Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Report, 2007-2008

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. Its mandated missions are to identify impacts of agricultural practices, contribute to the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources, and cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to inform the public of new findings.Information for this report was compiled by Leopold Center staff with the help of its researchers and educators who are committed to improving Iowa agriculture and the lives of Iowans.

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Report, 2008-2009

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. Its mandated missions are to identify impacts of agricultural practices, contribute to the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources, and cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to inform the public of new findings.Information for this report was compiled by Leopold Center staff with the help of its researchers and educators who are committed to improving Iowa agriculture and the lives of Iowans.

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Report, 2009-2010

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. Its mandated missions are to identify impacts of agricultural practices, contribute to the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources, and cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to inform the public of new findings.Information for this report was compiled by Leopold Center staff with the help of its researchers and educators who are committed to improving Iowa agriculture and the lives of Iowans.

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Report, 2010-2011

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. Its mandated missions are to identify impacts of agricultural practices, contribute to the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources, and cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to inform the public of new findings.Information for this report was compiled by Leopold Center staff with the help of its researchers and educators who are committed to improving Iowa agriculture and the lives of Iowans.

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Report, 2011-2012

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. Its mandated missions are to identify impacts of agricultural practices, contribute to the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources, and cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to inform the public of new findings.Information for this report was compiled by Leopold Center staff with the help of its researchers and educators who are committed to improving Iowa agriculture and the lives of Iowans.

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Report, 2013-2014

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. Its mandated missions are to identify impacts of agricultural practices, contribute to the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources, and cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to inform the public of new findings.Information for this report was compiled by Leopold Center staff with the help of its researchers and educators who are committed to improving Iowa agriculture and the lives of Iowans.

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture Annual Report, 2012-2013

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. Its mandated missions are to identify impacts of agricultural practices, contribute to the development of profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources, and cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to inform the public of new findings.Information for this report was compiled by Leopold Center staff with the help of its researchers and educators who are committed to improving Iowa agriculture and the lives of Iowans.

Iowa Drainage Law Manual, TR-497, 2005

The relationship between Iowa’s roads and drainage developed when rural roads were originally constructed. The land parallel to roadways was excavated to create road embankments. The resulting ditches provided an outlet for shallow tiles to drain nearby fields for farming. Iowa’s climate and terrain are nearly ideal for farming, and more than 90 percent of the land suits the purpose. Much of the land, however, needs to be artificially drained to achieve maximum productivity. Most of this drainage has been accomplished with an extensive network of levees, open ditches, and underground tiles. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that as early as 1920 approximately nine million acres of Iowa farm land had been artificially drained or needed to be. Couple this drainage system with Iowa’s extensive surface transportation system—approximately 100,000 miles of roads and streets, 90,000 on local systems— and potential for conflicts will naturally arise. This is particularly true with urban expansion resulting in residential and commercial development of rural land. This manual contains summaries of and references to the laws most relevant to drainage in Iowa. It also includes frequently asked questions about transportation agencies’ responsibilities related to drainage. Typical policies and agreement forms used by agencies to address drainage issues are illustrated and a glossary of common terms is included.

1102-001 Twelve Mile Lake Final Report

Twelve-Mile Lake is an 800-acre man-made lake in central Union County. The watershed has 13,964 land acres that are used by farmers for row crops and pasture. This lake is used as a water supply source for the City of Creston and the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association. In total approximately 40,000 people are affected by this project. Developed over 20 years ago, the lake and fishery was renovated and restocked and much of the shoreline was riprapped about six years ago. During its history, extensive watershed efforts have been ongoing. However, as farmland for cropland has become more valuable and demand has increased, hilly land once used for dairy farming, grazing, and CRP has been put into row crop production. Consequently, sediment loss has become an increasing issue for farmers, conservation professionals, and the Creston Waterworks Department, which owns the water treatment facility at the lake. In 2011, the Creston Water Board received a WIRB grant to implement a sedimentation structure at the north end of the main channel flowing into the lake. The WIRB funds were used for land acquisition, with the IDNR actually constructing the facility. This report depicts work performed as part of the WIRB project.

08005-002 Silver Lake Watershed Final Report

Silver Lake is located in an 18,053-acre watershed. The watershed is intensively farmed with almost all of the wetlands being previously drained or degraded over the last 50 years. Silver Lake is listed on the State of Iowa’s impaired water bodies list due to sediment and high nutrient level. Silver Lake is also known be in the bottom 25 percentile of Iowa’s lakes due Secchi disk readings and Chlorophyll a level. Farming in the watershed is the principle concern and cause for many of the problems occurring in Silver Lake currently with 78% of the watershed being intensively farmed. There are two major drainage ditches that have been used to drain the major wetlands and sloughs that, at one time, filtered the water and slowed it down before it reached Silver Lake. With these two major drainage ditches, water is able to reach the lake much faster and unfiltered than it once did historically. The loss of 255 restorable wetland basins to row crop production has caused serious problems in Silver Lake. These wetland basins once slowed and filtered water as it moved through the watershed. With their loss over the last 50 years that traditional drainage no longer occurs. We propose to create a Wetland Reserve Program incentive project to make WRP a more attractive option to landowners within the watershed. The incentive will be based on the amount of sediment delivery reduction to the lake, therefore paying a greater payment for a greater benefit to the lake. The expected result of this project is the restoration of over 250 acres of wetland basins with an associated 650 acres of upland buffers. The benefit for these wetlands and buffers would be reduced sediment, reduced nutrients, and slowed waters to the lake.

05036-013 Joint Drainage District 1-10 Fnial Report

Install new tile system to eliminate the use of 20 agricultural drainage wells (ADW) that have been ruled by EPA to be "vunerable to spills from manure lagoons, direct discharges from septic tanks and accidental releases of materails used in farming". The project includes a tile system that will provide an outlet for all the tile connected to the ADWs and close all 20 ADWs in the drainage district. The pipe ranges in size from 42" to 8" in diameter and approximately 48,000 lineal feet to be installed.