Iowa Water Quality

The installation of saturated buffers and bioreactors will help to improve the Middle Cedar watershed by keeping nutrients in the fields, according to IDALS.

More than 50 years after the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed to ensure that Americans’ water is free from harmful bacteria, lead and other dangerous substances, millions of people living in mobile home parks can’t always count on those basic protections.

Warnings about bacteria in the water are posted at 13 Iowa beaches this week. Water samples from Backbone State Park in Delaware County, in particular, show exceptionally high E. coli levels.

A comparison of nitrate levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers shows nitrate levels were elevated nearly 40 more days in 2025 than in 2024.

The environmental nonprofit Wings2Water has awarded $26,000 to local organizations whose projects aim to address water quality in the Mississippi River watershed.

Asked about protesters who attended a Thursday groundbreaking in Des Moines, demanding action on agricultural pollution and linking it to high cancer rates in the state, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters that “regulation is hardly ever the answer” and “is a killer in most instances — it takes out innovation.”

Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa and head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 12 years, said Thursday that Iowa leaders need to look toward “and” conversations rather than “or” discussions to solve some of the state’s biggest issues.

More than two decades after it was started, the river cleanup effort Iowa Project AWARE, is about to hit a major milestone: 1 million pounds of trash removed from Iowa’s rivers.

Nitrate levels in the Cedar River, which supplies drinking water for Cedar Rapids, have increased in recent days, but remain below the limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents of Lake Ridge Estates, a mobile home park just south of Iowa City, last week found a 24-pack of bottled water and a notice at their front doors. “Lake Ridge Inc. has high levels of manganese. DO NOT GIVE TAP WATER TO INFANTS UNDER 6 MONTHS OLD OR USE IT TO MAKE INFANT FORMULA.”

The annual forecast for the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has renamed the Gulf of America, predicts the section of water where oxygen is unnaturally low will be about average in size this year. What’s not average is the uncertainty over whether government-backed efforts to reduce its size will falter as the Trump administration scales back federal agencies involved in the process.

The water quality concerns in were highlighted during a roundtable held by Democratic Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand’s gubernatorial campaign Tuesday at the Exira Public Library, where he spoke to local residents and officials.