Later this month, we are releasing a report with the findings from Story County’s 2021 water monitoring season.
In some ways, 2021 was an unlucky year to launch a water quality monitoring program. Story County was in drought conditions for much of the year, and smaller streams were frequently dry when we did our monitoring routes.
In some ways, it was an ideal year to launch a monitoring program, because weather always has an influence of water quality and the challenging conditions in 2021 forced us to better account for it.
For the report, this means asking a simple question: “was there enough water to float a canoe on the day you sampled?”
When the South Skunk River is too low for paddling:
Not much water (and not much nitrogen and phosphorus) reaches the Gulf
“Hot spots” for nitrogen and phosphorus are below wastewater treatment plants
When the South Skunk River rises high enough for paddling:
“Hot spots” for nitrogen are in the Headwaters of the South Skunk River Watershed upstream of Ames, as shown in the graph
E. coli levels upstream of Ames (and Ioway Creek) get worse but still meet the standard
E. coli levels downstream of Ames (and Ioway Creek) get better, but still exceed the standard
If I had less curiosity and more sense, I would have written a short report: “great job everyone! We collected a lot of data. Here it is! It’s possible that drought had an influence on water quality.” This was more work, but I hope you get more out of it.
The Iowa Conservation Education Coalition has created a select group of community environmental leaders to be part of a Change for Climate Cohort who will “receive training, professional mentoring and support, and funding to define and implement community projects that address real problems faced by Iowans due to climate change”.
Environmental leaders from across Iowa have recently been named to the cohort including Prairie Rivers of Iowa Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway Coordinator Shellie Orngard.
Dr. Jean Eells is seen here leading a visioning session for Prairie Rivers staff and board of directors back in 2019.
Thanks to Resource Enhancement and Protection Conservation Education Program (REAP-CEP) funding along with coaching support from the E Resources Group’s Dr. Jean Eells, a frequent Prairie Rivers of Iowa collaborator, the cohort will create partnership and spearhead project that will address climate change issues based on what is best for their local communities. Additional training sessions will Community-Based Social Marketing and Resiliency and Adaptation to Climate Change workshops. The cohort is slated to begin sharing their projects with their communities in early 2023.
Last month marked the departure of our pollinator and native plant expert David Stein as he heads back to work in his home state, our neighbors to the north, Minnesota. We are missing his passion and work ethic, but our Watersheds and Wildlife program continues as always and efforts are well underway to find his replacement.
David contributed to a large part of Prairie Rivers of Iowa’s continued efforts to impact public awareness and implementation of conservation practices to create native plant, pollinator and wildlife habitat to help improve soil and water quality while protecting the endangered rusty patched bumble bee and other species of greatest conservation need in Iowa. He was instrumental in creating a native seed bank and the development of many acres of habitat.
I recently visited with David as he reflected upon his work here at Prairie Rivers and his hopes for the future state of native habitat and pollinators in Iowa.
What do you feel was your biggest accomplishment while working at PRI? There are a lot! I think both completing the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant and setting the stage for PRI’s next series of habitat/conservation projects was probably the biggest accomplishment during my time here. On top of that, raising awareness of pollinator issues and educating interested landowners on how to install habitat was also a major highlight of my work. Re-discovering the rusty patched bumble bee, and mapping out new sightings was definitely a high point for me too.
How do you feel the health of native habitat and pollinators is currently in Iowa? What progress has been made? Where do we need to go from here? We have a long way to go, but I think we’re in a better place than we were a few years ago. Our outreach and education efforts, especially our work with counties, cities and landowners have definitely gotten the ball rolling, but a more hands-on-deck is always better. A coordinated conservation and restoration effort between non-profits, municipalities, farmers, landowners, homeowners, businesses, and interested individuals is really the best and only way forward to reverse pollinator and habitat decline.
What’s next for you? Next, I’ll be working up at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in St. Paul. I’ll be able to be involved in habitat projects all throughout the state and be able to meet with a bunch of different stakeholders that are doing some amazing restoration work.
How has working at PRI enriched your professional life? Working here has definitely enriched my professional life. I’ve been able to improve my own knowledge and passion regarding pollinator and wildlife conservation and directly apply it in real-time. I’ve also been able to connect and network with so many amazing stakeholders and partners from a variety of backgrounds. I know that I’ll be able to use these skills and lessons throughout my professional life moving forward.
Before state wastewater standards went into effect in the 1960s, raw sewage could flow directly to a stream without treatment. Despite the standards, this continues in many areas today. In areas called “unsewered communities,” outdated or poorly functioning septic tanks still allow untreated wastewater into our waters. The Iowa DNR works with these communities to find funding sources and alternative treatment systems and to allow adequate time to upgrade the systems.
The Governor has announced that additional funding through the infrastructure bill that will be available to help unsewered communities upgrade their systems. Could this make a big difference for water quality in Iowa? Statewide, I’m not sure, but I’ve taken a closer look at the Iowa River Basin upstream of Marshalltown, where we know of 11 unsewered communities. Based on my first look at the data, it appears that these communities have little influence on E. coli in the Iowa River itself, but could make a difference for water quality in tributary streams like Beaver Creek in Hardin County.
