Highlights of Iowa Ideas water quality week

The Gazette’s Iowa Ideas In-depth Week focused on water quality wrapped up Friday, with more than 150 people participating in virtual discussions. Below are some of our favorite quotes from the week.

Monday: Water quality policy

“We’ve come to the point, I think, where we treat our water quality as it is today as a new normal. We think it’s always been like this, and therefore we just accept it for what it is. I think too many of us have taken that view, and that’s a barrier to us really rallying around making things better.” — Allen Bonini, retired watershed improvement section supervisor at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources

“On one hand, we’ve got the intensification of agriculture that is impacting the way water and nutrients and pollutants run off the land. On the other hand, we’re trying to counter that with these conservation practices. The pace and the intensity of the change in agriculture is simply outpacing our work in conservation.” — Larry Weber, Edwin B. Green chair in hydraulics and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa

“Requiring cities to do more has become so expensive from a technical standpoint that they’re discovering that it’s maybe easier and less expensive for them to make investments upstream to prevent the pollution from getting in (the water) than it is for them to take the pollution out at the water facilities. But the problem remains: finding willing partners upstream.” — State Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque

Tuesday: Private wells

“(Private well contamination) is very place-dependent. … The issue is all the information we have is really piecemeal. … We can’t assertively cite good, sound science behind answering questions like this because we don’t really have a lot of information.” — Silvia Secchi, UI professor of geographical and sustainability studies

“The (Grants to Counties) program is underutilized. I constantly meet with Iowa well owners that have never heard of it, and they're like, ‘Oh, my gosh! I didn't know.’ It's funded through your agricultural taxes in Iowa, so it's kind of your farmers giving back to help protect the groundwater or fix problems with the groundwater.” — Jesse Campbell, private well coordinator for the Midwest Assistance Program

Wednesday: Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Reduction Strategy turns 10

“We’re getting close to the phosphorus reduction goal, but we’re not close to the nitrogen reduction goal. Fairly stable or have gone a little bit backward on nitrogen reduction goal because of land use changes, so shifting of land from CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) or perennials — some longer term rotations — to more acres of a corn and soybeans or continuous corn.” — Jamie Benning, assistant director for agriculture and natural resources at Iowa State University.

“We may be making one step forward on the front 40, but two steps backward on the back 40 because there are any number of practices happening on the land that may well override the impacts of what we’re doing, and installing (agricultural) tiling is a good example.” — Neil Hamilton, Drake University emeritus law professor.

Thursday: Emerging contaminants

“The EPA defines it (an emerging contaminant) as a chemical or other substance that doesn’t have a regulatory standard, and it’s oftentimes recently discovered in aquatic systems, and it has the potential to have deleterious effects on ecosystems or people.” — Greg LeFevre, UI associate professor of civil and environmental engineering

“One of the big routes of environmental exposure is the use of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contained in firefighting foam so we often find contamination near military sites or airports.” — Christy Remucal, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Wisconsin.

“We generally recommend people stick with tap water and consider filtration options as an alternative. … In some cases, it might just be filtered tap water in the bottle.” — David Andrews, senior scientist at the Environmental Working Grou.

Friday: Keeping the water flowing

“In my career here, we’ve gone from not having nitrate removal treatment because we didn’t need it to having nitrate removal to having numerous other facilities we have constructed to combat the nitrate problem.” — Ted Corrigan, executive director, Des Moines Water Works

“It’s usually less expensive to have practices on the ground keeping pollutants out than many of these treatment facilities across the state trying to take the pollutants out after the fact.” — Ingrid Gronstal, research fellow at the IU Hubbell Environmental Law Initiative

“Let’s face it, we get a fair amount of revenue from that irrigation side, so I don’t think we want to just discourage it by any means, but either taking a look at a different rate structure or looking hard at the supply versus demand.” — Roy Hesemann, Cedar Rapids utilities director

The Gazette asked eight DNR officials to participate in the Iowa Ideas water quality panel discussions this week, including Director Kayla Lyon, but they all declined.

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