![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogforiowa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/jfan.jpg\")
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\nFrom our inbox – an important word from Diane Rosenberg, Executive Director of Jefferson Count Farmers and Neighbors\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\nThey Just Couldn\u2019t Do It<\/strong><\/h3>\nIowa state legislators fail Iowans; rebuff water sensor funding<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nby Diane Rosenberg | Executive Director<\/em><\/p>\nWhat appeared to be a low hanging fruit during this year\u2019s state legislative session \u2013 restored funding for the University of Iowa IIHR real-time nitrate water sensor program \u2013 became a major battle with Iowans on the losing end. A 2:00 am last-minute budget bill amendment diverted expected IIHR money to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources instead.<\/p>\n
The IIHR water monitoring program through the Iowa Water Quality Information System (IQWIS) network measures nitrate levels every 15 minutes at approximately 60 sensor locations throughout the state. The network, originally 70 sensors strong, was defunded in 2023, a casualty of political payback. Over the last two years, the Walton Family Foundation donated a total of $600,000 to keep the sensors afloat. That funding ends on June 30 this year.<\/p>\n
Many vulnerable, small, rural municipalities without denitrification plants rely on the data from these sensors to provide advance warning of high nitrate levels. This enables them to take measures to reduce nitrate levels to below 10mg\/L, the EPA limit, without last-minute scrambling.<\/p>\n
Nitrate levels have been running especially high since last summer, and environmental leaders were cautiously optimistic funding would be restored.<\/p>\n
The network costs $600,000\/year to operate. Environmental groups were asking for an additional $500,000 to replace old equipment and even $1 million to measure for additional pollutants. Pressure was high on legislators with Iowans lobbying in Des Moines, emailing, calling, and writing postcards all session long.<\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile At the State House<\/strong><\/h3>\n\nThe Iowa House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Committee, under the chairmanship of Rep. Norlin Mommsen, initially allocated $300,000 for the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection portion of the proposed state budget, HF 2771<\/a>. The Senate side of the appropriations committee, chaired by Senator Tom Shipley, initially allocated zero dollars.<\/p>\n$300,000 is only half the amount needed to fund all the sensors. Larry Weber, Director of the University of Iowa IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering and the IQWIS sensor network, said he had numerous conversations with Rep. Mommsen on the network.<\/p>\n
Mommsen told Weber, \u201cThere\u2019s just so much pressure on the Senate Republican side to not do anything,\u201d said Weber. But Weber hoped at least with a line-item budget of $300,000, \u201cwe could work on full funding the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weber said Mommsen was having a hard time getting the Senate to agree, \u201cI really do believe Norlin was fighting very hard for us,\u201d he said. The Senate appropriations committee, \u201cfinally came around and said they would also do the $300,000. So, the deal was then done as far as we understood,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n
That was a week before the session\u2019s end. Then on Friday, May 1 Governor Kim Reynolds and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced the \u201cFarm to Faucet<\/a>\u201d water quality funding package. This proposal mainly channels unspent money, initially allocated in a 2018 water quality bill for watershed projects throughout Iowa, to projects in the Des Moines Lobe, abandoning other parts of the state.<\/p>\n\u201cThe people in Des Moines and Central Iowa deserve to have clean water, but there are many other areas that are struggling with high nitrates, too. This bill shifts funding away from those communities,\u201d said Kerri Johannsen, Senior Director of Policy and Programs at the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC).<\/p>\n
Among its many features, the water package provides $500,000 annually to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), not IIHR, for the agency\u2019s ambient water testing program. The DNR conducts monthly snapshot tests around the state to track Iowa\u2019s contribution to nutrient loads heading to the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n
