Iowa environmentalists scored a victory for water quality as 2017 ended

photo: Lake MacBride

Last year saw many setbacks for environmentalists as President Trump and Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), took charge of the federal government’s environmental policy. But in Iowa, 2017 ended with a win for those concerned about the state’s water quality.

At its December meeting, the Environmental Protection Committee (EPC) of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officially abandoned a proposal to eliminate the Single Sample Maximum E. coli bacteria standard, a measurement used to assess the health of bodies of water used for recreation.

“This a really important standard, in terms of the quality of life and the health of outdoor recreation assets in our state,” said Susan Heathcote, water program director at the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC), a Des Moines-based nonprofit.

Following EPA standards established in 1980s, the state currently mandates the use of two measurements of E. coli bacteria contamination for recreational bodies of water: the geometric mean standard and the single sample. The geometric mean determines the amount of E. coli over the long term, while the single sample looks at E. coli contamination on individual days. For primary recreational bodies of water where people swim, the single […]

Full article: Iowa environmentalists scored a victory for water quality as 2017 ended