It’s the watershed

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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The Iowa and Cedar rivers carry immense amounts of what weather and humans produce.

Their combined watershed drains about one-fifth of the entire state and runs through the heart of Eastern Iowa. About 1 million people - one-third of the state's population - reside in this river basin.

More than 90 percent of this huge chunk of land is devoted to cropland and pasture. It's also home to three large urban centers and many of Iowa's major manufacturing and high-tech companies.

And so the Iowa-Cedar watershed's significance in our lives cannot be understated. Its tributaries and main channels flow through and affect lives and livelihoods from the farm to the city.

We also cannot afford to neglect how Iowans collectively impact our watershed - not only because of the historic 2008 flood but because of the continued run of major flooding events since then and more of the same predicted by many climate experts. Even credible skeptics of global warming acknowledge that our climate is changing, with extremes likely to be more common.

Unless we want to continue living at the mercy of these tremendously costly events, we must live more wisely and harmoniously with our rivers.

That message is not new. But it's being repeated and reviewed more often these days. It was the focus of the May 31 “Five years out” flood symposium in Cedar Rapids, where scientists, policy makers, farmers and farm leaders assessed where we're at and where we need to go.

Local governments have done much good work in devising improved response plans and better controls of flood threats. Last week's flooding in the corridor region provided proof.

THE WAY FORWARD

But while we dodged the big bullet this time, the flooding still disrupted many lives, businesses and schools, and cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. We can't be satisfied with this.

So what's the best way forward? Where do we want to be by the end of the next five years? How do we get there?

What seems painfully obvious by now is that we need much more attention to flood reduction, not just flood protection.

Yes, Cedar Rapids warrants more permanent flood protection along both sides of its core. As Joe O'Hern, the city's former flood recovery director, reminded all at the symposium, you can't just pick up the downtown and move it. There's too much at stake, including nearby neighborhoods.

Progress toward securing federal assistance for the city's protection plan has been disappointingly slow at times despite sustained efforts by city officials and the congressional delegation. There's still hope, but we also believe that bringing the project home will likely require more state and local investment than initially expected.

THE WILL TO CHANGE

In the long run, though, stepping up prevention measures in the watershed is the best answer for Eastern Iowans, rural and urban. As Kamyar Enshayan, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, bluntly noted during the symposium, we already know what needs to be done. The science is there. But the political will too often is lacking.

And, as said keynote speaker Susan Cutter, a national expert on disaster resilience, you can't wait on Washington.

She also noted, rightly, that Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are good examples of taking charge of their own fate soon after the 2008 disaster when compared to most other community disaster responses around the nation.

The state has taken positive steps, too. Legislators created the Iowa Flood Center, charged with developing better watershed management plans. They authorized local watershed management authorities, which enables various entities to cross political and government boundaries and work together to educate the public and develop mutually beneficial strategies. Funding for disaster mitigation was stepped up.

State ag and natural resources officials and Iowa State University experts collaborated to produce a long overdue Nutrient Reduction Strategy, aimed at curbing fertilizer runoff problems that pollute our waterways and contribute heavily to the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.

OUR WISH LIST

While considerable groundwork has been laid, Iowa needs to keep raising the bar if we're going to have broadly effective management practices in place across the Cedar-Iowa watershed within the next five years. What we'd like to see by June 2018:

l Most communities, as Cedar Falls has done, adopt ordinances that tightly restrict or ban development in the 500-year flood plains.

l Federal farm programs, which dictate so much of how Iowa crop farmers operate (i.e., corn, soybeans and little else), are redesigned to encourage more conservation practices and cover crops.

l State legislators approve more support that builds on Flood Center and other research, helps coordinate smaller watershed management initiatives and expands partnerships and education outreach with landowners.

l The majority of farmers and ag landowners embrace the Nutrient Reduction Strategy and make it work - reducing not only runoff but the likelihood of stiff federal mandates if they don't.

l More cities, especially the region's largest, Cedar Rapids, approve strong stormwater runoff regulations and charge realistic fees to make it happen.

REVIEW THE PLAN

We also favor a review - open to public input - of Cedar Rapids' pending permanent flood protection plan. Might lessons of the past five years signal any modifications that still fit the need and reign in some of the expense, now estimated at $375 million? The Iowa Flood Center might be a suitable reviewer and/or moderator.

This is hard stuff. It requires long-term commitments.

But our communities and their leaders already have shown much resolve and resiliency over the past five years. We believe they, with enough political will at the state level, can and should make the next five a time to build a more resilient future.

And to do that, they must keep their eyes focused upstream.

l Comments: editorial@thegazette.com or (319) 398-8262