No sensors in the triangle below Des Moines and to Ottumwa/Bloomfield and Red Oak/Clarinda. Crazy. It's almost as if Republicans don't want us to know what's going on.
At this time, I do not know a single representative or member of congress in Iowa, who is doing anything about this or the land as many city councils are simply believing whatever corporate representative with a good sales pitch to be bought out. Seriously Kim Reynolds only “started to care” (made a statement about the cancer rates in IA only when it hit close to home, with her husband getting diagnosed with cancer) but has not done anything past ordering some studies and then hide behind the EPA recommendations. Which is what most of the current administration is doing even though it has been known for a long time that the impacts will undoubtedly cause health problems and erode the environment.
Thank you, thank you, Chris!! I'm so grateful that you used this topic for another great post. When I first saw the IDALS press release about the free soil testing, my outrage was so loud my cat left the room. And that was before I read elsewhere that this first round of free soil testing will set Iowa taxpayers back, as I recall, more than $300,000.
We are all going to pay for soil testing that should already be universally done and taken for granted as fundamental to responsible intelligent farming. What could be more basic for a good farmer than knowing what's in their soil??? Publicizing a program that essentially begs farmers to test their soil for free is open acknowledgement that most Iowa farmers and landowners are not testing every year already. In a sane smart state, that would be a major political embarrassment to the ag industry. But here, where ag gets away with everything, it's just Iowa being Iowa.
Combine the ingredients of this mixture of toxic chemicals with the prediction of an unprecedented Super El Niño, and you’ll understand why I’m quickly changing my opinions about the survivalist movement. Thanks for sharing this vitally relevant information, while our government continues whistling past the graveyard.
Thanks Chris for putting burs of conscience and intelligence under the saddle of a system that developed without a bridle of intelligence and conscience on the open range of industrial agriculture. They don't want their ill-gained 'deep legitimacy' fenced in by the application of environmental and ecological monitoring, transparency and public reporting. Such gathering of intelligence on the vitals doesn't serve their individual, private and corporate liberties taken illegitimately in the neighborhood. The system would have never developed such numbnuttery resistance had it developed more intelligently and conscientiously with neighborly limits imposed -- passing the good neighbor test.
Chris, I am curious - is the reason they don't test water from the Mississippi itself because of it's massive flow rate? That is, is it so big that nitrate concentration is not a concern for communities that draw their drinking water from the Mississippi?
Wait, something doesn't add up! If "the Iowa Nutrient Research Center at Iowa State shows 2024, the latest year reported, to be the worst of the last 25 years for Iowa stream nitrate loading" while Dan Zumbach claims, “We’re going to KEEP IMPROVING (caps mine) water quality with our equipment and the expertise that we have ...", somebody's not telling the truth. Hmmm? Who to believe? ... I think I'll take the word of the Nutrient Research Center. Thanks, Chris.
p.s. Can we determine the N concentration in Bloody Run, before and after the CAFO?
Dan Zumbach, with his horrendous water-quality history, keeps getting re-elected. I try to focus on my sincere sympathy for the voters in his district who do care about water and don't vote for him. But it's hard not to think of the voters who keep putting him back in the Senate as water deplorables.
If you want to know what the little boy in the fable felt like when he was staring at the buck-naked emperor who was parading around boasting about his fabulous new clothes, check out Mike Naig's soil-testing op-ed in the DES MOINES REGISTER on 4/19/26. It amounts to an open admission that soil-testing is mostly not happening and that the "sense of urgency" about Iowa's filthy water is a big fat lie. Jaw-dropping.
What a wonderful op-ed by Chris in the REGISTER today. A smart friend who works in the farm-conservation system was just as happy and impressed as I was, and I know we have lots of company. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It can be quite challenging to get an average usable concentration value for anything in soils that a farmer can use with confidence (bet the farm on).
