News from our journalists and contributors about Iowa water quality, trends, conservation, watershed, stream nitrate levels and investigative journalism from The Gazette.
Like the Great Lakes initiative, it would operate within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and provide hundreds of millions in federal funding to groups throughout the 10 states including Iowa along the river.
Seven Iowans have appealed state regulators’ decision to grant a water use permit to an 11,600-head northeast Iowa cattle feedlot.
The over-application increased the risk of contaminating nearby waterways with nitrate, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
A Cedar Rapids landscaping company has partnered with a team of former Iowa State University researchers to sell a climate-friendly additive to fertilizer that some experts tout as key to soil rejuvenation and carbon sequestration. It may also help with water quality.
The report, released last month, shows increasingly wetter conditions in the Upper Mississippi River over the past few decades, a trend that — spurred by climate change and land-use practices — looks likely to continue.
The city of Cedar Rapids has published its annual water quality report for 2021, which provides a comprehensive look at the past year’s drinking water quality. The city’s finished water had no violations.
“This is a strong statement from the EPA that these are a dangerous class of chemicals,” said David Cwiertny, director of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa.
The city has done regular water tests at the lake, called Sand Lake, in previous summers, but this is the first time there has been a no swim advisory due to high levels of E. coli bacteria, said Tyler Baird, superintendent of Parks & Forestry.
LaPorte City has agreed to pay a $7,000 fine for discharging too much E. coli bacteria in treated wastewater going into Wolf Creek, a Cedar River tributary.
State and federal officials called the funding from the federal infrastructure package ‘unprecedented’
Testing sites include Cedar Rapids metro area, Central City, Monticello, Decorah
The Iowa Legislature wants to spend $1 million next year to revise the state’s long-standing nitrogen fertilizer calculator used in seven corn-growing states. Some water quality advocates fear the update will mean more fertilizer applied to fields and more runoff into streams and lakes, but two Iowa State professors welcome the opportunity for new research into the nitrogen question.
The Iowa Environmental Council wants to force the state's Environmental Protection Commission to adopt flood plain maps to comply with a law that says animal-feeding operations can’t be built near waterways.
Tired of what they call “cropaganda,” three University of Iowa scientists created a podcast that provides an alternative voice on issues including water quality, agriculture and climate change.
© 2025 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved.
Daily Newsletters