Iowa DNR – Bad Water, Strange Dealings, and a Tale of Big Money.

It’s clear that Iowans, as proud Midwesterners, are starting to wake up to the fact that there is something strange in the water, both physically and metaphorically. I was recently having a conversation with a friend via text, someone who I would call an average Iowan, someone who camps at Ledges State Park and rides a bike on the High Trestle Trail.

I was discussing the recent article I wrote on the horrific slide of Iowa’s public lands, which have in many places become so trashed as to be unusable.

Of course we were discussing the apparent popularity of this subject, considering the article had been viewed 267,000 times on Reddit.

I also discussed with this friend who is responsible for the ridiculous decline in the quality of our public lands and water, I mentioned the head of the Iowa DNR as one person who would be the MOST responsible. My friend was completely unaware of who this person is and the background of said person, and was aghast at some of the public facts I mentioned.

And herein lies the problem. When the public at large does not care and knows little to nothing about what is happening and the movements in the circles of power that literally control the water we drink and the land we walk on … strange and terrible things will start to happen.

Of course we are all adults and by this point living in a hyper-politicized environment we would expect to find bugs underneath any rock we turn over, but that doesn’t mean they should exist with impunity. Today, I want to peel back the layers of the onion on the Iowa DNR, some of the decisions that are being made by the powers that be, and do my small part to bring the attention of the public to bear, and let the chips fall where they may.

Before I begin I want to make something clear. This isn’t a political hit piece. I am simply doing research into the facts, and presenting what I find. My only care and singular attention of my work is to do everything in my power to protect from blatant abuse, ignorant and otherwise, of our Iowa’s natural resources. I spend the majority of my times outdoors with my children and I want them to love where they grow up and the experiences they’ve had in the great outdoors.

Starting from the beginning.

It’s hard to know where to start when we are talking about the quality of Iowa’s land and water, it started going downhill the moment the first plow cut into that virgin prairie. But Im a realist, I don’t pretend to live in a fake world that has no basis in reality. Iowa is at the heart of the bread belt, we have some of the most fertile farm land in the world, a deep heritage rich with tradition in farming and that’s a good thing.

It’s possible to do both nature and farming right, to have the co-exist together, if you don’t believe me just take a road trip to Wisconsin.

We have to start somewhere, so let’s start in July 2019 in the State capitol with the appointment of Kayla Lyon.

“As my legislative liaison and lead policy advisor on agriculture and natural resources, Kayla oversaw DNR operations including regulatory permitting, conservation efforts, and wildlife issues,” said Gov. Reynolds. “She also played an instrumental role in the 2018 comprehensive water quality funding bill. As DNR Director, Kayla will serve a key role in helping our state continue to grow.
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Prior to joining the Governor’s office, Kayla spent her career in government affairs working on agriculture, renewable fuels, water quality, and environmental policy while representing farmers and agribusiness.” – DNR

As strange as some might find it, Kayla didn’t hold college degree at the time of this appointment. A few moths later in December 2019 according to the Gazette she received her bachelors degree from Iowa State University. I’m sure a lot of people will jump on this fact, wringing their hands and asking why in the world the most important position in leading Iowa’s approach to land and water, on top of a $46.6 billion agriculture industry, was giving to someone without a college degree at the time.

But, if we are being fair, and fair we shall be, we could all name a myriad of well known people who’ve changed our country, and world for the better, without formal eduction. It’s hard to say if this is an important point or not, but maybe as the rest of the story unfolds it will either fall into the background or become more prominent.

Summarizing the direction of Iowa’s Land and Water Quality

Now it’s hard to know where even to start when it comes to discussing the state of Iowa’s land and water quality. There are really two points of view on the matter.

• It’s terrible and getting worse
• It’s fine don’t worry about it

It really simply depends on your point of view and who your audience is. If you’re talking to room full of the average farmers in Iowa, and their powerful lobbies like Farm Bureau etc, their concerns are probably going to be different than the weekend warrior from Des Moines who wants some place to take their kayak or dog for a weekend getaway. If we are being honest, it’s “hard to serve two masters.”

But, instead of just throwing up our hands and saying it’s the end of the world, let’s try to simply look at facts and data.

Looking at water quality.

First, if we want to be real sleuths, we can head on over to the USGS website because they have sensors in some of Iowa’ s rivers, including the Des Moines river, including historical data, so we can for example get data since about 2014ish up until recently about nitrate levels.

(I write code in real life, so you can head on over to GitHub to see the raw data and code used to generate these graphs)

Below is the mean nitrate levels by month in the Des Moines River over the last few years.
(Nitrate plus nitrite, water, in situ, milligrams per liter as nitrogen)

Well, I mean honestly that graph is just one river, arguably our most important, the Des Moines, but it doesn’t show an apocalypse. Of course there are many other measurements we could look at etc, and it doesn’t tell the whole story, but it’s a piece isn’t it?

