Water Quality

A federal hiring freeze and layoffs at the National Weather Service are impacting the accuracy of forecasts and long-range outlooks.

President Donald Trump has promised deregulation with hopes to promote industry and has already made cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.

In December, the EPA announced a phased ban of a cancer-causing chemical that can persist in groundwater. Iowa’s 1st District Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and other lawmakers have introduced legislation to reverse that decision.

Author and poet Hanif Abdurraqib discusses his latest work ahead of the Des Moines Book Festival. And we revisit a conversation about the Wings2Water nonprofit based at the Cedar Rapids airport.

Iowans share how they are trying to reduce pollutants in waterways on this archive episode.

Host Charity Nebbe speaks with expert readers and author Diane Wilson about her novel The Seed Keeper for this archive edition of the Talk of Iowa book club.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said nitrate and nitrite levels in six sections of the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon and South Skunk rivers exceed safe drinking water standards and need to be curtailed.

Voters approved conservation bonds to help fund new trails, support wildlife and improve water quality in Johnson and Story counties. The bonds received nearly 80% of the vote; they needed 60% to pass.

With the statewide conservation fund left empty and limits on the budgets of county boards of supervisors, conservation boards want to secure their own sustainable funding for projects to build trails, address water quality and educate the public.

Retired national television journalist Harry Smith is teaching a college course in Iowa.