Iowa senators highlight water quality improvement

Leaders of the Iowa Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee centered their remarks Monday around water quality policies and improvements for the state.

Committee Chair Sen. Annette Sweeney, R-Iowa Falls, said that as someone who has personally implemented many water quality improvements over the years to her farm, she “believes” in water quality.

Sweeney and other leaders delivered opening remarks that all centered on water quality during the committee’s first meeting at the start of the legislative session.

Sen. Tom Shipley, R-Nodaway, the committee’s vice chair, said he has always been “very conscientious” about water quality and conservation in the state.

Shipley said the state has done an “awful lot” to address conservation issues that are “not unique to Iowa.”

“But we can do better,” Shipley said.

He said “something is being done right” because he can look out at the landscape and see birds and animals that he wasn’t able to see 20 years ago.

Water quality has been noted as a key priority heading into the session from lawmakers and environmental groups, especially following a wet summer where nitrate concentrations in Iowa rivers reached near record highs.

The levels were so high in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers that Central Iowa Water Works had to issue its first ever lawn watering ban in the region to manage demand and keep finished drinking water levels below the federal limits. Levels in the rivers have remained high through the winter, however, and the utility had to turn on its nitrate removal system, according to reporting from KCCI, in January to remain compliant.

Sen. Art Staed of Cedar Rapids, ranking Democrat on the committee, said it was “long past time” to act on water quality issues that impact Iowan’s health. Staed pointed to the high nitrate concentrations in Iowa rivers and noted that Iowa is also one of two states with a rising cancer rate. Some studies and public health professionals indicate a potential link between nitrate concentrations and certain cancers.

“Our water crisis has reached a breaking point,” Staed said. “ … Protecting clean water must be a shared priority and meaningful solutions require cooperation across party lines — I hope that begins here.”

Sweeney highlighted a number of programs like the federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, and the state’s Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, that she has been part of or used on her farm to make improvements.

“I believe that we need to make sure that we build upon what we have established; keep the conversations open for more improvement in our water quality,” Sweeney said.