Priorities in need of adjustment

As contrasts go, it's pretty striking.

On Friday the Iowa Economic Development Authority agreed to add $25 million in tax credits to the already sizable pile of government incentives provided to the Iowa Fertilizer plant in Lee County. Total state tax breaks for the project now top $107 million. Total state, local and federal assistance adds up to a cool half-billion.

In exchange for the new incentives, the Egyptian-based conglomerate that runs the joint will add 11 new jobs, for a total of 180. The plant will produce 2 million tons of fertilizer annually.

On Thursday, the Iowa Watershed Improvement Review Board met by phone. It's a 15-member panel that brings together agricultural, environmental and public sector interests to provide state grants to water quality projects, efforts encouraging voluntary cooperation among farmers and others. It's estimated that every dollar the program hands out leverages $2 to $3 in additional investment from other sources.

But for the second straight fiscal year, its members were informed the board will receive no funding. Linn County farmer Curt Zingula, who is a member of the board, tipped me off to this sad development.

So we've got bucks for global fertilizer makers, but not even scraps for Iowans trying to clean up and protect our waterways from, among other things, fertilizer runoff. Our priorities, along with 572 of our waterways, are impaired.

When WIRB was created in Fiscal Year 2006, according to Jerry Neppel of the Iowa Department of Agriculture, it received $5 million. In those days, WIRB could provide grants of up to $500,000, or enough to, say, help a small town with no sewage treatment system. That's what happened in Conroy, where untreated waste flowed into Clear Creek.

Rose Danaher coordinates the Price Creek Watershed Project in Iowa and Benton counties. Price Creek, which runs through the Amanas, is an impaired waterway due to bacteria from livestock, manure spreading, failed septic systems and other sources. WIRB has pumped $150,000 into the Price Creek Effort since 2006.

Danaher said the best thing about WIRB is its flexibility. When the Price Creek project wanted to provide incentives to landowners to replace bad septic systems, funding was scarce. But WIRB dollars filled the gap, and the effort has been a success. 'Being able to try stuff to see if it works is important,” Danaher said.

Clearly, this is important work. Public investments in the common good. But you wouldn't know it by watching the Statehouse.

After receiving $5 million in its first four years, funding fell to $3 million after Branstad retook office. There was no funding in 2012, $1 million in 2013 and $3 million in 2014. Last year, $3 million was approved, but Branstad vetoed it. Now, for FY 2016, lawmakers approved nothing.

'We were pretty disappointed to see that go away the last few years,” Danaher said.

With some luck, if existing WIRB projects cost less than expected, there may be some dollars to scrape together for new projects next fiscal year.

But there are no guarantees, unless you're building a fertilizer plant.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com