A variety of groups are urging legislators to continue state funding for the University of Iowa’s network of river sensors that measure water quality.
Cynthia Farmer of the Center for Rural Affairs said those sensors provide the data to show if state-funded conservation projects are working. “We talk to a lot of different farmers and watershed community leaders across the state and know that that those farmers…want to know that those practices being paid for by taxpayer dollars are…working,” Farmer said.
Colleen Fowle, the Iowa Environmental Council’s Water Program Director, spoke next during a senate subcommittee hearing today. “Without frequent monitoring data, there isn’t any way to target what works in specific watersheds,” Fowle said, ” so if we don’t measure the progress, we don’t know whether taxpayer investments are delivering the intended results.”
ick Laning, a lobbyist for Des Moines Water Works, which is Iowa’s largest drinking water utility and gets its supply from the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers also make the pitch for the water monitoring network managed by a laboratory at the University of Iowa.
“Water Works invests in monitors. Not every small utility can do that and so it’s important that the statewide network be available for all,” Laning said.
Senator Tom Shipley, the Republican leading senate work on next year’s funding plan for the Iowa Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said he’s looking for a way to provide the $600,000 in state money to operate the water quality sensors for another year.