Forum dives into water quality issues

CEDAR RAPIDS - With Election Day fast approaching, environmentally minded residents gathered Saturday to discuss Eastern Iowa's water quality issues.

The League of Women Voters of Linn County hosted the Clean Streams and Waterways panel in an effort to boost awareness and education about the issues before the Nov. 4 vote.

'These are long-term issues,” said panelist Marty St. Clair, a professor of chemistry at Coe College. 'It didn't begin two years ago, and it won't end in two years. It's going to require pressure from citizens.”

'I think in the long run, the investment we make will far outweigh the tax we pay,” Dorman said.

He used the city of Cedar Rapids to illustrate his point. About a year ago, the Cedar Rapids City Council faced a decision about stormwater incentives called a stormwater fee structure. Dorman said he was frustrated the city did not set higher stormwater fees for commercial property owners.

'I was disappointed that a city that had seen the kind of flooding it had didn't see the value in having better stormwater practices,” he said.

He acknowledged that stormwater practices would not eliminate flooding in Cedar Rapids, but said taking measures to keep water where it falls could help address many of the flooding issues in the area.

In terms of individual action, panelist Rich Patterson, former director of the Indian Creek Nature Center, said he thinks investment in water retention practices has become an ethical question.

'If you put in the standard stuff and run it to the water sewer, you may be saving some [money], but the person that has to get the water out of his basement has to pay the cost,” he said. 'And quite frankly I don't think that's fair.”

The League of Women Voters of Iowa has ranked water quality as its second priority topic for the state, following voter rights.

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