The DNR would have the option to allocate the $500,000 towards additional contaminant testing, real-time sensors, or a combination of both. It\u2019s totally at the DNR\u2019s discretion with no guarantee of real-time monitoring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nA Broken Agreement<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nOn May 1, the House rewrote the agricultural appropriations amendment, H-8404<\/a>, for the state budget bill to include language for the water quality package. H-8404 included the $300,000 for the IIHR funding that the Senate had agreed upon. The House passed it with a floor vote and sent it over to the Senate.<\/p>\nBut late in the night of May 2 during a 32-hour marathon session, Senator Tom Shipley rewrote the amendment. S-5254<\/a> rerouted the $300,000 for IIHR to the DNR instead, providing the agency now with $800,000 for water monitoring. The Senate passed S-5254 on a 43-2 vote with 12 Democrats joining 31 Republicans.<\/p>\nSenator Art Staed said Democrats compromised on the amendment, even though the caucus supported IIHR network funding, because of concerns Republican senators would completely remove the $300,000 regardless of the earlier agreement. \u201cWe were hoping for the best with an opportunity for the IIHR to apply for a grant from the DNR,\u201d said Staed.<\/p>\n
\nThe new amendment went back to the House at 2:00 am. Rather than scheduling a conference committee to hammer out the differences between the two amendments, Rep. Mommsen called for a vote. \u201cNorlin got rolled on Sunday morning and was told to stand down by leadership,\u201d says Weber. \u201cLeadership wasn\u2019t defined whether that was [Rep. Pat] Grassley or the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The amendment passed 66-18.<\/p>\n
\nThe Aftermath \u2013 What Happens Next?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\nThe final amendment is very complicated, says Johnnsen. \u201cMostly the money in the Farm to Faucet program is being moved around into the same failed water quality programs,\u201d she says. The IEC is currently conducting a detailed analysis of the amendment, and JFAN will make the analysis available when it\u2019s released.<\/p>\n
One of the issues with allocating water monitoring funds to DNR is the agency\u2019s lack of capacity and expertise to administer the real-time IQWIS network. If the DNR decides to pursue real-time monitoring, Weber says there are a couple of ways they could proceed. One includes contracting with the US Geological Survey (USGS).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe contracting process itself will take at a minimum of six months. By the time they get money to the USGS, it’ll be winter, and they\u2019ll want to try to do something in the spring,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what are they going to do? Are they going to buy new equipment and create new locations? Or would they\u2026offset federal monies already coming to USGS to support existing sensors? I would guess it would take the USGS a year to get through contracting and the purchase of equipment if they actually put new sensors out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contracting with the USGS would \u201csupplant federal dollars that are supporting current USGS sensors,\u201d Weber added. \u201cBasically, it would be spending state money instead of federal money. We’d be losing money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Operating USGS sensors aren\u2019t cheap either. The DNR currently contracts with the USGS for a handful of sensors that cost $20,000 each per year to operate. Conversely, IIHR sensors cost approximately $8750 each to operate annually.<\/p>\n
If the DNR does conduct water monitoring with the USGS, the amendment doesn\u2019t contain any language to share nitrate data with the public through the IQWIS network.<\/p>\n
\nA Possible Alternative through the DNR<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\nThe other option that spurred Democrats to compromise on the amendment would entail IIHR applying to the DNR for funds from the $800,000 to cover the sensors. However, that would have to be approved by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), DNR, and Iowa State University, which could pose a challenge.<\/p>\n
Currently Secretary of Agriculture Naig controls the Groundwater Protection Fund at IDALS, which historically funded the sensors, and which could continue to do so right now. But there seems to be little appetite on his part to do that. Weber says Naig won\u2019t even meet with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been part of an ongoing conversation with [Rep. Mommsen] for two or three years now. Norlin keeps asking me would I be willing to sit down and meet with Mike Naig? And I tell him, I\u2019ve been saying yes to this for three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what Mike Naig is so afraid of that he\u2019s unwilling to talk to me,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear whether the DNR, led by former agribusiness lobbyist Kayla Lyons, or Iowa State University would also agree to fund the sensors.<\/p>\n
\nThe Fate of Nitrate Monitoring Through 2027<\/strong><\/h3>\nOver the past year, several counties prepared for the possibility of lost funding and are providing more bridge funding for an additional 12 months until the state restores IIHR funding.<\/p>\n
With this support, the IIHR nitrate monitoring network will continue through June 2027, but in a somewhat reduced and targeted capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the tricky part,\u201d Weber said. \u201cThe reason this should be done statewide is that each of the counties have different stipulations on the funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polk County committed $200,000. In addition to funding some sensors in their watershed, its supervisors agreed to fund other sensors in areas not covered by other counties.<\/p>\n
