(Spirit Lake)– The coordinator of the Iowa Great Lakes Clean Water Alliance is responding to an updated draft list of impaired waters around the state released earlier this week by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Several lakes in the Iowa Great Lakes chain appear on that list. John Wills says caution should be used in how that’s interpreted…
“In most instances that doesn’t mean it is unusable. It just simply means that it doesn’t meet the 100 percent goal that the EPA has set for that kind of water body. So for instance, swimming, swimming water has to be 100 percent to meet the capabilities of being swimming water, so like West Okoboji or any of our Iowa Great Lakes for example. So if it doesn’t meet the intended use at 100 percent, then it’s technically called impaired. And so a lot of our lakes are listed as impaired. East Okoboji for example. Well the impairment for East Okoboji is exotic species, so the zebra mussels are what’s impairing East Okoboji. And another thing to remember and to be reminded of is the list that was just released is a draft list and so some of those water bodies, some of those impairments could change as public comment comes in.”
While the list of impaired waters has grown over the years, Wills, who also represents the Iowa Great Lakes in the state legislature, doesn’t feel additional regulations are in order…
“I can take a look at the Iowa Great Lakes and say that for since the 1990’s, we have had a water quality project that has been totally voluntary, has required no restrictions and yet for the last 21 years we have water quality sampling data that shows steadily increasing water quality here in every one of our Iowa Great Lakes. And so we have done that without regulations and without, you know, any kind of onerous kind of issues. And that’s happening across the state, so I don’t see a need at this point for regulation. I do see a need for additional funding, I do see a need, you know, we talk about water quality as voluntary but yet I would say it’s voluntary but that doesn’t mean you can’t, you just can’t do it. So what I mean by that is it is a voluntary issue, it is a voluntary process, but everybody has to participate in order for it to work.”
He says that includes urban and rural residents alike. Wills also says just because a certain body of water isn’t included on the list doesn’t necessarily mean it could also have some sort of impairment. He says Lower Gar has actually been removed from the list after its total maximum daily load, or TMDL, has dropped below the threshold for inclusion.
Wills says the impaired waters list is updated every couple of years in compliance with EPA regulations.
