Threatened by federal and state budget reductions, Polk County is committing funding to help keep a state water quality monitoring system afloat amid continued concerns over the quality of central Iowa’s water.
The Polk County Board of Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday, Oct. 21, unanimously approved providing about $200,000 to the University of Iowa’s Hydroscience and Engineering (IIHR) water quality monitoring program. The funding will help support the program, with an annual budget of about $600,000, that monitors rivers, including the Raccoon, Des Moines and Cedar, and maintains 60 censors across the state of Iowa.
The funding boost comes as federal and state budget reductions threaten to pause the research, which could disrupt monitoring and real-time data collection that’s critical to preserving water sources, county officials said in a news release. The county’s funds will kick in in June 2026, when the federal and state funds are set to expire.
The additional funding also comes on the heels of the Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment (CISWRA) report, which highlighted a link between Iowa’s agricultural practices to widespread water pollution. This summer, Central Iowa Water Works also imposed its first-ever mandatory lawn-watering ban affecting 600,000 customers due to nitrate pollution.
Without adequate funding at the federal and state levels, local governments need to step up and help fund a program that benefits the entire state, Polk County Board of Supervisors Chair Matt McCoy said at a news conference Tuesday.
“And so as a county of more than 600,000 people that rely upon safe, clean drinking water, I think we have an obligation as county government to make sure that we’re ensuring that the water that the residents are drinking is protected,” McCoy said. “This is vital work.”
How does the University of Iowa’s water monitoring program work?
The university’s water quality monitoring program, called the Iowa Water Quality Information System, has been gathering real-time data on water that helps leaders make informed decisions on public health, ecological concerns, and flood prevention, county officials said.
According to the university’s website, the program aims to help researchers, agencies, and landowners monitor the impact of land-use changes on downstream water quality, enable watershed stakeholders to understand where nutrients are transported in Iowa’s waterways, as well as help the state monitor the success of its Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, a program to help reduce pollutants moving from Iowa into the Mississippi River Basin and to the Gulf of Mexico.
For about a decade, the university has monitored sites in central Iowa along the Raccoon and Des Moines river watersheds to measure river flow, nitrate levels and health and quality of water, McCoy said. Public safety is at the forefront of the research the university provides for the state, he said.
“And obviously the research is indicating that our drinking water impacts our overall health as human beings. And because of some of the changing cancer statistics that have put Iowa in the forefront of the cancer discussion, a lot of people are asking questions that require the types of data that’s being collected by the University of Iowa and elsewhere,” McCoy said.
Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the country.
Where is the county’s funding coming from?
Polk County is allocating $90,344 from funding leftover from the CISWRA study and $109,656 from American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The funding will cover the program for a year.
In a statement, IIHR director Larry Weber said the county’s contribution will ensure “we have the necessary scientific information at hand for informed decisions concerning water quality and usage in Iowa.”
Who else is investing in the program?
McCoy said the university is asking other counties, including Linn and Johnson, to kick in funds to the program. Until there is another source of funding, it’ll be likely that local communities will be asked to fund the research, he said.
“It’s really important that Polk County lead on this so our colleagues in both Johnson County and Linn County will join in this effort to keep this program alive and keep this research ongoing at the University of Iowa,” McCoy said.
Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government and Polk County reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Polk County commits funds to keep Iowa water quality monitoring program afloat
Reporting by Virginia Barreda, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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