Iowa Water Quality

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.

The neighborhood in a wooded area north of Iowa City is expected to take steps to reduce the amount of chloride their water softeners discharge.

Backbone State Park in northeast Iowa was among four Iowa parks with high bacteria concentrations in beach water this week. Lake Macbride State Park and Pleasant Creek State Recreation Area are "OK for swimming," the state reported.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it plans to weaken limits on some so-called forever chemicals in drinking water that were finalized last year, while maintaining standards for two common ones.

A well that supplies drinking water to the east side of Waverly in northeast Iowa has elevated levels of two toxic chemicals that persist indefinitely and are newly regulated by the federal government.

In Cedar Rapids, the state department of agriculture plans to invest $177,625 as part of a planned $500,000 project by the Linn County Conservation Board to build a wetland and improve water quality near Morgan Creek Park.