Iowa Water Quality

Iowa farmers bought 4.94 million metric tons of fertilizer from July 1, 2022, through June 30, down 6% from the previous year, but 10% higher than the 10-year average of 4.49 million metric tons, according to

Belle Plaine is scraping the bottom of its water reserves and is searching for reprieve and solutions. It’s not the only Iowa town suffering amid the record drought.

Water quality, conservation agriculture, power grid and more to be discussed in seven panels at the 2023 Iowa Ideas virtual conference.

By testing 20 wells, as well as sampling groundwater and soil, airport leaders hope to understand the scope and direction of PFAS contamination and see if there is evidence of a link between tainted wells and firefighting foam used for decades at the airport.

Also, Attorney General reminds Iowans of school safety law

An Iowa DNR representative did not respond to Gazette inquiries about why the process has been delayed beyond the timeline previously estimated by a DNR water quality supervisor.

Iowa awards $580K to improve 6 public lakes

If your holiday plans include a dip in a nearby lake -- good news -- most of Iowa’s 40 state park beaches have water quality within safe standards for swimming this week. Seven don’t, so take a look at our list.

In its 20th year, the Iowa Project AWARE summer cleanup is July 9 to 14 and covers 65 miles of the middle Iowa River from east of Marshalltown to Belle Plaine.

Wings 2 Water, a water quality not-for-profit linked to the Eastern Iowa Airport, this week awarded $25,000 in grants to local environmental projects.

An analysis of four decades of Iowa data by the nonprofit newsroom Investigate Midwest shows that agriculture activity was responsible for 45 percent of the nearly 1,000 fish kills recorded between 1981 and 2022.

Here’s how your tax dollars will be spent in the coming fiscal year