There are 11 unsewered communities in the upper part of the Iowa River Basin, marked here with yellow circles with an X.
A Water Quality Improvement Plan for E. coli bacteria in the Iowa River Basin was released by Iowa DNR in 2017. As required by the Clean Water Act, these kinds of plans include a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of pollutants that a water body could handle and still meet water quality standards. Author James Hallmark compares this pollution budget to a family budget: regulated point sources are your fixed bills, non-point sources are your variable expenses, and the margin of safety is your emergency fund. I like this analogy and would add that without some understanding of where your discretionary spending is going, and a realistic strategy to reign it in, you’re probably not going to achieve your goals.
The Water Quality Improvement Plan includes a comprehensive list of E. coli sources but doesn’t single any of them out as being particularly important. It includes a list of potential solutions, but it doesn’t identify which of those would make the most difference. That’s a job for a Watershed Management Plan written with stakeholder input, apparently. However, the document is chock-full of load-duration curves, which I wrote about previously. We can use the information in these charts and tables to take the next step and begin to narrow down where and when the pollution is most serious!
In this article, I won’t pay much attention to “High Flows” and “Low Flows” because there wouldn’t be much recreational use under these conditions. I also don’t look at “mid-range” flows because there’s a bigger mix of sources influencing water quality in these conditions. A closer look at the other two categories is revealing.
If houses are discharging raw sewage directly into a stream, we’d expect to see the highest E. coli concentrations when the stream is running lower than normal, and there’s less dilution. This is indeed what we see in Beaver Creek in Hardin County, which is downstream from the unsewered community of Owasa. Beaver Creek would need a 79% reduction in E. coli load to meet the primary contact recreation standard during “Dry Conditions” and a 38% reduction during “Wet Conditions”.
If not fully treated, sewage could be a major contributor to E. coli in some tributaries of the Iowa River.
Treated sewage also has the biggest influence when streams are lower than usual. The upper reaches of the South Fork receive effluent from the small towns of Williams and Alden, which have waste stabilization lagoons. It’s likely that some bacteria makes it through the treatment process, and this would explain why E. coli is higher during “Dry Conditions” (needing a 73% reduction) than during “Wet Conditions” (needing a 30% reduction). When their permits come up for renewal, Iowa DNR could require a UV disinfection system to ensure that E. coli in effluent is no greater than 126 colonies/100mL.
The blue line is the wasteload allocation–the regulated part of the pollution budget. Even with the best available treatment, wastewater from two towns has a big influence on the South Fork during dry conditions.
In a watershed with few people and many hogs, we’d expect to see the highest E. coli concentrations when the streams are running high and runoff from fields that receive manure application is more likely. This is indeed what we see in Tipton Creek in Hardin County, a watershed containing 47(!) CAFOs, but the levels are not especially high compared to other sites in the Iowa River basin. The recreation standard is met during “Dry Conditions” and would need a 36% reduction during “Wet Conditions.” Handled correctly (applied to flat ground at the right time, and preferably incorporated into the soil), manure and the microbes it contains can be kept out of streams. Preventing loss of the nutrients in manure is a more difficult challenge—nitrate concentrations in Tipton Creek often exceed 20 mg/L!
Despite there being a lot of hogs in the Tipton Creek watershed, E. coli levels are not especially high, relative to downstream locations.
It’s not clear to me whether primary contact recreational use of these streams is a relevant or attainable goal, or whether we should be calibrating our level of concern to the secondary contact recreation criteria. Unless there’s a permit holder affected, IDNR doesn’t investigate whether there’s enough water for kayaking in Tipton Creek, or whether children play in Beaver Creek, so the designated use is presumptive and tells me nothing.
E. coli and recreation on the Iowa River is not as big a concern at Crystal Lake as it is at Steamboat Rock. Photo Credits: Ryan Adams, photojournalist
To protect fishing, paddling, and children’s play on the Iowa River itself, where and when should we focus? The Iowa River at Marshalltown needs a 60% reduction in bacteria load to meet the recreation standard during “Wet Conditions” (10-40% flow exceedance). However, it actually meets the primary contact recreation standard during “Dry Conditions” (60-90% flow exceedance). Focusing on unsewered communities in the watershed would NOT be an effective way to address this impairment.
Beaver Creek (left) has worse E. coli when it’s dry. The Iowa River near Marshalltown (right) has worse E. coli when it’s wet. If the green line is above the red line, that indicates that the E. coli geometric mean for that range of flows exceeds the standard.
Galls Creek in Hancock County has some of the worst E. coli levels measured in the basin, and would have a larger per-acre benefit to the Iowa River if standards could be met. Galls Creek has no unsewered communities but at least 20 farmsteads located along the creek that could have issues with septic systems overflowing under wet weather. The watershed has little woodland and no pasture, so land application of manure from the several CAFOs in the watershed would be most likely animal source of E. coli.
