The Administrative Rules Review Committee will hold its regular, statutory meeting on Tuesday, August 11, 2015, beginning at 9:00 a.m. in Room 103 , State Capitol, Des Moines, Iowa.

At 10:20 a.m. the 4″ Topsoil preservation at construction sites will be reviewed and voted on.
•NPDES general permit no.2 — topsoil preservation at construction sites, 64.15 Filed ARC 2054C.

Please attend. This will be the final meeting that allows a rule change which will eviscerate a rule adopted in 2012 to reduce storm water runoff from new construction sites. The rule previously required developers to put at least four inches of topsoil back on sites. Thanks to a lobbying campaign from home-builders, the new wording requires topsoil replacement “unless infeasible,” without defining that term. So any developer who doesn’t feel like spending money to put topsoil back can claim it would have been “infeasible” to do so. This will not improve water quality in Iowa. It is important to have plenty of people present who will represent water quality and homeowner concerns.