US-HOG-FARM-LAWSUIT-IOWA

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A sharply divided Iowa Supreme Court has stopped a lawsuit challenging the state’s management of fertilizer and hog farm pollution in rivers and streams from going to trial. The 4-3 decision Friday dealt a significant defeat to the two environmental groups that sued. They were hoping to get the chance to prove that Iowa should scrap it’s voluntary farm pollution policy and order new mandatory limits on nitrogen and phosphorous pollution. It’s the latest court rejection of an attempt to force the nation’s leading corn and pork producing state to clean up farm pollutants from its major rivers that provide drinking water to hundreds of thousands of Iowans.