Erin Jordan

REGEN Fiber, owned by Alliant Energy subsidiary Travero, hosted a grand opening Wednesday to explain the process for recycling decomissioned wind turbine blades. The plant, which cost more than $10 million and employs eight people, is expected to start processing materials next week.

The refuge, cradled in the Driftless Area and bordered by steep wooded bluffs, includes nearly 250,000 acres of floodplain forests, braided river channels, marshes and prairie that provides habitat to more than 300 bird species.

Rosangel Flores Rubio — who immigrated from Honduras in third grade with her mother and younger sisters — has grown into other roles: City High Student Senate co-president, executive editor of the Little Hawk newspaper, tennis player, mock trial team member and founder of Latino Hawks.

Cedar Rapids doesn’t require large companies, such as manufacturing plants and food processors, to pretreat industrial wastewater. This system — popular with companies because they don’t have to maintain their own treatment facilities — is unique in Iowa and unusual for mid-size cities across the United States.

With water-guzzling data centers popping up across Iowa and a multi-year drought causing more farmers to use irrigation systems, Iowa’s underground aquifers are being tapped more frequently. The Iowa Legislature allocated $250,000 this year for a study of Iowa’s aquifers to make sure they don’t run dry with increased use.

After water main breaks in April 2023 and January sent chlorinated water into McLoud Run, killing at least 2,000 fish in the urban stream, the city is now considering installing a pressure monitoring system to underground water lines to more quickly identify and stop leaks and breaks.

Friday’s rain likely won’t worsen flooding in Eastern Iowa rivers because it was factored into flood warnings, the National Weather Service reported, but meteorologists will be watching the forecast for more rain on Sunday to see if that changes predicted river crests.

NEW Co.’s accidental release of of 265,000 gallons of nitrogen-based fertilizer from a facility in Red Oak killed 750,000 fish in the East Nishnabotna. The case is an ‘extreme outlier’ among fertilizer spills and one that calls for a larger penalty than the maximum $10,000 that can be enforced by regulators, an Iowa DNR attorney said.

Heavy rain Monday and Tuesday is expected to cause minor flooding this week in Marengo, which has been at the center of Iowa’s drought in recent summers.

Inspired by COVID-19 rapid tests, a Minnesota startup developed a kit that amplifies the DNA of a fungus spreading among oaks weakened by drought. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources hopes to use information gathered from these kits to isolate infected trees.

The Library of Congress has named an Iowa book of essays about agricultural pollution to a list of 56 “Great Reads” for 2024.

It’s rare for the DNR to ask the AG’s office to step in on enforcement. And the Environmental Protection Commission, a nine-person, governor-appointed board that oversees environmental polices at the DNR, doesn’t always follow staff recommendations.

Bud & Mary’s, a Des Moines-based cannabis manufacturer called MedPharm Iowa until 2022, will start selling its Batch brand vape products in Missouri later this year.

The Philadelphia resident searched online and found SE Iowa Country Puppies in Lee County. She put down a $250 deposit on a male papitese born Dec. 15 and waited until he was old enough to leave his mother. Within a week of delivery, the puppy died.

Because of the changeable weather and the growing number of questions farmers, policymakers, journalists and others have about it, Iowa State University Extension & Outreach hired Madelyann Wuestenberg to be the agency’s first agricultural climatologist.