Olivia Cohen

As researchers behind an Iowa water quality sensor program race to find a new funding source before money runs out and they’re forced to pull the sensors from the state’s rivers and streams, a nonprofit has launched a crowdsource campaign to try to keep the program afloat.

Expert says waste from a restarted Duane Arnold Energy Center could introduce hundreds of new chemicals into the environment, impacting human health.

In his role with the Sierra Club’s Iowa City Chapter, Tom Carsner has spent a lot of time in recent months thinking and talking about the ways the federal government incentivizes energy efficiency.

After months of no detections, Iowa wildlife officials have seen an uptick in cases of avian influenza this month. Most recently, bird flu was confirmed in Canada geese at two locations in Dubuque County.

In what they are calling a “two-birds-one-stone” approach, researchers at Iowa State University have been exploring whether filling abandoned fossil fuel wells with a “bio-oil” produced from organic material could remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

To carry out the mission of working with their hands, Trappist Monks in Dubuque County focus on conservation, forestry and making caskets.

Despite deploying thousands of tests and running samples, researchers still haven’t determined why so many white oak trees across Iowa have died.

Time has run out on a short-term plan to continue funding a network of sensors that monitors the water quality in Iowa’s rivers and streams. Unless new funding can be secured, dozens of sensors will be taken offline next year, eliminating the ability to measure nitrate and phosphorus to see if conservation practices are working.

Alliant Energy’s plans for a natural gas fired power plant northwest of The Eastern Iowa Airport raise “concerns for airport safety and regulatory compliance,” according to a study commissioned by the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission.

To a gathering of residents in Dubuque this week, David Cwiertny, director of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa, said there is “no such thing as risk-free water.”

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.