Lakes, rivers and streams seldom removed from list of impaired waters

If you stand on the Chain Lakes Bridge near Palo, there's no hint the Cedar River flowing underneath has gotten cleaner.

But the 11.6-mile stretch from north of Palo to Ellis Park in Cedar Rapids no longer must be monitored for bacteria after tests over five years showed lower levels of E. coli, an indicator for fecal material that can sicken people.

The Cedar River still is on the state's 2016 draft list of impaired water bodies because of high nitrates, potentially dangerous for humans to drink, and high pH, which can harm fish.

Read more: More than half of Iowa water bodies tested are polluted

Iowa's list of impaired waters, which for the 2016 draft includes 750 water bodies with 1,096 impairments, is a little reminiscent of the lyrics to 'Hotel California.'

'Once a water is listed, it tends to say on the list a long time,' said Susan Heathcote, water program director for the Iowa Environmental Council.

Only 11 water body segments previously listed as impaired made it completely off the 2016 draft.

One is a stretch of the East Fork of the Wapsipinicon River, near Fredericksburg.

This segment was listed in 2012 after an August 2008 kill of 76,292 fish along 2.5 miles of water, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported.

No cause of the fish kill was identified, but water samples collected at the time ruled out livestock manure.

'Due to the extremely large number of fish killed, the length of the kill and the lack of environmental extremes during summer 2008 that would have contributed to this kill (e.g., low stream flow and/or high water temperatures), some type of pollutant cause is suspected,' the DNR reported.

When the DNR returned to the East Fork of the Wapsi in August 2015 — seven years after the fish kill — a sampling of the fish community showed the stream supports about 4,200 fish per mile. That return of aquatic life helped the Wapsi get off the impaired waters list.

Many of Iowa's lake, river and stream impairments are due to nonpoint source pollution, which happens as snow melt or rainfall moves over and through the ground, picking up farm chemicals, animal waste or other pollutants and carrying them into the water.

'Unless a state has authority and the means to reduce levels of nonpoint source pollution, the NPS-related impairments will likely continue to reside on the state's list of impaired waters,' the DNR noted in a fact sheet about the process.

Heathcote said the DNR needs more authority and resources to track nonpoint source pollution.

'Once we determine we have impairments, we need to have a process to restore those waters,' she said. 'We've been strapped at the state to get that funding.'

A GOP plan to redirect existing funding sources to water quality projects, and perhaps leverage them by selling bonds, did not pass in the 2017 Legislature.

Nor did a proposal calling for phasing in a three-eighths cent sales tax increase — while reducing income tax — to raise about $180 million a year for conservation efforts.

The Legislature did approve $5.2 million for water quality efforts, but that's a fraction of the $77 million a year estimated to be needed to help Iowa meet its goals of reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in waterways.

l Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com