Just to make sure we get a whole picture, let’s do the same thing for nitrate levels in Raccoon River.

Interesting that they almost look identical, but that’s no surprise, probably follows the weather and rain patterns flushing nitrates down from up north. Just to put that in perspective, when it comes to drinking water.

1. Drinking Water (Nitrate-Nitrogen)
   • In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for nitrate (as nitrogen) in drinking water at 10 mg/L.

I’m assuming you’re smart folk and can read the charts above and come to your own conclusion. Unsurprisingly in the news earlier in 2025 it was reported by multiple news outlets that …

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced they will require the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to add 7 segments to Iowa’s 2024 impaired waters list.

The Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Racoon, and South Skunk Rivers all had segments that were found to have high nitrate levels that are toxic to human health and the environment but were withheld from the list.”

• News

Of course this has set off a flurry of political kick ball between the EPA, the DNR, and I’m trying to keep a straight face … “The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation” and the “Fertilizer Institute.”

If you go to this document, on page 141 you can read Kayla Lyons response to the EPA. I can summarize her response to Iowa’s water quality problems, as seen in nitrate levels for you if you don’t want to read her letter yourself.

… While nitrate is a consequential and harmful pollutant, the EPA has never legally classified nitrate as a “Toxic Pollutant” under the CWA …”

Essentially Kayla’s argument is about semantics, if it isn’t exactly by the books you can’t hold us accountable end of story. I’m assuming you can go and figure out who the DNR is trying to protect …

• The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation
• Fertilizer Institute
• People of Iowa

And if you think this is bad, then you should read about the book worthy fight over Supreme Beef’s cattle operation in the Driftless Region and in the vicinity of one Iowa’s premier trout fishing streams Bloody Run. The worst part is that, it’s been reported that an Iowa Senator who’s son-in-law owns the operation, was in contact with Kayla Lyon. Even funnier, when the public got upset about this cattle operation on the door step of our greatest natural treasure of Iowa, the Driftless, Kayla Lyon decided she didn’t have the authority to review the plan.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Before you light your torches and get your pitchforks.

Now, as laughable as this all is, and I’m pretty sure we can all agree that it is hard to make headway in protecting Iowa’s water and land without the support and drive from leadership, we can’t simply lay thirty pieces of silver at the feet of the Governor or Kayla Lyon and call it blood money. It’s more complicated than that.

We live in a free country, full of free people. Iowa is full of farmers who own land and make decisions over generations about how they are going to farm, both crops and cattle. Who is to blame? Two people at the top, or thousands of farmers who farm the land every day year after year?

Let’s look at some data that will prove this point. Let’s shift our focus from water quality to land and habitat. What has happened to Iowa’s habit over the last few decades … places for pheasants, rabbits, foxes, etc call their home?

• Iowa DNR survey

Iowa’s pheasant population has been on a steady decline.

That’s a big decline in the available habitat acres isn’t it? What does this have to do with the people in charge? I’m sure someone could come up with a convoluted argument about how the Iowa DNR and other leadership is to blame for this drastic decline, but I think the honest and simple person would simply say that … your everyday Iowa farmer is the one who has caused this change.

Or, you could ask, who was to blame for burning 2300 acres of Iowa’s one-of-kind premier forest in the Loess Hills? Some everyday person careless enough to burn trash on a windy day, that’s who.

Or I could also ask, who is to blame for the unfinished Rolling Prairie Bike Trail in North Central Iowa? Currently 21 miles of beautiful bike trail has been paved in Butler County, with continued plans for extension.

But cross the county line into Franklin County which has only 7 usable miles of trail, whose County Conservation has refused to finish the bike trail to make it usable for years. What can you say? You can’t look at the State Capitol and point the blame for all these problems.

These are everyday, average Iowans who are making these decisions.

What gives?

It’s hard to say, I would venture a guess that it’s simply a cultural problem with Iowa. It’s hard to see the rolling cornfields as land that need to be protected, but that’s the problem most likely. This is something that can’t be pinned on a single person, although it’s obvious a little help from the top would go a long ways.

But, these land and water issues are 100 years in the making. Unfortunately the average Iowan doesn’t seem to care much about our water and land problems, and that includes the leadership of the state. Can we blame them? Can we assign them %50 of the blame? Where does the other 50% go? To the average farmer with 500 acres, or some family trust with 200 acres that is rented out?

Someone is making the decision to plant that corn and till the field inches away from a stream. Someone else decided to plow under that tree-line and CRP for more corn ground. Someone else decided it’s ok to dump trash and throw waste into the river. It’s a culture.

When the culture of Iowa decides they’ve had enough and want a different future, it will change. Until then. Good luck.