The second of five public meetings on the bacteria testing program at state beaches is Thursday in Hampton. Janice Boekhoff oversees the testing for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. She says the purpose of the meetings is to educate the public about what they’re doing, what the source of bacteria might be and to encourage people to help improve their watershed. Boekhoff says they get a lot of calls whenever a beach is posted for high bacteria, and hopefully these meetings will help people understand what’s going on. She says she’ll have a presentation that goes over the results in the last year and explain what they think the sources of the bacteria are. Boekhoff says there are things people can do to help improve the watershed. She says you can make sure your septic system is working properly, and if you have livestock you can limit their access to a creek or water source. The meeting Thursday will go over the results from Beed’s Lake at the First National Bank of Hampton. For more information, check the D-N-R’s website. (Here’s the schedule for the next meetings: Rock Creek, Tuesday, Oct. 19 Old Glove Factory, Grinnell; Big Creek, Friday, Oct. 29,Des Moines Area Community College, Ankeny; Lake Macbride,Tuesday, Nov. 9, Solon Public Library.)
