March 29, 2024

Iowa considers new groundwater restrictions

DES MOINES (AP) — State officials may impose new limits on groundwater use to protect the underground aquifer that supplies drinking water to a half-million Iowans.

The Des Moines Register reports environmental leaders are concerned about the future of the Jordan aquifer that sits beneath most of Iowa because water use continues to grow.

The Iowa Environmental Protection Commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss requiring additional conservation measures and possibly force some water users to seek other sources of water.

Marion Water Department manager Todd Steigerwaldt said the lower the aquifer sinks, the worse the water quality will be.

“We know at some point we can’t keep pumping it down and pumping it down,” said Steigerwaldt, who is leading the task force looking at the issue.

Since the 1970s, use of water in the aquifer has increased 72 percent to nearly 26 billion gallons last year. The growing ethanol industry has contributed significantly to the increase.

In parts of southwest Iowa, the Jordan aquifer rests 2,500 feet underground while the water is near the surface in northeast Iowa. Besides Iowa, the aquifer also supplies water to parts of six other states.

Iowa hasn’t experienced major problems with the aquifer yet, and officials want to keep that from happening, said Micheal Anderson, an environmental engineer with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“Here it’s like we’ve gotten a note that we need to change our oil. In other states, the red check-engine light is flashing,” Anderson said. “We want to deal with this before it becomes a big problem.”

The state committee will consider adopting rules that will require additional conservation measures when the aquifer hits certain limits.

At the first level, no action would be required. A second level would require taking steps to prevent the aquifer from getting too low. The third level would prevent users from drawing the water down any further.

At this point, experts don’t expect anywhere in Iowa to face the strongest restrictions, but several locations could be at the second tier, including the Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Fort Dodge areas.

“There are urban areas where we’ve seen rapid declines in water elevation, and they’ve accelerated a little bit faster in the past 10 years,” said Mike Gannon, a hydrologist for the Iowa Geological Survey.