(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Cleanwater Alliance is once again accepting applications for its Soil Quality Restoration Program. Coordinator John Wills…
“You can call us at 712-336-3782 which is our office number, extension 3, and I’ll send you an application. We’re taking applications for this and what it does is every percent of organic matter that’s in the soil can hold up to an inch of rainfall. And so what that does is, first of all, it stops water from running off into the lakes with chemicals and pollutants. Second of all it holds on to that moisture so your lawn is not needing to be watered nearly as much and so you’ve got that. It also retains the pollutants right there on the lawn so you’re not having pesticides and fertilizers run to the lake.”
He says that program, along with other ongoing water quality projects, continue to make a big impact. In fact, Wills says they’ve reached a major milestone…
“One of our goals has been to de-list Lower Gar Lake from the impaired waters list, which is a big deal. It’s very tough to de-list a lake from the impaired waters list. It’s an EPA list that happens here in the state of Iowa and this year we’re happy to announce that Lower Gar has been de-listed from the impaired waters list which means it is now fully functioning as a recreational lake, that it fully supports all of the activities that can be done in a recreational lake. It’s taken a long time for us to get there.”
Other water quality projects that are ongoing in the Iowa Great Lakes includes the construction of several new wetlands that will be built this fall along with various shoreline restorations.