Johnson County also is contributing $200,000. \u201cSome of that has to be spent in the county, and some of it has to be spent in the Iowa River watershed that drains into Johnson County,\u201d Weber said. Linn County is allocating $100,000 mainly targeting the Cedar River watershed draining to Cedar Rapids, with the contract being finalized at publication time.<\/p>\n
The City of Decorah will add another $17,000 to operate two sensors on the Upper Iowa River, and Wright County is contributing $35,000 for the Boone River watershed.<\/p>\n
In addition, an Isaak Walton League GoFundMe page<\/a> has so far raised $73,725 for the network.<\/p>\nThe two sensors in the Clayton County area that monitor Bloody Run Creek will continue to operate. \u201cBelieve me, we\u2019re going to keep that going,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the landscape of where we\u2019re at,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why getting funding from this DNR pool of funds\u2026a couple hundred thousand there would completely fill us out. That would get us back to the 70 [sensors] that we ran a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s Up to Us<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\nWhether that happens or not, Iowa critically needs real-time nitrate water sensors throughout around the state to be fully funded on an annual basis. It goes without saying that water monitoring should not be a political football. With Iowa\u2019s high cancer rates, it\u2019s irresponsible of legislators to treat nitrate pollution and awareness as anything but a public health issue.<\/p>\n
Environmental organizations are regrouping to drive the water quality issue into this summer, through the elections, and into the next legislative session. Watch for announcements of how you can help support these efforts.<\/p>\n
With the midterms coming up, key pro-agribusiness legislators like Senators Tom Shipley and Ken Rozenboom are retiring, and new candidates are running for their seats.<\/p>\n
Follow candidates running in your districts, learn all you can about what they would do to improve water quality, and ask if they would fund the IIHR water sensor network. Then vote for candidates who stand with Iowans, clean water, and public health, not corporate agribusiness interests.<\/p>\n
Iowans deserve better than this.<\/p>\n
This article is published online here.<\/a><\/h4>\n\nPhoto credit: PaniYani\/Shutterstock.com<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nJefferson County Farmers & Neighbors, Inc.<\/strong>
\nJFANIowa.org<\/a>
\nP.O. Box 811
\nFairfield, IA 52556
\n641-209-6600
\nFollow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a><\/p>\nJFAN is funded by grassroots support and gratefully welcomes your donations. JFANIowa.org\/donate-today<\/a><\/p>\n
Iowa state legislators fail Iowans; rebuff water sensor funding<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n by Diane Rosenberg | Executive Director<\/em><\/p>\n What appeared to be a low hanging fruit during this year\u2019s state legislative session \u2013 restored funding for the University of Iowa IIHR real-time nitrate water sensor program \u2013 became a major battle with Iowans on the losing end. A 2:00 am last-minute budget bill amendment diverted expected IIHR money to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources instead.<\/p>\n The IIHR water monitoring program through the Iowa Water Quality Information System (IQWIS) network measures nitrate levels every 15 minutes at approximately 60 sensor locations throughout the state. The network, originally 70 sensors strong, was defunded in 2023, a casualty of political payback. Over the last two years, the Walton Family Foundation donated a total of $600,000 to keep the sensors afloat. That funding ends on June 30 this year.<\/p>\n Many vulnerable, small, rural municipalities without denitrification plants rely on the data from these sensors to provide advance warning of high nitrate levels. This enables them to take measures to reduce nitrate levels to below 10mg\/L, the EPA limit, without last-minute scrambling.<\/p>\n Nitrate levels have been running especially high since last summer, and environmental leaders were cautiously optimistic funding would be restored.<\/p>\n The network costs $600,000\/year to operate. Environmental groups were asking for an additional $500,000 to replace old equipment and even $1 million to measure for additional pollutants. Pressure was high on legislators with Iowans lobbying in Des Moines, emailing, calling, and writing postcards all session long.<\/p>\n The Iowa House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Committee, under the chairmanship of Rep. Norlin Mommsen, initially allocated $300,000 for the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection portion of the proposed state budget, HF 2771<\/a>. The Senate side of the appropriations committee, chaired by Senator Tom Shipley, initially allocated zero dollars.<\/p>\n $300,000 is only half the amount needed to fund all the sensors. Larry Weber, Director of the University of Iowa IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering and the IQWIS sensor network, said he had numerous conversations with Rep. Mommsen on the network.