DES MOINES — Iowa has one of the nation’s most restrictive laws for when an individual can file civil claims concerning sexual abuse of a child.
Statehouse Democrats are pushing to change that.
Last year, Iowa repealed its statute of limitations on criminal charges for child sex abuse. But that new law did not include a similar repeal of the statute of limitations on civil claims, under which victims can seek financial damages.
At this time, an Iowan has until his or her 19th birthday to file civil claims for child sexual abuse.
That makes Iowa one of 11 states that caps the time when an individual can file civil claims at 25 years old or younger, according to the national advocacy organization Child USA.
A dozen states have no statute of limitations on civil claims for child sex abuse, according to Child USA.
Democratic state lawmakers are pushing their Republican colleagues — who are in the agenda-setting majorities in both chambers of the Iowa Legislature — to pass legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on civil claims over child sex abuse.
People are also reading…
Sen. Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, said state lawmakers could be passing legislation while the Legislature is held up due to Republicans negotiating over the final bills of this year’s session.
“This is the perfect time for the two parties to come together and get rid of our worst-in-the-nation ranking for child sex abuse,” Petersen said recently on the Iowa Senate floor. “We have a bill that’s ready to go.”
Democrats proposed Senate File 32, but it has received no legislative attention this session. The spokesman for Senate Republican leadership did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Petersen in her floor remarks referred to an opinion piece co-written by Kylie DeWees, who is an Iowan, a law student and a survivor of child sexual abuse. DeWees’ piece appeared in The Gazette.
“(DeWees) would have more rights in 44 other states to go after her abuser for something as simple as even paying her therapy expenses,” Petersen said. “But in Iowa, she has no justice, no access to the courts.”
In the opinion piece — co-written with Kathryn Robb, executive director of CHILD USAdvocacy and also a survivor of child sex abuse — DeWees and Robb argue that the statute of limitations on civil claims provides shelter for some perpetrators of child sex abuse, because not all cases are tried criminally.
Iowa is the #2 state with the most people living near toxic release facilities
Iowa is the #2 state with the most people living near toxic release facilities
Corporate sites across the U.S are releasing toxins into the surrounding land, air, and water on a regular basis—and often unbeknownst to surrounding communities.
After an accidental release from a chemical plant in West Virginia in 1985, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. The act established the EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), which provides citizens with crucial information on the toxins being emitted locally and the names of companies doing the emitting. The TRI has allowed certain states to put emission-curbing legislation in place to safeguard public health, as was the case when Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker in 2019 passed legislation allocating $2.4 billion to climate change resilience.
Stacker analyzed data from the EPA TRI and the U.S. Census Bureau's five-year American Community Survey to identify the percentage of each state's population living in census tracts with toxic release sites, as well as the corporations and facilities responsible for emitting the highest amounts of toxins annually. These results, released in October 2021, reflect the last full year of data, 2020, from the 2020 National Analysis Dataset.
Keep reading to discover where the most toxins are being released in your state, what part of your environment they may be polluting, and who is being affected. You can also read the national story here.
Iowa by the numbers
- Population living near toxic release sites: 33.5%
--- 32.0% of state's white population
--- 38.4% of state's Hispanic population
--- 26.6% of state's Black population
--- 36.7% of state's Native American population
--- 27.6% of state's Asian population
--- 36.2% of state's Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population
- Total number of sites: 479
Swift Pork emitted the most toxins of any site in Iowa in 2020, releasing just over 4.5 million pounds. CF Industries' Port Neal Nitrogen Complex released a little over 3.1 million pounds of toxins, mostly into the ai. Ammonia made up 39% of the 18 million pounds of chemicals emitted into Iowa’s atmosphere, while 88% of the 4.5 million pounds of chemicals in the water were nitrate compounds.
The EPA's TRI program recognizes 770 chemicals, with any site that manufactures or uses these chemicals at above-average levels qualifying for listing in the TRI. Chemicals described by the TRI as “toxic” are known to cause cancer or other negative health issues, as well as adverse effects on the environment. Facilities report the amounts of chemicals they release annually to the TRI, with the "release" of a chemical meaning that it is "emitted to the air or water, or placed in some type of land disposal."
The facilities in the TRI are usually quite large and deal in electricity, metals, mining, chemicals, or hazardous waste. However, not all toxic chemicals used by corporations are listed in the TRI, meaning that its inventory of toxin-emitting sites is not exhaustive.
Keep reading to learn which states have the most and least people living near toxic release sites.
States with the most people living near toxic release sites
#1. Wisconsin: 37.3% of population living near toxic release sites
#2. Iowa: 33.5% of population living near toxic release sites
#3. Wyoming: 32.5% of population living near toxic release sites
States with the fewest people living near toxic release sites
#1. Hawaii: 6.5% of population living near toxic release sites
#2. New York: 8.3% of population living near toxic release sites
#3. California: 8.4% of population living near toxic release sites
