The state Environmental Protection Commission recently approved more funding for the Yellow River Headwaters Water Quality Project in northeast Iowa.
The DNR’s Miranda Haes is the coordinator of the project that covers the Yellow River and its north fork.
“The Yellow River Headwaters are just over 26,000 acres in Winneshiek and Allamakee. After the confluence, Yellow River becomes Iowa’s largest cold water trout stream, an important river trail and fishery resource for that region. It is also a tributary for the Upper Mississippi River,” Haes says.
She says the entire Yellow River is impaired with E-coli bacteria, and project focuses on things that can improve the quality of water flowing into the river. “Cover crops, grass waterways, streambank stabilization, and waste storage facilities,” she says. Haes says they have seen results from the actions already taken. “Since the project’s implementation, monitoring has shown declines in bacterial loading and specific segments and tributaries, coinciding with the nutrient and sediment reductions,” Haes says. “In addition, water quality improvements on specific segments of the Yellow River and its tributaries has led DNR fisheries staff to reintroduce native brook trout to the Yellow River headwater system, highlighting the water quality improvement.”
The project started around 2015 and Haes says they have held numerous workshops with those along the watershed to help them improve the runoff. The ERC approved $186,000 in funding from the Ag Department for work on the project. Haes says there’s been more than six million dollars invested since the project’s inception.