Report: Leaders dismiss warnings

State officials are ignoring important public policy recommendations to cope with climate change and increased risks of flooding and water pollution, Iowa Policy Project researchers said Monday.

“Iowans are going to see increased problems with water quality and quantity, in the form of flood damage, unless we make changes,” said Brian McDonough, lead author of the report and an intern with the Iowa City-based research group.

The report said that recommendations of three committees established by the Legislature - the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council, the Iowa Climate Change Impacts Committee and the Water Resources Coordinating Council - have all been largely ignored.

The authors noted, for example, that the Legislature has rejected all the key recommendations of the Water Resources Coordinating Council. Among them were adoption of a 500-year flood as the statewide regulated flood plain and increasing the safety and operation requirements for critical facilities within the flood plain, such as wastewater treatment plants.

Policy Project Executive Director David Osterberg, a co-author of the report, said state leaders have acknowledged that Iowa faces a future of increased precipitation and increased frequency of extreme rainfall events.

“Legislators keep asking questions, but the response to experts' recommendations has been little or nothing,” he said.

Researcher Will Hoyer, another co-author, said state and local policymakers must work with farmers to keep water on the land where it falls rather than letting it run off as floodwater.

McDonough said increased row crop production driven by high commodity prices, coupled with precipitation trends, creates “a perfect storm” for increased flooding and degradation of water quality.