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According to a recent study titled “Murky Waters: Farm Pollution Stalls Cleanup of Iowa Streams” from the Environmental Working Group, Iowa’s waterways are in poor shape, which the study asserts is indicative of the effects modern agriculture has on the environment.
The study’s methodology involved taking the average readings for the 36 months between October 1999 and September 2002, and comparing them to the most recent readings from the 36 months between October 2009 and September 2011.
According to the study, more sites improved (16 sites) during those 12 years than worsened (15 sites), though a solid 57% of waterways (41 sites) showed no quantifiable change at all. The study goes on to assert that Iowa’s waterways will still have an overall rating of “poor” in 10 years, blame for which is leveled at the fact that Iowa has historically given producers the choice of voluntary conservation measures rather than regulation.
That Iowa’s waterway quality is, on the whole, poor is not contested; the overall historical picture painted by the Iowa Water Quality Index shows that Iowa’s water and stream quality has been mainly “poor” since recording began, with some waterways rated as “fair,” mainly in central Iowa. However, the monthly score from the WQI is a more positive picture: a generally even scattering of scores, with the slight majority rated as “good.”
IDALS Soil Conservation Division Director Jim Gillespie, above, says one reason for the improved quality is this year’s drought.
Gillespie says the next step is getting a better picture of where Iowa’s environment is at currently, which will provide a baseline from which long-term improvements can be measured – improvements he hopes will come about with the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
