Iowa Water Quality

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.

Recent testing by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found “very low” levels of two types of industrial chemicals in Cedar Rapids’ public water supply, but the city reports that its water remains safe to drink.

Central City has concentrations of toxic chemicals in its drinking water that exceed safety thresholds in other states and that are the highest so far identified by a new Iowa surveillance program.

Iowa DNR records show the park draws water from a 140-feet-deep well that is highly susceptible to surface contamination because of the porous sediment in the area.

The city of Cedar Rapids, along with soil and water districts, is partnering with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to launch water quality practices projects.

Trout Unlimited, a conservation group that works to protect rivers and streams, wants to join a Sierra Club lawsuit against the Iowa Department of Natural Resources over an 11,600-head cattle feedlot near Bloody Run Creek in northeast Iowa.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The state of Iowa said Friday that it is suing Sioux City over what it says was the city’s manipulation of wastewater testing results and dangerous pollution of the Missouri River in a scheme that saw the wastewater plant’s former supervisor

Money from American Rescue Plan Act is on top of $110 million coming from federal infrastructure package for drinking water infrastructure.

The project at Camp Courageous will allow community leaders, elected officials, farmers and other residence to see several practices in place to improve water quality.

The $110 million in water quality funding is just a fraction of the $5 billion Iowa is expected to receive through the bipartisan infrastructure package.