Hoping to import fresh ideas into Iowa’s sometimes rancorous discussions of water quality, five Iowa state legislators will caravan to Minnesota Sept. 21-23 for a clean water and soil health tour.
State Rep. Chuck Isenhart (D-Dubuque), ranking member on the House Environmental Protection Committee, has organized the fact-finding tour with grant funds from the McKnight Foundation and the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.
Isenhart will be joined by fellow State Rep. Dan Kelley (D-Newton) and state senators Rita Hart (D-Wheatland), Mark Segebart (R-Vail) and Ken Rozenboom (R-Oskaloosa).
“This trip will give some of us the opportunity to see what our neighbors are up to,” Isenhart said. “That curiosity has been a hallmark of Iowans for decades. When it comes to public policies and practices in any area, sometimes we tend to spend too much time navel-gazing and not enough time looking around and learning.”
The delegation will be joined by other conservation advocates and clean-environment stakeholders in the state, including some representatives of Iowa’s watershed management authorities and leaders of demonstration projects in the 15-year-old Iowa Water Quality Initiative.
Members of the state’s Watershed Planning Advisory Council and Soil Conservation Committee have also been invited, Isenhart said.
Some of the Iowans will meet in Ames Monday, Sept. 21 in order to hear about the work of the Squaw Creek Management Authority. William Crumpton and Matt Helmers, research professors at the Iowa Nutrient Research Center at Iowa State University, will also discuss their wetlands work with drainage districts.
The University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center will host meetings at the Minnesota Capitol Building in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, Sept. 22. Issues on the agenda include water quality and soil conservation policies, incentives, partnerships and practices in the state. A reception with Minnesota lawmakers is also planned.
Ray Harden of Perry, a member both of the state Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) for Dallas County and the Raccoon River Watershed Association, said Minnesota recently passed a law requiring 50-foot buffer strips be planted along the edges of streams.
“That is probably one of the easiest and most beneficial soil conservation practices that farmers do,” Harden said. “They receive some compensation from installing buffers strips. I think this would be a good law for Iowa to have in place because it would help reduce nutrient runoff from farm fields.”
Harden said he attended the September meeting of the Conservation Districts of Iowa, the state organization for Iowa’s 100 SWCDs, where a SWCD commissioner from Buena Vista County reported fewer than 40 percent of the streams and ditches in the county have buffer strips.
“Buena Vista County is one of the countries being sued by the Des Moines Waterworks,” Harden said. “The Buena Vista commissioner was speaking to a resolution that would perhaps bring more farmers to install buffer strips along streams.”
The Iowa legislative delegation will also visit with leaders of local on-the-ground partnerships and projects in Dakota, Dodge and Mower counties before returning Wednesday, Sept. 23.
“Dirty water is not a problem unique to Iowa,” Isenhart said. “Soil loss, fertilizer runoff and stormwater flooding are chronic problems in the upper Midwest. All states in the Mississippi basin have an obligation to address water pollution that affects not only the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, but also the drinking water and quality of life of our own citizens. So I hope the connections we will be making in Minnesota might lead to further collaboration between our states and others in the future.”