The nuances of this problem were studied in detail by Pierre Gy starting in the 1950s (Gy's sampling theory). I do not recommend reading Gy's papers, as they are quite dense and very technical. But all of his work has blossomed into an applied science of sorts of how to collect the "best and most representative soil sample".
A really good soup to nuts description of how to collect a "representative soil sample" is the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council (IRTC) Incremental Sampling Methodology. While this particular IRTC document was originally developed for CERLA (superfund) site and the like, the same core principles for setting up a nitrogen (or P, or Ca, Mg, or CEC) sampling program are the same.
After you read a document like this, you'll never look at soil sampling methods, and lab preparation methods the same way.
I am seriously concerned with the number of Data Centers and how that is going to utilize the water resources we have left as many of them are claiming that it won’t cause negative impacts to the communities and will not cause bills to rise (which both of those points have been claimed by NextEra Energy). However the data that their PR & Marketing teams- have effectively done the opposite of the claims they were making at the public comment session in CR last fall in states like FL, where they restarted 4 nuclear plants with the same strategy they are using with Linn County and now more directly with Palo (raising the costs of energy onto the individuals instead of the billionaire owners of these data centers) whose data is based off prior year metrics and now factoring in the nuclear fission plants they are restarting to power data centers no one asked for or wanted.
And I should mention, in states like WI where the data centers have been started causing streams to dry up and become toxic when they are flowing then further causing environmental damage to both wildlife and those tending the land….
No sensors in the triangle below Des Moines and to Ottumwa/Bloomfield and Red Oak/Clarinda. Crazy. It's almost as if Republicans don't want us to know what's going on.
At this time, I do not know a single representative or member of congress in Iowa, who is doing anything about this or the land as many city councils are simply believing whatever corporate representative with a good sales pitch to be bought out. Seriously Kim Reynolds only “started to care” (made a statement about the cancer rates in IA only when it hit close to home, with her husband getting diagnosed with cancer) but has not done anything past ordering some studies and then hide behind the EPA recommendations. Which is what most of the current administration is doing even though it has been known for a long time that the impacts will undoubtedly cause health problems and erode the environment.
Democrats have told me they have been trying, but nothing makes it to the floor unless a Republican introduces it. Truly sad. Thanks!
There's no almost to it, they want us ignorant and poisoned by their polluting.
Thank you, thank you, Chris!! I'm so grateful that you used this topic for another great post. When I first saw the IDALS press release about the free soil testing, my outrage was so loud my cat left the room. And that was before I read elsewhere that this first round of free soil testing will set Iowa taxpayers back, as I recall, more than $300,000.
We are all going to pay for soil testing that should already be universally done and taken for granted as fundamental to responsible intelligent farming. What could be more basic for a good farmer than knowing what's in their soil??? Publicizing a program that essentially begs farmers to test their soil for free is open acknowledgement that most Iowa farmers and landowners are not testing every year already. In a sane smart state, that would be a major political embarrassment to the ag industry. But here, where ag gets away with everything, it's just Iowa being Iowa.
Combine the ingredients of this mixture of toxic chemicals with the prediction of an unprecedented Super El Niño, and you’ll understand why I’m quickly changing my opinions about the survivalist movement. Thanks for sharing this vitally relevant information, while our government continues whistling past the graveyard.
Thanks Chris for this, for running , and for the decades of rebuttal grounded in science, not hot air like the Zumbaugh clan and their ilk.
You could be retired , fishing, relaxing and fade into that good night, but are fighting the good fight instead.
Thank you for this. It’s hard to find accurate reporting on Iowa water quality.
Thanks Chris for putting burs of conscience and intelligence under the saddle of a system that developed without a bridle of intelligence and conscience on the open range of industrial agriculture. They don't want their ill-gained 'deep legitimacy' fenced in by the application of environmental and ecological monitoring, transparency and public reporting. Such gathering of intelligence on the vitals doesn't serve their individual, private and corporate liberties taken illegitimately in the neighborhood. The system would have never developed such numbnuttery resistance had it developed more intelligently and conscientiously with neighborly limits imposed -- passing the good neighbor test.
