Recent Blogs - 2024

posted by Michael Schmidt on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 Agricultural runoff contributes the vast majority of nutrient pollution to Iowa's waters, in part because there are few restrictions on it. One of the few conditions in place is a provision adopted in the 1985 Farm Bill called Swampbuster, which conditions federal subsidies on protecting wetlands from agricultural development. This longstanding provision has discouraged destruction of Iowa's few remaining wetlands. But what if that protection were revoked? Read on to learn more.

posted on Monday, December 9, 2024 MidAmerican Energy has released a resource evaluation study, outlining potential retirement dates for their six coal-fired power plants. Although IEC and our partners were included in the closed-door process, the process was extremely flawed and not responsive to stakeholder input.

posted by Sarah Howe on Friday, December 6, 2024 Iowa's Impaired Waters List identifies the lakes, wetlands, streams that do not meet water quality standards for point source and non-point source pollutants. The DNR analyzed 1,428 waterbody segments for the state's Impaired Waters List. EPA evaluated the state's submission and determined in November that it was not fully consistent with the requirements of the Clean Water Act. Read on for more.

posted by Guest Blogger on Tuesday, November 12, 2024 Gabriel E. Lade, Associate Professor of Economics at Macalaster College, provides insight on his newest publication: 'Improving Private Well Testing Programs: Experimental Evidence from Iowa'. This intervention served to better understand private well water quality monitoring, while exploring interventions to improve current testing rates. Read on to learn more.

posted by Sarah Howe on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 In May, Water & Climate Resiliency Specialist Sarah Howe wrote Lead Service Lines and Replacement Efforts in Iowa to dig into the legacy of lead service lines (LSLs) in Iowa and share information from the DNR and federal resources to help Iowans as they think about their infrastructure needs. In October, the Biden-Harris Administration released their final Lead & Copper Rule Improvements as part of the Investing in America Agenda. Read on to learn more.

posted by Guest Blogger on Tuesday, October 8, 2024 This guest blog comes from Dan Haug, Water Quality Specialist for IEC Member Organization Prairie Rivers of Iowa, a not-for-profit organization based in Ames. Read on below to learn more about his work and the legacy of the IOWATER Program.

posted by Guest Blogger on Friday, August 23, 2024 Read this week's guest blog from Kristen Morrow, a Johnson County Conservation Naturalist. This blog features a first-hand account of what inclusivity and accessibility can look like in environmental education. Kristen discusses the programs in Johnson County that seek out marginalized groups to foster environmental awareness, stewardship, and recreation. Read on to learn more.

posted by Michael Schmidt on Friday, August 16, 2024 Although recent rains have brought Iowa out of drought, they also led to flooding and significant increases in nitrate loads to surface waters - the same nitrate leading to a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey. Tile drainage, the underground piping in cropland, has contributed to the flow of nitrate from fertilizer and manure. Read on to learn more.

posted by Guest Blogger on Friday, August 2, 2024 "Drought to Deluge" was written by Nick Blocha as a first-hand reflection of catastrophic flooding in northwest Iowa this summer. Blocha integrates emotional, personal accounts of his time in hands-on relief efforts, direct contact with some of those affected, as well as facts and relevant metrics looking at the causes of floods. Read on to learn more.

posted on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 Alliant Energy's Iowa affiliate, Interstate Power & Light, proposed a rate increase last October of $284 million per year. IEC intervened in the case early this year and partnered with the Environmental Law & Policy Center and Sierra Club to argue for better planning to transition to clean energy, as well as better protections for customers.