Olivia Cohen

Experts say earthquakes in Iowa rare, but not impossible.

The Fairfax City Council, in a heated meeting Tuesday, approved the first reading of a proposed exception to the city’s industrial zoning code which could provide a path for Alliant Energy to build a new power plant within city limits.

The Bur Oak Land Trust has received funding to hire 12 temporary workers through AmeriCorps, but the instability of the federal program is prompting the Iowa City nonprofit to consider alternative funding streams.

Director Marty Lenss said the nonprofit’s goal is to expand their work into other airports in the Mississippi watershed

Iowa State University’s Iowa Mosquito Surveillance Program has been running since the 1960s, but only a handful of counties have their own surveillance programs in place to monitor insect populations and test for West Nile virus.

Jim Durbin’s database — built over the last 25 years through thousands of hours at Iowa’s parks — has been used to help research conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The Iowa Department of Ag announced this week a pilot project that will provide $3 million to encourage farmers and landowners in the watersheds upstream from the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids metro areas to add perennial buffers to fields along streams.

As a PhD student at Iowa State University, Connor Thorpe modified the design of the classic gene gun using a 3D printer in his apartment. Now, he’s leading a biotechnology company that sells the product.

A fungal disease is spreading and growing in severity in Iowa, affecting the state’s corn production. A wetter than normal summer has helped Southern rust spread throughout the state.

An environmental group that advocates for clean water in northeast Iowa has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the state against a Postville meatpacking over its repeated wastewater pollution violations.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service are warning Eastern Iowans that triple-digit heat indexes are coming this weekend.

Less than a year after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added segments of five Iowa rivers to the impaired waters list for nitrate, the same agency — now operating under the Trump administration — has rescinded the decision.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services has reported the first positive case of West Nile virus of the year in an adult in northern Iowa.

The Iowa Soybean Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have completed about 50 oxbows across the state through a partnership. That’s important because oxbows can prevent flooding, improve water quality and provide habitat for animals.

The City of Fairfax will consider a change to its zoning code that would provide a path for Alliant Energy to site a gas-fired power plant within city limits, near The Eastern Iowa Airport.