IOWA

Iowa is the leading exporter of corn and pork within the United States, and is the second leading exporter of soybeans, behind Illinois. Iowa’s booming agricultural industry takes pride in these statements.

But Iowa’s agricultural dominance comes at a cost, namely poor water quality.

This poor water quality, created in part from agricultural pollution, reaches every possible waterway, from the Mississippi River to small backyard creeks, affecting drinking water and the state’s ecosystem as a whole.

Chris Jones, former University of Iowa researcher, spoke at the Purple Martin Workshop and Seminar on Saturday, March 16 in Kalona to discuss Iowa’s water quality in depth.

Dangers within Iowa waterways; A timeline

About 70% of Iowa’s land is used for agriculture. This high percentage, coupled with weak ecological regulations, is a key reason why Iowa’s water quality has suffered.

Pollution of Iowa waterways happens in part because of nutrient runoff at agricultural sites; livestock waste which totals to around 108 billion pounds per year; and discharge from ethanol plants.

These factors introduce Iowa waterways to high levels of nitrates and phosphorous, among other contaminants, which cause algal blooms that restrict oxygen for aquatic life, starting a process of degradation.

Nitrate specifically is a natural nitrogen-oxygen chemical compound found in many fertilizers. Most nitrates are water soluble, meaning they dissolve in water easily. When picked up by rain droplets, they can easily be carried into nearby creeks, streams and rivers.

Research has shown a link between cancer and nitrates within animals but not humans, although, it has been demonstrated that consumption of too much nitrate can lead to methemoglobinemia, a rare abnormality which hinders blood from carrying oxygen to various parts of the body.  

Methemoglobinemia is especially dangerous to infants, causing blue baby syndrome; and pregnant women, though it can affect anyone.

These are not natural issues within Iowa waterways. Many of these issues can be traced back to Iowa’s first European settlers.

Before the revolution of the steel plow, Iowa was roughly 70% prairie, 20% wetland, 5% oakwood savanna and 5% of other ecosystems.

Afterwards, farms blossomed near water sources, destroying native prairie in the process to accommodate Iowa’s burgeoning agricultural industry.

While cultivating the land, farmers would drain their local waterways or plant so close to shorelines that contamination happened easily.

Additionally, farmers lowered the water table by four feet to optimize conditions for crop production; straightened natural streams, making them unstable; implemented widespread use of field tiles; and privatized the land – today 97% of Iowa’s land is privately owned.

Now, over 70% of Iowan land is used by the ag industry, demonstrating a complete transformation of land.

Thus, Iowa ranks last among U.S. states for soil erosion, which causes sedimentation and turbidity within contaminated waterways, made worse by the straightened streams.

These contaminated streams then degrade and channelize, causing unconsolidated sediments and bank erosion. All of these issues add up to extremely turbid waters that thrash even without external pressure.

Sustaining an ecosystem in these waters is a challenge for local wildlife, though not impossible.

Back home, Jones keeps track of different bodies of water to monitor their pollution levels.

One he follows is the Wapsipinicon River. Jones describes it as a “high nitrate system” with “ecological integrity.” This is because the riparian zone, or the wetland adjacent to the river, remains intact, allowing “desirable” species like small mouth bass and northern pike to flourish. 

“[The Wapsi has] sands and gravels in the stream channel. We can see that the stream banks are wooded and intact. They're not farmed,” Jones said.

What does this mean?

“We could still farm and have a nitrate condition here in Iowa, but we could have better streams if we would just protect our stream banks,” Jones said. “We have a half a million acres [of crops] that are in the two-year floodplain. Why do we do that? We could retire about 1% of our land along the stream banks and dramatically improve the condition of our streams. But we refuse to do even that.”

Poor streamside practices consequently pollute private water sources as well.

According to Jones, over 7,000 private water wells within Iowa are contaminated above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limits and have been contaminated since 2000 or before.

Many residents who utilize private wells continue to do so because of the low cost. It means no water bill and electric costs as low as $5 a month.

Nichols, a small town in Muscatine County just seven miles east of Lone Tree, dealt with major water quality issues after years of contamination from agricultural companies.

These businesses provided many residents with bottled water for years specifically because their work contaminated the local water supply. Then, they packed up and left, leaving the residents of Nichols to deal with the poor water.

