There has been much discussion around the state and around the Capitol regarding water pollution from fertilizers, pesticides, and manure from factory farms. It affects all Iowans every day.

We have 12-15 state park beaches closed every weekend of the summer due to pollution from nitrates and e coli bacteria; our rivers and streams have cautions posted about eating fish caught in them; and our drinking water sources are increasingly at risk.

Legislation has been introduced in the legislature to restore funding for the Iowa Water Quality Information System. This information is critical to all Iowans – we can’t clean our water if we don’t know what’s polluting it and we can’t measure any improvement if we don’t have the data. We need to restore the yearly funding of this water testing system at $600,000/year to maintain the equipment, collect the data and keep it available to state officials and the public.

Rep. Derek Wulf, who represents the northern part of Tama County and the southern part of Blackhawk County is a member of the joint Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations subcommittee. He and his colleagues should make sure that this money is part of the appropriations bill they will send to the governor for the 2026-2027 state budget. This is money that will help solve our water quality problems and is essential to our public health. I grew up in Marshall County and Tama, Grundy and Hardin counties were my home. Contact Rep. Wulf and ask him to restore funding for the Iowa Water Quality Information System. Contact: derek.wulf@legis.iowa.gov or call and leave a message at 515-281-3221.

Michael Farley, Des Moines

Physician assistant, retired