Table by Prairie Rivers of Iowa, using information from the Water Quality Improvement Plan for the Iowa River Basin
This is just a partial review of one of three HUC8s in the Iowa River Basin. There is much more to learn from further discussion with people who know the area well, or from on-site investigation. However, I hope I’ve demonstrated how we might squeeze some more insight out of the data we have, in order to make smart investments in water quality.
This project that was funded through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is coming to a close early this December. It allowed us the means to engage with several local people about the need for wildlife and pollinator habitats in central Iowa. I’d like to take the time to reflect on all the great work that we’ve done through this grant. Here are the highlights of our accomplishments of over the last three years with a few numbers.
6 Field Days were held on the following topics: Hamilton County Wetlands, CRP/Pollinator Habitat, Saturated Buffers, Multi-Scale Habitat Restoration, Story County Wetlands, Orchard, and Prairie Pollination.
220 People attended field days between 2019 and 2021
5 Webinars were held in 2021 on the following topics: Water Quality, Ethnobotany, Planting for Pollinators, Citizen Science Opportunities, and Habitat Financial Assistance.
119 People attended our webinars in 2021
6 Water Quality Snapshots were held each spring and autumn between 2019 and 2021.
113 Volunteers tested water quality during our snapshot events.
36 Landowners were provided with technical assistance for nutrient reduction, water quality, wildlife habitat, and erosion issues.
30 Species of native plants were offered through the Community Seed Bank Program started in 2019.
96 Landowners were provided with native seeds through the Community Native Seed Bank
179 Acres of pollinator habitat were restored or enhanced through the Community Native Seed Bank
9 County Maps were developed to find the ideal placement for new habitat installation.
10 Years of water quality monitoring were planned through a collaborative group of Story County stakeholders.
NRCS PLANTS Data Team Plant Ecologist Chris Taliga, a featured presenter at our Wild and Scenic Film Festival, shared with the audience a little about the restoration of prairie on her family’s farm. I recently followed up with Chris to learn more about the restoration and what best practices she suggests for those wanting to get started with a similar project of their own!
PRI: Can you summarize what efforts you and your family have taken to restore your 160 acres of Iowa land into a prairie?
Chris: We bought this farm 22 years ago seeking to restore tall grass prairie and to develop a conservation approach that is in harmony with life on the farm and the environment.
We began by bringing back fire on the parts of the farm that were pasture (roughly half of the land area) in an effort to see if we could find remnant native vegetation. We also immediately seeded down eroded waterways, contour buffer strips and filter strips (to a mixture of native prairie species) on the parts of the farm that were leased for farming.
We also thoroughly inventoried the vegetation. We knew early on that conserving our soil and water resources and enhancing the environment for all life on the farm were top priorities for us which is why we committed to using organic practices in our restoration efforts. We have been managing this farm organically for the past twenty years and were first certified organic in 2006. We have felt all along that this approach would help us protect our natural resources.
After our farming lease expired we enrolled roughly 1/3 of the farm into the Conservation Reserve Program and have slowly added additional acreage into the Conservation Reserve Program over the years.
Along with prescribed fire we also mowed, chopped, pulled, and sawed non-native invasive species. We collected seed, purchased seed, and inter-seeded areas after our prescribed fires. Most seeding was done by broadcasting and some of the seeding we hired out with a no-till drill. In areas we did not seed, we recognized native grass like (graminoid) species, mostly native upland sedges, which had persisted in our pasture in a few areas less than 0.1 acres in size with some remnant flowers such as pale purple coneflower but very little other native vegetation.
Over the years we have continued to burn and seed and have been rewarded with large stands of native tall grass prairie vegetation throughout the farm. We now collect seed and sell our certified organic prairie seed geared mainly to the home landscape as we deal in very small quantities. There is always more work on the farm, besides seed collection we are also working on addressing some issues along the banks of two of the streams traversing our farm.
PRI: How long have you been at it? Chris: Since 1999.
PRI: What three best practices would you recommend to others wanting to get started with a similar prairie restoration on their land? Chris: Identify and tackle the most critical areas first, either areas you need to seed down to address soil erosion or a weed issue, this allows you to start small and learn from your experience.
Persistence & patience, native vegetation takes time, be sure you stay on top of the mowing and weed care a native seeding requires. Establishing a native plant community also requires patience as you observe the plant community developing over time.
Continue the learning process by monitoring your work, talking to others doing similar work, develop a support community, and trusting your instincts
PRI: What steps have you taken or hope to take to put into practice perennial crop alternatives to your acreage? Chris: We have explored a number of options over the years and currently certified organic hay and native seed are our main perennial crops.
PRI: What improvements/benefits have you seen over time because of your efforts? Chris: We have seen reduction in soil erosion, and multifold increase in native plant biodiversity and increased abundance of wildlife including native grassland birds and pollinators. We also see signs of better water quality in our creeks and ponds.
PRI: Do you have any additional thoughts you would like to share with our readers? Chris: Our family has learned so much from our restoration efforts which are ongoing. We express our love for Iowa and its natural resources through our stewardship on our farm. It is wonderful to see our daughter engaged in this landscape ethic which is beyond any of our dreams when we started this endeavor.