Much of this stems from lax legislation regarding well drilling. A DNR officer noted many issues of contaminated water would cease if “the state had a law which would require wells to be at least 30 feet deep.”

Many wells in Nichols were well under 30 feet.

Regardless, these companies were never held accountable for contaminating the water of Nichols for countless years.

Poor water here, less water there

Many Iowa waterways flow into the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers, the two largest rivers in North America. As a result, contaminated Iowan water can flow as far as the Gulf of Mexico, which creates another set of problems. Native algae and other water-based species have been decimated in areas, creating a massive domino effect felt countless miles from Iowa.

“What we're doing here pollutes on a continental scale,” Jones remarked during the Purple Martin Workshop.

Additionally, the monocropping of Iowa’s land – specializing in corn and soybeans – creates agricultural challenges elsewhere.

One example: alfalfa.

An important forage crop, alfalfa is grown in Colorado on a large scale. Colorado is mostly dry, and alfalfa needs ample water.

This puts Coloradoan farmers in a tight spot. They must irrigate using the Colorado River – a vital river providing water to many barren states including New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and California.

But overuse of the Colorado River has caused historic lows as it has significantly decreased in volume.

Yet Coloradoan farmers continue to produce alfalfa to meet demand.

Alfalfa could be mass produced in Iowa without need of irrigation and little to no effect on the environment.

Another issue stemming from the Iowa ag industry relates to ethanol production in Kansas and Nebraska.

Because Iowa produces so much corn, it was able to develop an additional market for it. This led to the production of ethanol. Now, neighboring states also grow corn to capture some of that market share.

But unlike Iowa, farmers in these states must access water from the Ogallala Aquifer – the largest of its kind – which is quickly draining, just to meet ethanol demands. 

It took 6,000 years for the aquifer to naturally fill.

Jones finds this misuse of American land “perverse,” stating that Iowa could repurpose their seven million collective agricultural acres to produce enough dried beans, potatoes, apples, canned sweet corn, onions, cherries and walnuts for everyone in the United States with five million acres left over.

Possible solutions

Dealing with Iowa’s nitrogen pollution is a multi-billion dollar endeavor. Some farmers have embraced “low tech” systems which incorporate buried bioreactors and streamside buffers that filter out roughly 50% of all fertilizer-borne nitrates.

These low-tech systems have flourished in Polk County, but utilizing the technology elsewhere has been slow to catch on.

Thus, Iowa is pouring money into different projects to help clean waterways.

So far, Iowa has pledged $3.6 million towards 14 waterworks projects across the state. Additionally, State Representative Art Staed, of Linn County, introduced a Clean Water for Iowa act (House File 2354).

This would require all concentrated animal feeding operations to hold a water pollution permit. This is a basic requirement, however, nearly 4,000 large farms in Iowa do not have such permits.

Another step taken allows Iowa farmers to apply for the Water Quality Initiative (WQI), a cost sharing program that helps farmers obtain different nitrogen inhibitors to cut down on pollution. Different qualifications exist, but it is another step the state has taken.

Jones promotes a different approach. First, he would like to transform the agricultural landscape by helping young farmers join the conversation to yield better outcomes.

“We need land reform [to] reduce the price of land to reasonable levels so young people can break into farming and maybe do something different,” Jones said. “Why is the price of land so expensive? It's because we've created a guaranteed market for corn, right through the Renewable Fuel Standard. The price of Iowa farmland has increased in lockstep with the amount of ethanol that has been produced in this country.”

To make land more affordable, Jones calls for legislative action. This may include regulations on the agricultural industry that would reduce ethanol production.

Jones also would like to see an expanse of public land and conservation programs so that the ecosystem can be given a second chance to thrive.

Currently, 97% of Iowa is privately owned, making a consolidated effort to fix Iowa’s water issue challenging.

Jones also suggests more diverse crop rotation, which could heal the land. Crop rotation is a unique idea: farmers would produce different crops in different years, which should keep the soil fertile and healthy.

These changes are plausible; however, it would mean completely transforming Iowa’s current farming practices, which may irk some.

But research conducted by the Iowa Water Quality Initative in 2024 shows these issues do not solve themselves. Iowa’s water quality continually deteriorates year after year, day after day, and there is a feeling that the issue should have been addressed years ago.

Today, Iowans would be wise not to delay action.