Iowa Gov. Vilsack seeks $50 million to clean up state's water

[Thom Little]

Gov. Tom Vilsack wants state lawmakers, who begin this year's work on Monday, to back a $50 million attack on water pollution — his biggest cleanup proposal since he took office in 1999.

The money would come from refinancing bonds backed by money the state got in a legal settlement with tobacco companies.

Vilsack said the state has had water quality problems for decades, and he wants enough money to start a serious cleanup that will spur more work later. Iowa's waters, some of the most fertilizer-polluted in the world, often are pea-green, low on oxygen, and occasionally home to organisms that can make swimmers sick.

The pollution raises many Iowans' water bills because it costs more to treat mucky water. For example, Des Moines Water Works had to install one of the world's largest nitrate-removal plants, which costs a typical customer a shade over $3 a month when nitrate levels are high enough to force the utility to run the system.

.......

More than 200 Iowa lakes and river stretches are listed officially as seriously polluted, but state biologists have acknowledged that more like 1,000 to 1,500 river stretches and lakes could qualify for the list later. That's because the state will have new limits on some pollutants, including common fertilizer ingredients, under orders from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.


http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060107/NEWS10/601070333/1001

[phantom power]

1. Hey, if it's not on fire, it can't be *that* polluted.