News from our journalists and contributors about Iowa water quality, trends, conservation, watershed, stream nitrate levels and investigative journalism from The Gazette.
To a gathering of residents in Dubuque this week, David Cwiertny, director of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa, said there is “no such thing as risk-free water.”
Two-thirds of Iowa’s state park beaches faced “swimming not recommended” advisories at least once this summer, with heavy rains fueling higher bacteria levels that pushed advisories to their highest rate in a decade, according to state monitoring officials and data.
The Iowa Department of Ag announced this week a pilot project that will provide $3 million to encourage farmers and landowners in the watersheds upstream from the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids metro areas to add perennial buffers to fields along streams.
Now, after its 40th year and 38th hypoxia cruise, The Pelican’s annually planned journey to measure the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico faces challenges to stay afloat, potentially undermining decades of research and future plans to get the dead zone under control.
Cedar Rapids will use settlement funds from a class action lawsuit to pursue the design and potential construction of an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) well to hold drinking water in deep storage.
An environmental group that advocates for clean water in northeast Iowa has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the state against a Postville meatpacking over its repeated wastewater pollution violations.
Less than a year after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added segments of five Iowa rivers to the impaired waters list for nitrate, the same agency — now operating under the Trump administration — has rescinded the decision.
The Iowa Soybean Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have completed about 50 oxbows across the state through a partnership. That’s important because oxbows can prevent flooding, improve water quality and provide habitat for animals.
During a summer that’s featured high-profile nitrate spikes in Iowa waterways and water use restrictions for thousands of central Iowans, hundreds of people gathered in Des Moines this week to listen to discussion about the findings of a comprehensive water study that was commissioned by Polk County.
Linn County officials this week approved funding for three studies to learn more about current water quality conditions.
Also, Fairfield becomes Iowa’s newest Main Street Community
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.
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