A long-awaited scientific report commissioned by Polk County says farm pollution threatens the ability to drink clean water and to safely interact with central Iowa streams, Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. The county announced its Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment in 2023 and heralded it as a first-of-its-kind, unbiased and comprehensive examination of the watersheds […]
water pollution
Posted inCommunity/News
Lawsuit challenges Reynolds’ authority in rulemaking process
A group of Iowans is suing the State of Iowa, alleging Gov. Kim Reynolds has no authority to require agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources to adopt regulations that are less burdensome on industry. The lawsuit was filed recently in Polk County District Court by Steve Veysey, a fly fisherman and clean water […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Water advocates challenge DNR final decision on permit for cattle facility near Bloody Run Creek
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued a final action on a water-use permit to a 10,000-head cattle operation in Clayton County, following a years-long legal battle with an area environmental group. The group, Driftless Water Defenders, announced Thursday it would appeal the DNR decision to renew the permit. A group of citizens initially challenged […]
Posted inCommunity/News
EPA confirms additions to Iowa’s impaired waters list
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency affirmed its November decision to add seven additional segments to Iowa’s list of impaired waters, following a public comment period. EPA announced in November it had partially approved the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ assessment of surface water quality in the state and called for the inclusion of additional segments […]
Posted inCommunity/News
EPA adds seven segments to Iowa’s 2024 impaired water list and questions Iowa’s assessment of nitrogen pollution
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after rejecting a portion of Iowa’s 2024 list of impaired water segments, is now seeking public comment on its decision to add seven water segments to the list. Under the Clean Water Act, states are required to assess surface-water quality and submit a report to the EPA every two years […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Des Moines area residents asked to ‘hold off’ on lawn watering as high nitrate levels threaten drinking water supply in Central Iowa
Residents of Iowa’s largest metro area are being advised they “may need to reduce or hold off on lawn watering altogether,” as Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) and Central Iowa Water Works work to ensure the drinking water they provide to more than 20 percent of the population remains safe. The rains in recent months […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Many Iowa rivers are brimming with nitrate
Nitrate contamination of Iowa’s rivers has surged in recent weeks amid heavy, widespread rainfall, according to data collected by the Iowa Water Quality Information System. Concentrations of nitrate in several large waterways — including the Boone, Cedar, Iowa and Turkey rivers — have recently reached four-year peaks, the data show. Further, many of the affected […]
Posted inCommunity/News
More than half of Iowa’s tested streams and lakes are ‘impaired’
There are at least 721 water body segments in Iowa that do not meet water quality standards for recreation, public water supplies and the protection of aquatic life, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. The DNR has drafted its latest list of “impaired” waters that it is required to submit to the U.S. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Suspicious fire’ damages Iowa’s largest sycamore; Gov. Reynolds’ opposition to CAFO rules threatens waterways
Iowa’s largest sycamore tree, which is located in a state park near Burlington, was severely damaged by a “suspicious fire,” the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said in a news release on Thursday. It’s not known if the tree, estimated to be about 350 years old, will survive. According to the DNR, a visitor […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Authors and journalists at the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat discuss the art of speaking truth to power
It’s a long drive from Iowa City to Lake Okoboji. Like most of my colleagues, I’ve never been to Northwest Iowa, and I was curious to visit this red and rural section of our former swing state. The scenery was serenely flat in all directions, punctuated by silos, windmills, telegraph poles, fenceposts, Trump signs and […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa’s ‘chocolate milkshake’ water, expensive to filter and a menace downriver, comes courtesy of Big Ag and its allies in the statehouse
Ten years ago, the state of Iowa published its Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS), a plan to reduce the amount of nitrate and phosphorus polluting not just the state’s waterways, but that of everyone downstream from Iowa, until the pollution flows into the Gulf of Mexico, where it helps create the massive dead zone that forms […]
Posted inCommunity/News
No swimming at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area ‘until water quality improves’
There will be no swimming permitted at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, “due to the level of E. Coli detected in Sand Lake,” the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department announced on Thursday afternoon. Sand Lake isn’t the only local swimming spot currently having this problem. Last Friday, Lake Macbride was one of seven eastern Iowa […]
