Iowa’s water quality sensor network saved, for now

The Nutrient Research Center at Iowa State University has announced it intends to fund a network of water quality sensors monitoring water pollution on Iowa streams and rivers, despite a legislative effort to defund the sensor network.

This is good news for Iowans who care about water quality and who believe access to data is needed to measure the state’s efforts to reduce nitrate and phosphorus running off into waterways. The Nutrient Research Center and its director, Matt Helmers, deserve credit for not allowing politics to spawn a chilling effect on water quality research.

“The Iowa Water Quality Information System is an important tool for monitoring water quality in the state and tracking the effectiveness of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” Helmers said in an email to The Gazette’s Erin Jordan.

The Legislative vote to defund the network was a shortsighted political power play. The effort was led by state Sen. Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan, whose son-in-law co-owns a 11,600 head cattle feedlot constructed in the Bloody Run Creek watershed in northeast Iowa. One of the sensors at issue is within sight of the feedlot on Bloody Run Creek, a trout stream designated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as one of Iowa’s Outstanding Waters.

Defunding the sensors amounts to a blatant move by Republicans who control the Legislature to control the message about progress on cleaning up Iowa’s dirty water. Data from the sensors has consistently shown that Iowa’s strictly voluntary approach to meeting goals set out in the state’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy have failed to make significant progress.

Still, even with Iowa State’s commitment, funding for research using sensor data at the University of Iowa will be reduced. UI received $375,000 from the Nutrient Research Center to fun its analysis of the sensor data and was expecting a boost to $500,000 next budget year. Instead. UI’s participation will receive $295,000 next year and $250,000 the following year.

So even with Iowa State’s laudable commitment, GOP lawmakers have managed to curtail research funding. Iowans are the losers. The sensor system is owned by the people of Iowa, the data collected is public information and the resulting research gives us a clear picture of how little meaningful progress has been made cleaning up our water. It’s an issue too important to allow lawmakers motivated by their ties to large agricultural interests to keep Iowans in the dark.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com