Is the soil testing thing driven by an interest in helping reduce N, or just the massive and rising cost of N, and need to save $$?
I really don’t know
So given the price of anhydrous, which I do not know, what is the dollar figure of nitrogen leaving the State?
Chris, I am curious - is the reason they don't test water from the Mississippi itself because of it's massive flow rate? That is, is it so big that nitrate concentration is not a concern for communities that draw their drinking water from the Mississippi?
We do test the Mississippi, there used to be a sensor at Fairport and usgs monitors at Clinton and Baton Rouge regularly
Good question
As we go to candidate forums, can you help us with a few specific questions for them? Even national candidates.
Wait, something doesn't add up! If "the Iowa Nutrient Research Center at Iowa State shows 2024, the latest year reported, to be the worst of the last 25 years for Iowa stream nitrate loading" while Dan Zumbach claims, “We’re going to KEEP IMPROVING (caps mine) water quality with our equipment and the expertise that we have ...", somebody's not telling the truth. Hmmm? Who to believe? ... I think I'll take the word of the Nutrient Research Center. Thanks, Chris.
p.s. Can we determine the N concentration in Bloody Run, before and after the CAFO?
Yes if had someone to grab a sample without trespassing
Well, I still can move secretively after dark, Chris! Just sayin'.
Dan Zumbach, with his horrendous water-quality history, keeps getting re-elected. I try to focus on my sincere sympathy for the voters in his district who do care about water and don't vote for him. But it's hard not to think of the voters who keep putting him back in the Senate as water deplorables.
If you want to know what the little boy in the fable felt like when he was staring at the buck-naked emperor who was parading around boasting about his fabulous new clothes, check out Mike Naig's soil-testing op-ed in the DES MOINES REGISTER on 4/19/26. It amounts to an open admission that soil-testing is mostly not happening and that the "sense of urgency" about Iowa's filthy water is a big fat lie. Jaw-dropping.
What a wonderful op-ed by Chris in the REGISTER today. A smart friend who works in the farm-conservation system was just as happy and impressed as I was, and I know we have lots of company. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It can be quite challenging to get an average usable concentration value for anything in soils that a farmer can use with confidence (bet the farm on).
The nuances of this problem were studied in detail by Pierre Gy starting in the 1950s (Gy's sampling theory). I do not recommend reading Gy's papers, as they are quite dense and very technical. But all of his work has blossomed into an applied science of sorts of how to collect the "best and most representative soil sample".
A really good soup to nuts description of how to collect a "representative soil sample" is the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council (IRTC) Incremental Sampling Methodology. While this particular IRTC document was originally developed for CERLA (superfund) site and the like, the same core principles for setting up a nitrogen (or P, or Ca, Mg, or CEC) sampling program are the same.
After you read a document like this, you'll never look at soil sampling methods, and lab preparation methods the same way.
https://ism-2.itrcweb.org/
If the water levels of the Iowa River are high does that mean N levels are diluted or are also high?
I am seriously concerned with the number of Data Centers and how that is going to utilize the water resources we have left as many of them are claiming that it won’t cause negative impacts to the communities and will not cause bills to rise (which both of those points have been claimed by NextEra Energy). However the data that their PR & Marketing teams- have effectively done the opposite of the claims they were making at the public comment session in CR last fall in states like FL, where they restarted 4 nuclear plants with the same strategy they are using with Linn County and now more directly with Palo (raising the costs of energy onto the individuals instead of the billionaire owners of these data centers) whose data is based off prior year metrics and now factoring in the nuclear fission plants they are restarting to power data centers no one asked for or wanted.
And I should mention, in states like WI where the data centers have been started causing streams to dry up and become toxic when they are flowing then further causing environmental damage to both wildlife and those tending the land….