<\/p>\n Mommsen told Weber, \u201cThere\u2019s just so much pressure on the Senate Republican side to not do anything,\u201d said Weber. But Weber hoped at least with a line-item budget of $300,000, \u201cwe could work on full funding the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n Weber said Mommsen was having a hard time getting the Senate to agree, \u201cI really do believe Norlin was fighting very hard for us,\u201d he said. The Senate appropriations committee, \u201cfinally came around and said they would also do the $300,000. So, the deal was then done as far as we understood,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n That was a week before the session\u2019s end. Then on Friday, May 1 Governor Kim Reynolds and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced the \u201cFarm to Faucet<\/a>\u201d water quality funding package. This proposal mainly channels unspent money, initially allocated in a 2018 water quality bill for watershed projects throughout Iowa, to projects in the Des Moines Lobe, abandoning other parts of the state.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people in Des Moines and Central Iowa deserve to have clean water, but there are many other areas that are struggling with high nitrates, too. This bill shifts funding away from those communities,\u201d said Kerri Johannsen, Senior Director of Policy and Programs at the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC).<\/p>\n Among its many features, the water package provides $500,000 annually to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), not IIHR, for the agency\u2019s ambient water testing program. The DNR conducts monthly snapshot tests around the state to track Iowa\u2019s contribution to nutrient loads heading to the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n The DNR would have the option to allocate the $500,000 towards additional contaminant testing, real-time sensors, or a combination of both. It\u2019s totally at the DNR\u2019s discretion with no guarantee of real-time monitoring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On May 1, the House rewrote the agricultural appropriations amendment, H-8404<\/a>, for the state budget bill to include language for the water quality package. H-8404 included the $300,000 for the IIHR funding that the Senate had agreed upon. The House passed it with a floor vote and sent it over to the Senate.<\/p>\n But late in the night of May 2 during a 32-hour marathon session, Senator Tom Shipley rewrote the amendment. S-5254<\/a> rerouted the $300,000 for IIHR to the DNR instead, providing the agency now with $800,000 for water monitoring. The Senate passed S-5254 on a 43-2 vote with 12 Democrats joining 31 Republicans.<\/p>\n Senator Art Staed said Democrats compromised on the amendment, even though the caucus supported IIHR network funding, because of concerns Republican senators would completely remove the $300,000 regardless of the earlier agreement. \u201cWe were hoping for the best with an opportunity for the IIHR to apply for a grant from the DNR,\u201d said Staed.<\/p>\n The new amendment went back to the House at 2:00 am. Rather than scheduling a conference committee to hammer out the differences between the two amendments, Rep. Mommsen called for a vote. \u201cNorlin got rolled on Sunday morning and was told to stand down by leadership,\u201d says Weber. \u201cLeadership wasn\u2019t defined whether that was [Rep. Pat] Grassley or the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n The amendment passed 66-18.<\/p>\n The final amendment is very complicated, says Johnnsen. \u201cMostly the money in the Farm to Faucet program is being moved around into the same failed water quality programs,\u201d she says. The IEC is currently conducting a detailed analysis of the amendment, and JFAN will make the analysis available when it\u2019s released.<\/p>\n One of the issues with allocating water monitoring funds to DNR is the agency\u2019s lack of capacity and expertise to administer the real-time IQWIS network. If the DNR decides to pursue real-time monitoring, Weber says there are a couple of ways they could proceed. One includes contracting with the US Geological Survey (USGS).<\/p>\n \u201cThe contracting process itself will take at a minimum of six months. By the time they get money to the USGS, it’ll be winter, and they\u2019ll want to try to do something in the spring,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n \u201cThen what are they going to do? Are they going to buy new equipment and create new locations? Or would they\u2026offset federal monies already coming to USGS to support existing sensors? I would guess it would take the USGS a year to get through contracting and the purchase of equipment if they actually put new sensors out.\u201d<\/p>\n Contracting with the USGS would \u201csupplant federal dollars that are supporting current USGS sensors,\u201d Weber added. \u201cBasically, it would be spending state money instead of federal money. We’d be losing money.\u201d<\/p>\n Operating USGS sensors aren\u2019t cheap either. The DNR currently contracts with the USGS for a handful of sensors that cost $20,000 each per year to operate. Conversely, IIHR sensors cost approximately $8750 each to operate annually.