With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in carrying out Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy, which calls for a 45 percent cut in nitrogen and phosphorus levels in waterways, “a new and controversial debate is looming,” says the Des Moines Register. Environmentalists and scientists want to rely on water-quality monitoring to determine progress while farm groups say the best way is to tally conservation practices put in place on the land.
“The problem is that neither method guarantees that Iowa will be able to quickly figure out whether water quality is actually improving,” says the Register. “The reason: Farm practices that cut nitrate and phosphorus levels likely will take more than a decade to produce results in major rivers and lakes.”
A variety of ways have been proposed to pay for the water clean-up, ranging from an increase in the state sales tax to diverting part of the money raised by a statewide sales tax dedicated to school infrastructure, said the Register. Half of the rivers, lakes and streams assessed by the state are rated as impaired. Bill Stowe of the Des Moines Water Works, which sued three counties over nitrate runoff, says the Nutrient Reduction Strategy is ineffective because it is voluntary.