“As I’ve declared every time I’ve been at this podium, the condition of our state is strong,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said the Condition of the State Address on Tuesday night. […]
Water Quality
Posted inCommunity/News
Shoreline work, dredging, algae prevention part of state’s 2026 lake restoration plan
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has about $9.6 million annually of state appropriated money to improve water quality and recreational opportunities at Iowa lakes. Most of these projects take […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Factory farms in Iowa generate 110 billion pounds of manure per year. No one tracks where it’s going.
More than a thousand hogs grow fat in the enclosed shed-like structures on Gene Tinker’s farm in northeast Iowa, while a few hundred cattle pace in open feedlots. His farm […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Why do we live in a ‘shithole’? A new docuseries on Iowa’s 50-year decline seeks answers
“I keep asking, why is it we’re living in a shithole?” Art Cullen says in What’s Eating Iowa?, his new documentary series launched Tuesday. The first episode, “Water,” is now […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Chris Jones, water quality advocate and author, considers run for Iowa Ag Secretary: ‘We need to rethink agriculture’
Chris Jones, author of The Swine Republic and one of Iowa’s leading water quality advocates, has created an exploratory committee as he considers a run for Secretary of Agriculture next […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Seize the means of water testing with a free kit from Nitrate Watch
I wasn’t great at science in high school. Following a set of basic lab protocols was somehow harder for me than memorizing the entirety of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa food companies routinely violate water pollution permits and rarely face penalties
Deb El Food Products LLC is one of hundreds of Iowa-based companies cited for violating its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit in 2025. Of these, 38 were food […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘We’re on a knife’s edge’: Art Cullen chides Reynolds’ meanness, Big Ag’s death grip on Iowa land and livelihoods
“When I was a kid in the 1960s, you could drive from Carroll to Storm Lake, and see cattle lining green hills the entire way,” Art Cullen said in a […]
Posted inCommunity/News
With state funding cut off, the Izaak Walton League is fundraising to keep an Iowa water quality monitoring program afloat
The Izaak Walton League of America’s Iowa division has started a grassroots campaign to raise funds for a water quality monitoring program, formerly funded by the state, at the University […]
Posted inComics
Futile Wrath — September 2025
This comic was originally published in Little Village’s September 2025 issue.
Posted inCommunity/News
EPA withdraws proposed rule for stricter water pollution guidelines at meat packing plants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a January 2024 proposed rule that would have reduced the discharge of nutrients and pollutants from meat packing plants and slaughterhouses. The agency […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa groups tell congressional delegation bill would ‘gut’ Clean Water Act
Environmental and community groups from Iowa sent a letter Thursday to the state’s congressional delegation urging them to oppose a House bill that would “gut critical clean water protections.” The […]
