CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - In 2013 the state formed a “Nutrient Reduction Strategy” in response to the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force asking Midwest states to reduce the number of nutrients running off into the Gulf of Mexico by 45% by 2035.
The Iowa Environmental Council took the annual report and broke it down finding the state to be centuries behind where it needs to be to fulfill the goals. The state is 100 years behind on the number of cover crops needed, just over 900 years behind the number of wetlands needed and 31 thousand years behind on having enough bioreactors.
“We don’t have conservation practices in nearly the amount needed to reach the goals,” said Ingrid Gronstal Anderson, Water Program Director for the IEC.
Gronstal Anderson said there are some ways to getting back on track but they are costly. She said $77 million to $1.2 billion dollars need to be spent each year on NRS initiatives and farmers have mandatory water quality initiatives. Local legislators agree.
“We’ve got to do more than we’re doing, seriously,” said State Representative Art Staed of Cedar Rapids.
Representative Staed said funding the 3/8th cent tax will help as well as making smaller goals.
“Work on one watershed at a time or a group of them,” he said. “Use the best practice research, put money into those measures to see if they’re changing that.”
Though the state is far behind the 2035 deadline, Gronstal Anderson said the state can turn things around.
“These are lofty goals,” She admits. “But they are obtainable. We’ve known about the problem for a long time. The task force set the goals in the late ’90s and it has negatively been impacting the Gulf for decades.”
The Legislature did pass around $300 million in water quality money in 2018. Gronstal Anderson said even if all of that money is spent on NRS initiatives it wouldn’t be enough.
Click here to read more from the IEC.
