The Iowa State University Nutrition Research Center has announced its intention to fund a network of water quality sensors to monitor water pollution in Iowa streams and rivers, despite legislative efforts to protect the sensor network.
This is good news for Iowans who care about water quality and believe they need data to evaluate the state’s efforts to reduce nitrates and phosphorus entering waterways. The Center for Nutrition Research and its director, Matt Helmers, deserve credit for not allowing politics to have a chilling effect on water quality research.
“The Iowa Water Quality Information System is an important tool for monitoring water quality in the state and tracking the effectiveness of Iowa’s nutrient reduction strategies,” Helmers said in an email to Erin Jordan of The Gazette.
The Legislature’s vote to protect the network was a short-sighted political play. The effort is being led by state Sen. Ryan Dan Zumbach, whose son-in-law co-owns an 11,600-head feedlot in the Bloody Run Creek watershed in northeast Iowa. One of the sensors in question was located at a feedlot on Bloody Run Creek, a trout stream designated as a designated water body by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Defunding the sensors represents a blatant move by Republicans who control the Legislature to control information about the progress of cleaning up dirty water in Iowa. Sensor data consistently shows that Iowa’s strictly voluntary approach to meeting the goals outlined in the state’s nutrient reduction strategy has not resulted in significant progress.
However, even with Iowa State’s commitment, funding for research using sensor data at the University of Iowa will decrease. UI received $375,000 from the Nutrition Research Center to analyze sensor data and expects that amount to increase to $500,000 in the next budget year. instead of. For participation, UI will receive $295,000 next year and $250,000 the following year.
Thus, despite Iowa’s laudable commitment, Republican legislators have succeeded in cutting research funding. Iowa lost. The sensor system is owned by Iowans, the data collected is public information, and the study’s findings provide a clear picture of how little meaningful progress has been made in cleaning up water. This issue is too important to allow lawmakers to keep Iowans in the dark because of their ties to big agricultural interests.
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Post time: Mar-21-2024