Public comments are needed for a newly released impaired waters list draft released by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
DNR Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Supervisor Roger Bruner says this list is compiled every even year, and the latest draft is assessing data on the state’s surface waters from 2014-2018. The report identifies surface waters that don’t fully meet all applicable state water quality standards for their intended use, and the latest report shows 99 impairments that are recommended to be removed from the list, once approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Bruner shares some local data, “So in Washington [County] you know Lake Darling is impaired and has been for a while because of siltation issues. Part of this process is once we get all the data, we summarize it, and we compare it to the proper water quality standards, if it’s impaired this list, the impaired waters list, once approved by the EPA is handed over to another group here within the Water Quality Bureau here at the DNR. And the Total Maximum Daily Load Team, TMDL, they are charged with writing what is mostly known as a watershed improvement plan.”