116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Linn County considers request to help fund Iowa water sensor program
Sensors in rivers and streams across Iowa will be removed next summer if program leaders can’t raise $600,000 per year to fund the real-time testing network.
Oct. 27, 2025 6:59 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS — In a meeting with Linn County officials Monday, Larry Weber — who oversees a program that deploys dozens of sensors in rivers and streams across Iowa — said the quality of the state’s water is not improving, and that monitoring of the water must continue.
“In the 25 years since 2000 to where we are today, the trajectory we are on is not a positive trajectory as it relates to water quality and it's frightening to think about where we might be in 2050,” said Weber, who directs the University of Iowa’s IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering Department, which oversees the Iowa Water Quality Information System — or Iowa WQIS. “There's no question in 25 years (that) we're moving in the wrong direction.”
Weber said comprehensive data about the state’s water quality is necessary so “we can start making different decisions.”
Weber’s address to a joint meeting of the Linn County Board of Supervisors and the County Conservation Board comes as Iowa WQIS is preparing for a funding cliff next July. Money that supported the sensor network for years has been decreasing since 2023, when the Iowa Legislature passed and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill to reallocate the funds.
Last week, the Polk County Board of Supervisors voted to provide $200,000 in funding to support the sensor network, which will need about $600,000 per year to continue operating.
In approving the funding, Polk County Supervisor Chair Matt McCoy suggested Linn and Johnson counties leaders also should consider providing funding to support the sensor network.
Linn County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Kirsten Running-Marquardt said Monday the board will look at the county’s budget and “see what we can do.”
“I think that's something we could look at and consider,” Running-Marquardt said, adding that the county is not currently ruling out partially funding the network.
The Iowa Water Quality Information Network has been monitoring water quality across the state since 2012.
Seventy sensors are positioned throughout the state, providing real-time data on nitrate, pH, dissolved oxygen concentrations and more in multiple watersheds. The information is freely available to the public.
State funding that has supported the network will end in July 2026. Without another source of funding, the researchers will have to remove nearly all sensors around the state. Some sensors — about 18 — are owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Geological Survey, and they would remain because they receive federal funding.
The UI researchers’ scramble to find a new funding source comes as Linn County has begun work on four water studies, including research into surface water sampling and groundwater mapping.
Water quality has been a topic of discussion in Iowa in recent years as nitrate levels have risen. This summer, nitrate spikes in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers prompted lawn watering bans in the Des Moines area as Central Iowa Water Works pushed its capacity to treat the water.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s cap for nitrate levels in drinking water is currently at 10 milligrams per liter.
“There is clinical scientific evidence that shows that prolonged exposure to drinking water at 5 or even perhaps 3 milligrams per liter can lead to certain forms of cancer and affects people of different age classes differently,” Weber said Monday.
Weber said individual legislators have commented that they don’t see the need for the network, and they would “rather put it into actual conservation practices.”
“There's a lot of talking points that are out there. I don't think that they even deserve being repeated,” Weber said. “Quite frankly, I think it is more of an issue that we are headed in the wrong direction. The data shows that, and they prefer to not see that data rather than to address the issue.”
‘Bridge’ funding
In addition to state funds, the sensor network has received funding from the Walton Family Foundation, but Weber said the Foundation “made it clear” that its contribution was “bridge funding only” and that the funding will not continue indefinitely.
Weber said Polk County’s contribution will be on a year-by-year basis. Polk provided the $200,000 payment using American Rescue Plan Act funds set aside for water quality, and funds remaining from a water quality study that the county commissioned.
“I hope (this) is a bridge until we get back to having state appropriations to fund the statewide Water Quality Network and so this keeps us going,” he said. “I think that there could be an opportunity in the future for the state legislature to take this up and fund it again, but we'll need kind of widespread support from people across Iowa to encourage the legislature to do that.”
Running-Marquardt said Linn County doesn’t have ARPA funding remaining to designate for the sensor network.
The county’s $40 million conservation bond could be an avenue to help fund the program, the supervisors said. Linn County Conservation Director Dennis Goemaat said the best way forward is for Weber to send both the Board of Supervisors and the Conservation Board a formal proposal to be reviewed.
The bond was approved by voters in 2016 to address water quality and to fund county trails and parks.
Other sources could fund sensor network
Weber will meet with the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and the County Conservation Board on Monday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m. to discuss whether Johnson County can financially support the program.
Jon Green, chair of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, told The Gazette, “as one supervisor, I'm going to be very solicitous to (find) a way to save this network.”
The Iowa division of the Izaak Walton League launched a GoFundMe fundraiser last month to collect donations from individuals. As of Monday, the fundraiser had collected $15,675 to its goal of $500,000.
Linn County Supervisor Sami Scheetz asked Weber if he has considered requesting financial support from companies that are building data centers in the region. Google and QTS are building data centers on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids, and Google has been speaking with Linn County officials about building another data center near Palo.
Scheetz said these companies, including tech giants Google and Microsoft, have been “engaging in lots of water quality and quantity initiatives.”
Weber said that idea has been on his radar.
“Certainly, there's some large tech companies that are coming into Iowa because of the renewable resources that we have here … and some have indicated willingness to share back with the local communities, Weber said. “The challenge for us has been trying to figure out and navigate through those big tech companies to the people that make the decisions. So, any help that the board could provide in getting us connected to the right person would be greatly appreciated.”
Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.
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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com
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