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Iowa Gov. Reynolds: Regulation not the answer to addressing state’s water quality woes
Reynolds defended farmers and the state’s investment in conservation practices
Jul. 11, 2025 3:34 pm, Updated: Jul. 14, 2025 11:23 am
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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds this week said regulation is not the answer to address high nitrate levels in Iowa's drinking water, and that farmers are already adopting conservation practices voluntarily.
Asked about protesters — demanding action on agricultural pollution and linking it to high cancer rates in the state — who were gathered outside a public groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the Italian American Cultural Center of Iowa, Reynolds told reporters that “regulation is hardly ever the answer” and “is a killer in most instances — it takes out innovation.”
Reynolds’ resistance to calls for regulation to curb agricultural pollution comes as hundreds of thousand of Iowans have been prohibited from watering their lawns to conserve water due to high nitrate levels in drinking water supplies.
Central Iowa Water Works, which serves 600,000 central Iowa customers, issued a lawn watering ban on June 12 in response to high nitrate levels in the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers, which are the area's primary water sources. The ban aims to ensure that the water utility can continue to provide safe drinking water by limiting water usage.
Federal law limits nitrate levels in drinking water because of its association with “blue baby syndrome,” a disorder that causes a bluish tint to the skin due to reduced oxygen levels in the blood. A growing body of research has also found links between nitrate consumption and cancer.
Local authorities also urged the public to avoid washing cars and filling pools, and some cities shut down splash pads during hot weather. Persistent rainfall has washed fertilizers and manure from fields into streams and rivers.
A two-year water quality study commissioned by Polk County to investigate water quality issues in the region’s main rivers was released weeks later. The report found nitrate levels in central Iowa are among the highest in the U.S., often exceeding federal standards.
The report pointed to agriculture runoff as a main source of nitrate pollution in the rivers, attributing roughly 80 percent of the nitrogen in the watersheds that feed the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers to industrial agriculture, including chemical fertilizers applied to row crops and manure from livestock confinements used as fertilizer on cultivated crops and pastures that get delivered directly from agricultural fields into waterways, bypassing natural filtration processes, through the state’s underground system of farm drainage tile.
The report recommends the state take stronger action, including:
- Investing more funding for the upgrade of wastewater treatment systems to enhance removal of nutrients and additional contaminants;
- Building a public database that shows where and how much manure is applied to land;
- Reducing the overapplication of manure and regulating the timing of its application to reduce stream contamination;
- Implementing “outcome-based” water quality conservation practices and improve row crop production sustainability;
- Improving data collection to further evaluate contaminants and
- Increasing public understanding and awareness of health risks.
Reynolds said her office is working directly with both Central Iowa Water Works and Des Moines Water Works to find solutions for nitrate runoff, and said her administration has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help farmers install conservation practices that improve water quality.
“That’s, I think, where we need to continue to put our efforts,” the governor said. “I can’t control Mother Nature. They can’t control Mother Nature, so that’s just a component that they have to work with, but mark my word, they are working every single day to implement conservation practices because they know it benefits everybody.”
Reynolds added: “It’s in their best interest to make sure that they’re doing everything that they can to protect the water and soil that they’re wanting to pass on to their next generation.”
Water quality and environmental advocates and researchers say farm conservation practices such as establishing wetlands and landscape buffers can help keep nitrogen out of water supplies. But the growth of the livestock industry, availability of cheap crop fertilizer and lack of regulation over nitrogen application make nitrate levels hard to control, according to reporting by Stateline, part of the nonprofit news network States Newsroom.
Naig: Nitrate levels driven by ‘weather and stream flows’
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig, in a lengthy social media post last month, said many factors affect water quality in Iowa, including weather, water treatment capacity, agriculture and urban growth, and it requires a multipronged approach.
Naig said nitrate levels were primarily driven by weather and stream flows. Since Iowa has faced droughts recently, heavy rains in May and June led to increased nitrate levels from soil runoff, according to the secretary.
Iowa's rich soils require nutrients for plant growth, so farmers apply nitrogen to support crops. He said advances in precision agriculture can help farmers apply fertilizer more effectively, balancing productivity and care of the land. He also touted state efforts to collaborate with farmers and other partners to promote conservation practices like cover crops and wetlands to reduce soil erosion and nitrate runoff, and said fast-growing urban areas like Des Moines also need to examine their investments in water treatment infrastructure to meet future needs.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship earlier this week announced it is contributing $244,100 to a three-year, $1.9 million project to reduce nitrate and other nutrient runoff in the Beaver Creek watershed upstream of Des Moines. The project will install saturated buffers, bioreactors, and oxbow restorations to reduce the loss of nutrients into surface water.
“The blame game is unproductive,” Naig wrote in his post. “There is work to be done on both sides of the point/non-point source equation. These investments are expensive, take time and require collaboration. Every Iowan has a role to play in improving water quality. Let’s work together to accelerate conservation and infrastructure upgrades, and continue attracting more residents, businesses and talent to Des Moines.”
Vilsack: Iowa needs to ‘create something more valuable’ from manure
Former Iowa governor and former U.S. agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said during a Thursday recording of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS that the state needs to create opportunities “to basically take that manure and create something more valuable from it, rather than simply overapplying it on land.”
This is already happening in some areas where manure is used to generate energy, fuel and other products, Vilsack said.
By creating a new farming operation that includes manure as a commodity alongside traditional crops like corn and soybeans, farmers can reduce nitrate, improve water quality and generate additional income and jobs in rural areas, Vilsack said.
Doing so, he said, will require government funding for research and economic development initiatives aimed at expanding marketing opportunities beyond traditional commodities, along with providing farmers technology to better understand their land.
“The more they know about the land, maybe the less they need. In some cases it's been suggested by folks at Iowa State (University) that maybe 30 percent of our corn acres don't necessarily need fertilizer at all,” Vilsack said. “Well, if that's the case, there's a savings for farmers. So, there are a multitude of ways.
Vilsack encouraged policymakers to think in terms of "and" rather than "or" to foster creative solutions.
The Gazette’s Erin Murphy and Iowa Capital Dispatch contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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