Iowa recreation office isn’t the statewide water quality fix we need
With some of her last breaths as governor of the state, Kim Reynolds guaranteed the farm will keep coming out of our faucets and established the Iowa Office of Outdoor Recreation. Please explain to me, Governor, why anyone would come to a state where farm runoff makes the drinking water cancerous and beaches are regularly closed due to dangerous bacteria?
Farm to Faucet funds the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ water quality department, which hasn’t updated many of its data points in 10 to 20 years. While we already have a system of nitrate sensors that used to be funded by the Legislature, Reynolds and her backers are throwing money at an understaffed, outdated program. When the technology already exists and they turn the other way, they’re trying to hide something.
I am all for an Office of Outdoor Recreation. I agree Iowa has beautiful parks and increasing tourism can only be good for our bottom line.
But.
What conditions are those parks in? We hear about beach closures every year. We know nitrates are too high to safely drink water in many parts of the state. Superbugs, bacteria resistant to antibiotics, have been found downstream from CAFOs.
Does she seriously think people will flock to Big Creek when it’s killing the fish that live in it?
In order for outdoor recreation to thrive, the ecosystem needs to thrive. In order for the ecosystem to thrive, we have to address the water quality issue. A statewide issue deserves a statewide solution, and that only comes from elected officials doing what’s right for Iowans: Get the nitrates and chemicals out, protect our soil, and address the problems instead of hiding in their second home inside corporate, absentee, gold-lined pockets.
Until then, Iowans will keep drinking farm run-off from our faucets and driving tourists away.
Morgan Bradley, Ames
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Iowa needs statewide water quality fix, not recreation office | Letter
Reporting by Morgan Bradley, Letter to the editor / Ames Tribune
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By Morgan Bradley, Letter to the editor | USA TODAY Network
