Just one year away from a 2025 deadline to reduce nitrate and phosphorus entering the Gulf by 20 percent, success seems unlikely.
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News from our journalists and contributors about Iowa water quality, trends, conservation, watershed, stream nitrate levels and investigative journalism from The Gazette.
Just one year away from a 2025 deadline to reduce nitrate and phosphorus entering the Gulf by 20 percent, success seems unlikely.
This summer’s “dead zone,” a low-oxygen area where the river empties into the sea, could span 5,827 square miles across the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana has the power to call for change.
Worsening local effects on health and recreation in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin are spurring action on problems that also cause the Gulf of Mexico’s chronic “dead zone.”
Sluggish progress on reducing nutrient runoff into the Chesapeake Bay marks an inconvenient truth, but offers lessons for others seeking to clean their watersheds.
Agricultural drainage tile, a system used by farmers to increase crop yields, is a main contributor to excess nutrients in waterways.
With water-guzzling data centers popping up across Iowa and a multi-year drought causing more farmers to use irrigation systems, Iowa’s underground aquifers are being tapped more frequently. The Iowa Legislature allocated $250,000 this year for a study of Iowa’s aquifers to make sure they don’t run dry with increased use.
The Library of Congress has named an Iowa book of essays about agricultural pollution to a list of 56 “Great Reads” for 2024.
Nitrate contamination of Iowa’s rivers has surged in recent weeks amid heavy, widespread rainfall, according to data collected by the Iowa Water Quality Information System.
In addition to seeking higher penalties for offenders, the letter to the DNR asks the agency to work with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to review rules related to agricultural chemical storage to see if they are adequate to protect Iowa waterways.
Nitrogen-impaired drinking water in Minnesota’s farm country has been a gnarled reality for rural landowners with private wells for decades, particularly in the southeastern portion of the state with porous geography. One Minnesota lawmaker said the time for encouragement through incentives for corn farmers to stop using fertilizer has passed.
Here’s an update on 12 bills that remain open for passage by the Iowa Legislature -- and two that did not survive -- after the first funnel deadline.
An eastern Iowa mobile home park has failed for more than a year to ensure its drinking water is safe, and state regulators recently ordered it to provide bottled water to its residents.
State ag officials, Iowa DNR propose revisions to Iowa Code, emphasizing soil health
Iowa’s 2024 legislative session has featured bills that would affect Iowa’s land, water and air. Here are seven introduced by Republicans this month.
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