rule provides much needed stability for our farmers whose livelihoods depend upon their ability to work the land,” Reynolds said in a statement, adding that she sees the rule as reining in a version approved by the Obama administration.

Said Naig: “Farmers, businesses and communities need to clearly understand what bodies of water are and are not covered under the rule. We appreciate the EPA’s willingness to listen to farmers, address their concerns about the previous definition, and give the public the opportunity to weigh in on the proposed changes.”

In February, the EPA proposed changes to the definition of WOTUS as outlined in 2015. The letter from Reynolds, Naig, Trautman and Lowe was submitted to the EPA during the 60-day public comment period. 

The Sierra Club, a major environmental nonprofit, had a different view, pointing out that the rule had drawn 500,000 comments from members of the public who see the new rule as withdrawing protections from many waterways. 

“It’s clear that the public doesn’t support this radical and unscientific reinterpretation of one of our nation’s bedrock environmental laws,” Bob Wendelgass, Clean Water Action president and CEO, said in a statement. “Wiping out the safeguards that we have relied on for nearly five decades will put our health and communities at risk, and will only benefit the corporate special interests who have tried to weaken the Clean Water Act since it passed in 1972. Americans know that we need to do more, not less to protect our water and have responded with a resounding no every time the Trump administration or Congress has tried to gut protections for our water.”