Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2017

water quality
manufactured fertilizer – “nutrients,”
the ag community calls it – to significantly
boost yields and help to feed
the world with affordable food.
The problem is made worse by
Iowa’s two principal crops – corn and
beans, according to Nathan Young of
the Iowa Flood Center at the University
of Iowa.
“Row crops are not as deeply rooted
as natural vegetation,” Young told
a water quality forum in DeWitt in
August.
Without a deep root system to slow
down and clean up water, the nutrients
– especially highly soluble nitrogen
– are carried off to streams, Young
explained.
Flooding also tends to be more frequent
and more intense, he added.
And use of drainage tiles, which
has made about 12 million acres of
Iowa land farmable, adds to the runoff
Sen. Rita Hart
(D) Clinton, Scott
counties
problem by moving
water more
quickly into the
state’s waterways
– while destroying
wetlands that
filter pollutants
naturally.
High nitrate
levels in Iowa’s
lakes and rivers
have worsened
over the years as
farming has become more “efficient.”
Among the 61 nitrate sensors in the
state’s rivers around the state, readings
in 2016 showed 40 percent had an
average daily concentration above the
federal drinking water standard of 10
milligrams per liter.
“Think about what it’s doing to the
drinking water,” said state Sen. Rita
Hart, who organized the water quality
forum in DeWitt. “Think about what
it’s doing to the habitat.”
She called pollution “one of the
greatest challenges facing our state
right now.”
“We want to enjoy our lakes and
streams,” said Hart, who grew up on
a dairy farm and still farms grain with
her husband in the Wheatland area.
“And we want cheap food.”
The question is, At what cost?
Adding to ‘dead zone’
If there is good news, it’s that nutrient
levels in water appear to have
leveled off. Whether that continues
won’t be known until the state checks
the 70 monitors it now has installed in
waterways.
But pesticides don’t pollute only
Iowa’s waters. Runoff from this and
every other Midwestern farm state
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fall 2017 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 41