State Legislators Should Fund Iowa’s IIHR Water Sensor Network

By Diane Rosenberg | Executive Director

This guest column appeared in the March 30 issue of the Southeast Iowa Union and the April 16 edition of The Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Water quality is now an election issue with 82% of Iowans likely to vote for a candidate who makes protecting clean water a top priority (February’s Global Strategy Group poll).

Yet Iowa’s state legislators are on the verge of shutting down the University of Iowa IIHR real-time nitrate water monitoring network on June 30.

These monitors provide critical information for small, municipal water systems that depend on warnings of high nitrate levels so they can prepare to take measures to protect their communities.

Losing the data from these sensors will put the health of many rural communities at risk. Is that wise in a state that ranks #2 for cancer?

State legislators could allocate $1 million each year to both maintain the current monitoring network and to expand the system to monitor for other harmful pollutants like toxic algae blooms, E. coli, and carcinogenic levels of chemical water disinfection byproducts.

That amounts to 32¢/person a year to know what’s in our water.

An additional one-time $500,000 allocation is needed to replace 15-year-old equipment.

This is not a question of money: The Groundwater Protection Fund, which historically funded the system, contains $18 million and is replenished annually with fertilizer and pesticide fees and more.

This is a matter of will.

Several agencies monitor Iowa’s water, each serving a different purpose. The US Geological Survey’s 11 water quality sensors monitor Iowa’s largest cities. Eight USDA sensors collect data on projects at research farms.  

Iowa Department of Land Stewardship and the Department of Natural Resources conduct monthly snapshot water tests to collect data on Iowa’s pollution contribution to the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone – with a one-year reporting lag.

Only the 60 IIHR nitrate sensors provide accessible, real-time information that services smaller, rural communities.

The state funded the IIHR network 15 years ago, and allocations from the Groundwater Protection Fund kept it going until 2023 when state legislators defunded the system. This wasn’t for a lack of money; politics appeared to play a role. The funds were shifted to IDALS for voluntary conservation practices through the Water Quality Improvement program.

These practices are necessary, but monitoring is also vital to determine if Nutrient Reduction Strategy practices are working.

Real-time monitoring would have ended two years ago, but the Walton Foundation stepped in to provide $300,000/year as a stop-gap measure to operate some of the sensors until the state restored funding. That ends on June 30.

The IIHR monitoring network was built over the last 15 years at a cost of $3 million for the sensors. The state spent an additional $750,000 - $1 million to build and continually improve the Iowa Water Quality Information System website, which reports the network data to the public.

Iowans would lose a valuable $4 million investment if the network was abandoned. Rebuilding it at a late date would cost much more.

The state-of-the-art University of Iowa IIHR water quality monitoring network is highly regarded throughout the US. But recent political mudslinging has attempted to discredit the accuracy of its data. IIHR analysis ensured the network is properly calibrated, and network readings line up with DNR monthly samples.

With over 700 impaired waterways in Iowa, losing the sensors would certainly impact the number of polluted waters reported to the EPA every two years. Is that the ultimate end game?

If you think your health and wellbeing are worth 32¢/year, tell your legislators to fund the water sensors. Constituents are watching how seriously they take water quality – and your health.  

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