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Iowa State, city of Ames partner to reduce nutrient runoff, improve recreation
AMES, Iowa A partnership with the city of Ames is giving Iowa State University students an opportunity to propose the redesign of an area of the city with the goals of reducing nutrient runoff and improving recreation. Caroline Westort
An ISU College of Design interdisciplinary studio, “Farmscape,” led by Caroline Westort, associate professor of landscape architecture, is collaborating with the city of Ames on a project to design possibilities for a 70-acre parcel west of Veenker Golf Course and Moore Memorial Park and alongside Ioway Creek. This is the last year that a portion of the land will be leased to and farmed by Iowa State.
Most Iowans favor fertilizer tax to improve water quality, but farmers prefer recreation fees, new s
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Chris Jones, Benjamin Maas and Silvia Secchi
Special to the Iowa City Press-Citizen
Iowa’s 2nd District U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks recently co-authored with Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) a letter to the Des Moines Register that focused on an issue ostensibly important to Iowa’s water: the Trump Administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR), which replaced the Obama Administration’s hated (by agriculture concerns) Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule.
Following the time-tested strategy of tossing red herrings into our polluted lakes and streams, Miller-Meeks would have us believe that the long arm of the federal government will only interfere with and complicate the good-faith efforts of Iowa agriculture to give Iowans the long-promised holy grail of clean water.
David Ekstrom Ames has reached an innovative agreement with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources that allows investment in conservation practices on farms to improve water quality and help the city’s water pollution control facility meet future, more stringent nutrient reduction requirements. Ames is Iowa’s fourth community to sign such an agreement. Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, and Storm Lake reached similar agreements last year. Sand County Foundation, a national agricultural conservation nonprofit, worked closely with these municipalities and the Iowa DNR to develop a model agreement that incentivizes cities and farmers within the same watersheds to address water quality together.
Runoff from livestock facilities and farm fields poses a grave threat to the Raccoon River, a major drinking water source for 500,000 Des Moines metro residents, placing it among the nation s 10 most-endangered waterways for 2021, a new report says.
It s the first time the Raccoon River, which runs from northwest Iowa to Des Moines, has been placed on the annual Most Endangered Rivers list from American Rivers, an influential Washington, D.C., environmental advocacy nonprofit that has been producing the list since 1986.
“We’re sounding the alarm because pollution in the Raccoon River is putting drinking water supplies and public health at risk,” said Olivia Dorothy, American Rivers Upper Mississippi River Basin director.
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