Iowa’s Water Monitoring Plan, March 2000, January 23, 2013

Iowa is blessed with generally clean air, fertile soil, and abundant water resources. All are linked and each is vital to both our state’s economic vitality and our citizens' quality of life. Recent interest in water monitoring by citizens, the governor, and the state legislature has significantly increased financial resources directed at monitoring within the state. It also represents an opportunity to review our monitoring program and take a fresh look at why we monitor, what we monitor and how we monitor. A review of historical monitoring efforts for the state is provided in this plan.

Water Planning Law and Government, November 2008

Water planning efforts typically identify problems and needs. But simply calling attention to issues is usually not enough to spur action; the end result of many well-intentioned planning efforts is a report that ends up gathering dust on a shelf. Vague recommendations like “Water conservation measures should be implemented” usually accomplish little by themselves as they don’t assign responsibility to anyone. Success is more likely when an implementation strategy — who can and should do what — is developed as part of the planning process. The more detailed and specific the implementation strategy, the greater the chance that something will actually be done.

IOWATER Makes a Splash, 2001

Summary of IOWATER which is the Iowa Department of Natural Resources volunteer water monitoring program.

Water Quality Summary 2000-2004

Summary of water quality data collected from Iowa streams from 2000 through 2004.

Project AWARE 2005 Little Sioux River

Summary of Project AWARE 2005, a river cleanup held on the Little Sioux River.

Project AWARE 2006 Iowa River

Summary of Project AWARE 2006, a volunteer river cleanup on the Iowa River.

Water Quality Summary 2008

Summary of water quality data collected from streams in 2008

Water Quality Summary 2000-2008

Water quality summary of stream data collected from 2000 through 2008.

Project AWARE 2009 Cedar River

Summary of Project AWARE, a volunteer river cleanup on the Cedar River.

Community Water Sampling Event

Summary of water monitoring conducted by the City of Bondurant and Bondurant-Farrar school students of sites in and around Bondurant.

Assessment of Impervious Surfaces in an Urban Watershed

Summary of the Urban Watershed Management Assistance tool to assess the impact of impervious surfaces.

What in the World are Benthic Macroinvertebrates?

Summary of what benthic macroinvertebrates are, what types occur in Iowa streams, why are they important, and how they are used to monitor water quality.

Water Quality Impairments in Iowa

Description of the impaired water listing process for Iowa.

Water Quality Summary, 2009

Summary of stream water quality data collected in 2009.

Water Quality Summary, 2000-2009

Summary of stream water quality data collected from 2000 through 2009.