Iowa officials this week unveiled a new website – www.cleanwateriowa.org –intended to help Iowans clean up their rivers and lakes.
A Des Moines Register article quoted Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as calling the site a “one-stop-shop for conservation practices we can all use, whether it is on the farm, at a business or by a homeowner.”
The same article quoted leaders of two environmental groups calling for stronger state measures to reduce water pollution, especially pollution from agriculture.
The Des Moines Water Works last spring had to activate its large nitrate-removal equipment, at a cost of $7,000 per day, because of high nitrate levels in two rivers that provide the city’s water, the Register reported. Farm fertilizers are a major source of that nitrate pollution.