Conference discusses water studies

A conference in Cedar Rapids today focuses on efforts to monitor the quality of Iowa’s ground water. Mary Skopec of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the conference is for all Iowans who’re interested on the results of the water monitoring program.The program has gone on for three years, and while she says they haven’t noticed a lot of differences, there are some regional differences. She says the testing of the rivers and streams shows differences based on land use and land form.For example, the Loess Hills in western Iowa have different phosphorus levels, while in the eastern side of the state there’s more connection to the groundwater and more nitrates. Skopec says the monitoring program is designed to answer future questions by giving the state a baseline of what the waters have been like.Skopec says information from the conference will be put on-line.The address is wqm.igsb.uiowa.edu. She says the website will have information from all the conference presentations, as well as fact sheets. The conference is at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School.