Erin Jordan

Nitrate levels in the Cedar River, which supplies drinking water for Cedar Rapids, have increased in recent days, but remain below the limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

More than 200 Iowans filed complaints last year about drifting agricultural chemicals as erratic weather in late spring and early summer makes it hard for applicators to find time to safely spray.

An estimated 40,000 fish are dead on a 20-mile stretch of Crane Creek in Northeast Iowa and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is trying to figure out what killed them. Area is ‘complex’ with multiple drainage tiles from farms and nearby Readlyn, officials said.

The DNR’s Manchester field office was notified Friday about dead fish in Crane Creek about two miles southwest of Readlyn, according to a news release Monday. Officials don’t yet know what caused the fish kill, but think it originated around 250th Street and Piedmont Avenue.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in April approved a watershed plan for Trout Run and Siewers Spring, which supply water for the hatchery. The goal of the plan is to reduce erosion from farms in the Trout Run watershed to keep the stream clear of sediment that can harm fish raised at the hatchery.

The Duane Arnold Solar Project is taking shape as about 250 workers a day install panels on more than 800 acres. Alliant Energy, which will own the 200-megawatt site when complete, said the project will be operational by the end of the year.

Officer Isaiah McNamee, standing on the rooftop ledge of the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Iowa City, held onto the man to keep him from falling. The man had climbed over the glass barrier and considered jumping. After speaking with McNamee, the man changed his mind and wanted to get to safety, but it wasn’t easy 12 stories in the air.

Google will invest another $1 billion in a Council Bluffs data center and $1.3 million on water quality projects in the Missouri River Basin in southwest Iowa. The tech company still is considering whether to build a data center in Cedar Rapids.

Max Villatoro was removed from the United States in 2015, despite Eastern Iowa protests and 40,000 signatures from people around the country who didn’t think the Mennonite pastor and father should be deported. Now Villatoro is legally back in Eastern Iowa.

Emergency managers in Linn and Johnson counties said they haven’t heard anything about resuming nuclear power generation at the Duane Arnold Energy Center, near Palo, which would be costly and would require federal authorization.

Just one year away from a 2025 deadline to reduce nitrate and phosphorus entering the Gulf by 20 percent, success seems unlikely.

Linn County Supervisor Kirsten Running-Marquardt believes wind and solar energy are critical to economic development in Iowa. But she also wants to make sure landowners who sign contracts for wind projects aren’t left twisting in the wind.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, in a budget-saving move, is asking employees who live in state-owned houses at fish hatcheries to move out by the end of 2028. The houses where biologists and other staff have lived for decades will be sold or torn down, according to records obtained by The Gazette.

A holding company has agreed to pay $7,500 for releasing chlorinated water into a Cedar Rapids trout stream in January, killing an estimated 400 fish.

If Summit’s proposed CO2 pipeline is approved, the water used by ethanol plants on and off the route would be equal to the annual water use of 529,000 people -- more than the population of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City corridor, according to a new Sierra Club report.