Water problems not going away

Clean water is sitting on the back burner as your Iowa Legislature returns to its Golden Dome of Wisdom this week.

Democratic legislative leaders came to Hiawatha last week bearing a bipartisan 'to-do list” that did not mention any efforts to clean up and protect Iowa's waterways, which, of course, go hand-in-hand with conserving our valuable soil. Water quality also doesn't make the Republican hit parade of top objectives.

That's disappointing, considering how lawmakers ended the 2014 session by approving a big bipartisan deal to provide millions of dollars for water quality and conservation efforts. That included an extra $9 million for the chronically underfunded Resource Enhancement and Protection program, or REAP, and $11.2 million for other efforts providing matching dollars to farmers adopting smart conservation practices.

Those dollars were intended to back up Iowa's 'Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” a massive, voluntary effort to cut fertilizer runoff into Iowa waterways and beyond. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, a Republican, backed the extra funding, as did the Iowa Farm Bureau. It passed the Iowa House 97-0.

Then, Gov. Terry Branstad vetoed it, insisting that one bad month for state revenues justified scrapping a hard-won bipartisan compromise and a vital investment in the state's future. Later, the Farm Bureau named Branstad a 'friend of agriculture.”

So Branstad won re-election. Maybe that's why lawmakers are skittish about putting their efforts into another water quality effort. The governor's reservoir of excuses for not doing more to protect the state's environment is in itself an endless natural resource.

And yet, back burner can come to a boil.

On Thursday, the trustees of the Des Moines Water Works served notice they intend to sue three rural northwest Iowa counties that oversee drainage districts where nitrates flow into the Raccoon River, the city's source of drinking water. A spike in nitrate levels forces Des Moines to activate a special removal facility. In 2013, running the facility cost $900,000.

'Des Moines Water Works is taking this decisive action to underscore that the degraded condition of our state's source waters is a very real problem, not just to Des Moines Water Works, but to the 500,000 customers we serve, as well as to Iowans generally who have a right of use and enjoyment of the water commonwealth of our State,” Bill Stowe, Water Works CEO, said in a statement. 'The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is a failure.”

Maybe you agree with Stowe, and maybe you don't. But the surest way for state leaders to guarantee that a voluntary strategy fails is to continue lowballing its funding. It's no surprise that the governor, Northey and the Department of Natural Resources all received fresh copies of the water works' notice of intent.

The message is clear. Do something.

'They're crying out there for help. And if you don't want a regulatory approach, you've got to invest adequate resources,” said Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids.

The good news is, to-do lists aside, legislative leaders seem to understand what's at stake.

'I think pretty clearly if we don't figure out a way to fund it in a sustainable way and have our water quality be much better than it currently is, the long-term future of our state is not particularly bright,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs. 'But right now we don't even meet the voluntary demand for conservation.”

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, says both parties understand that failure of the voluntary program, the 'Iowa solution,” raises the specter of federal intervention.

'It really comes down to the amount of money the General Assembly will put behind it and the amount of money the governor will sign,” Paulsen said this past week.

The state budget is tight, thanks to massive property tax, health care and education packages approved in 2013 with large, long-term costs. So water quality gets tossed into a fight between competing interests for scarce bucks. Water rarely wins that fight.

Sen. David Johnson, a conservative Republican from Ocheyedan in northwest Iowa, thinks the state should raise the sales tax by three-eighths of a cent to finally fill the Iowa Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund. The fund was created by a constitutional amendment approved by Iowa voters in 2010. Since then, no effort has been made to provide the sales tax boost needed to fill the trust fund.

A big chunk of the trust fund would pay for water and soil conservation efforts.

'It's high time we set up a constitutionally protected fund,” said Johnson, who is, for now, the lone Republican calling publicly for filling the trust fund. His district includes the Iowa Great Lakes.

'And I have some of the best farm ground and best production in both the crops and livestock of any Senate district in the state. So I try to balance both sides,” he said.

Johnson said he'll file a bill along with Sen. Dick Dearden, D-Des Moines, to raise the sales tax. It's an uphill climb.

'What it will take is the people. The people have got to want this. We've got to hear from them,” Johnson said.

He sees conservation funding as economically vital.

'I would say quality of life is as important as your jobs, your wages, availability of housing, taxes, all those factors people talk about in economic development. I think quality of life is right there on equal standing or more than some of those factors,” Johnson said.

Readjust your burners and to-do lists accordingly.

' Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com