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Last session, Senator Dan Zumbach (R-Ryan) led the charge to transfer $500,000 from the Iowa State University’s nutrient research center to the Ag Departments Water Quality Initiative fund – effectively defunding 66 river sensors that monitored nitrate and phosphorus pollution.
As many of you likely know, two of those sensors are located on Bloody Run Creek - a premier trout stream in North East Iowa, near the controversial 11,600 cattle feeding operation owned by Senator Zumbach’s son-in-law.
When you look at the $8.5 billion budget passed and signed into law by Governor Reynolds last year, $500,000 is a drop in the bucket. It’s the equivalent of a family of $50,000 needing to find $3 to cover an expense. How little can Iowa’s elected officials do for water in Iowa?
This isn’t just about water. Zumbach and his colleagues are sending a message to professionals at Iowa’s public institutions, if they produce “unfavorable” data and results, there will be consequences. That’s not democracy, it’s intimidation and it hurts all of us – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
We deserve transparency, accountability, and our public money to be used for that purpose. That’s why we’re asking you to do two things today:
- Email your legislators and tell them to reinstate necessary water quality testing! While stop gap funding has been found for 2024, after this year this valuable testing program will go away. This session is the Senate’s chance for course correction before we lose this program. It’s our $500,000 and we want it now!
- RSVP to join us for the People’s Lobby Day on Tuesday January 23! We'll gather at the statehouse in Des Moines to raise our voices in support of the issues that matter to everyday Iowans! Join CCI members and other Iowans for some citizen lobbying and to tell our elected officials to support water quality monitoring in 2024.
With over 10,000 factory farms, and over 700 impaired waterways, Iowa has a water crisis. The path out of this hole that decades of bad policy and corporate influence has dug requires consistent and quality data about the reality of the problem we face.
Please take action today, then let us know what you hear from your Senator.
For an Iowa with clean water,
Ava Auen-Ryan Farm & Environment Director
P.S. Want to donate to support our clean water work or renew your membership? Give here. |