Restore and Protect Funding for Iowa’s Water Quality Monitoring

I am writing as a concerned Iowan to urge you to immediately protect and restore funding for Iowa’s water-quality monitoring systems. Without action, Iowa is on track to lose its independent, real-time water monitoring network—leaving communities, utilities, and policymakers without the data needed to protect public health. Over the past two years, legislative budget decisions redirected funding away from programs that provided transparent monitoring of nitrate and phosphorus levels in Iowa’s rivers and streams. As a result, the statewide monitoring network has already been reduced and is scheduled to shut down entirely by 2026 unless funding is restored. These decisions—and the authority to correct them—rest with the Legislature. Water-quality monitoring is not an academic exercise. It provides essential, real-world protections, including: • Early detection of nitrate spikes that directly affect drinking-water safety • Independent verification of whether conservation and nutrient-reduction programs are actually working • Transparent, publicly accessible data relied on by communities, utilities, and downstream states Eliminating independent monitoring does not reduce pollution—it removes our ability to detect it. When data disappears, accountability disappears, and the costs shift to families, ratepayers, and local governments who must manage uncertainty without reliable information. Clean water is a basic public-health responsibility, not a partisan issue. Protecting Iowa’s rivers and drinking-water supplies safeguards our health, our agricultural economy, and the state’s reputation for stewardship. I ask that you restore permanent funding for independent water-quality monitoring, protect public access to water-quality data, and state publicly how you will ensure Iowa’s drinking water is protected going forward. Thank you for your attention to this issue and for your service to Iowa.