<\/p>\n If the DNR does conduct water monitoring with the USGS, the amendment doesn\u2019t contain any language to share nitrate data with the public through the IQWIS network.<\/p>\n The other option that spurred Democrats to compromise on the amendment would entail IIHR applying to the DNR for funds from the $800,000 to cover the sensors. However, that would have to be approved by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS), DNR, and Iowa State University, which could pose a challenge.<\/p>\n Currently Secretary of Agriculture Naig controls the Groundwater Protection Fund at IDALS, which historically funded the sensors, and which could continue to do so right now. But there seems to be little appetite on his part to do that. Weber says Naig won\u2019t even meet with him.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been part of an ongoing conversation with [Rep. Mommsen] for two or three years now. Norlin keeps asking me would I be willing to sit down and meet with Mike Naig? And I tell him, I\u2019ve been saying yes to this for three years.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what Mike Naig is so afraid of that he\u2019s unwilling to talk to me,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether the DNR, led by former agribusiness lobbyist Kayla Lyons, or Iowa State University would also agree to fund the sensors.<\/p>\n Over the past year, several counties prepared for the possibility of lost funding and are providing more bridge funding for an additional 12 months until the state restores IIHR funding.<\/p>\n With this support, the IIHR nitrate monitoring network will continue through June 2027, but in a somewhat reduced and targeted capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the tricky part,\u201d Weber said. \u201cThe reason this should be done statewide is that each of the counties have different stipulations on the funding.\u201d<\/p>\n Polk County committed $200,000. In addition to funding some sensors in their watershed, its supervisors agreed to fund other sensors in areas not covered by other counties.<\/p>\n Johnson County also is contributing $200,000. \u201cSome of that has to be spent in the county, and some of it has to be spent in the Iowa River watershed that drains into Johnson County,\u201d Weber said. Linn County is allocating $100,000 mainly targeting the Cedar River watershed draining to Cedar Rapids, with the contract being finalized at publication time.<\/p>\n The City of Decorah will add another $17,000 to operate two sensors on the Upper Iowa River, and Wright County is contributing $35,000 for the Boone River watershed.<\/p>\n In addition, an Isaak Walton League GoFundMe page<\/a> has so far raised $73,725 for the network.<\/p>\n The two sensors in the Clayton County area that monitor Bloody Run Creek will continue to operate. \u201cBelieve me, we\u2019re going to keep that going,\u201d says Weber.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the landscape of where we\u2019re at,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why getting funding from this DNR pool of funds\u2026a couple hundred thousand there would completely fill us out. That would get us back to the 70 [sensors] that we ran a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether that happens or not, Iowa critically needs real-time nitrate water sensors throughout around the state to be fully funded on an annual basis. It goes without saying that water monitoring should not be a political football. With Iowa\u2019s high cancer rates, it\u2019s irresponsible of legislators to treat nitrate pollution and awareness as anything but a public health issue.<\/p>\n Environmental organizations are regrouping to drive the water quality issue into this summer, through the elections, and into the next legislative session. Watch for announcements of how you can help support these efforts.<\/p>\n With the midterms coming up, key pro-agribusiness legislators like Senators Tom Shipley and Ken Rozenboom are retiring, and new candidates are running for their seats.<\/p>\n Follow candidates running in your districts, learn all you can about what they would do to improve water quality, and ask if they would fund the IIHR water sensor network. Then vote for candidates who stand with Iowans, clean water, and public health, not corporate agribusiness interests.<\/p>\n Iowans deserve better than this.<\/p>\n Photo credit: PaniYani\/Shutterstock.com<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jefferson County Farmers & Neighbors, Inc.<\/strong> JFAN is funded by grassroots support and gratefully welcomes your donations. JFANIowa.org\/donate-today<\/a><\/p>\nMeanwhile At the State House<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A Broken Agreement<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Aftermath \u2013 What Happens Next?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A Possible Alternative through the DNR<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
The Fate of Nitrate Monitoring Through 2027<\/strong><\/h3>\n
It\u2019s Up to Us<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
This article is published online here.<\/a><\/h4>\n
\nJFANIowa.org<\/a>
\nP.O. Box 811
\nFairfield, IA 52556
\n641-209-6600
\nFollow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n