Wally Taylor is the Legal Chair of the Sierra Club Iowa chapter.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources recently issued its 2026 draft of impaired waters. This is a requirement of section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. Every two years states must list the water segments that do not meet water quality standards. This year the DNR evaluated 1,100 water segments and has listed 723 of those segments as impaired. That means that two-thirds of the water segments evaluated do not meet water quality standards.

The impaired waters list containing those 723 water segments are supposed to have total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) prepared. A TMDL calculates how much pollution can be discharged into the water and still meet water quality standards. The TMDL also includes a Water Quality Improvement Plan that proposes the path to bringing the water into compliance with water quality standards.

The problem with the Iowa list is that there are numerous water segments that have been on the list since 2006 and 2008, with no TMDL having been prepared. Some of those waters on the list since 2006 and 2008 are designated as Outstanding Iowa Waters pursuant to Iowa’s antidegradation policy. These waters are entitled to extra protection.

Just as troubling as the many years these Outstanding Iowa Waters have been on the list is the fact that DNR has designated them as low priority for preparing TMDLs. They have been designated as Tier III and Tier IV, putting them at the bottom of the priority list, essentially condemning them to perhaps never having a TMDL prepared.

That is a clear violation of the intent, if not the specific language, of the Clean Water Act. Section 303(d) says the priority ranking must be made “taking into account the severity of the pollution and the uses to be made of such waters.”

And what is often forgotten is that the list of 723 impaired waters is not the only list of impaired waters. The NDR issues another list in conjunction with the first list. This second list identifies water segments that are impaired, but either have a TMDL prepared or (according to the DNR’s view) do not need a TMDL, despite being are impaired. So, even though a TMDL may be prepared, the DNR makes no effort to implement it.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must approve the impaired waters list before it becomes final. In 2024, the EPA did not approve the list because the federal agency determined seven water segments should be on the list, but the DNR refused to include them. So EPA added them. Then, last year, the Trump Administration EPA took those seven waters back off the list.

To make matters worse, the Iowa legislature is currently attempting to make it harder to place water segments on the impaired waters list. House File 2530, which Republicans passed out of the Iowa House Agriculture Committee, would require the DNR to identify the specific species of animal as the source of bacteria pollution before a polluted water could be placed on the impaired waters list. It would be almost impossible to do this, so the water could effectively not be placed on the impaired waters list. Iowa Capital Dispatch reported on this bill, and Bleeding Heartland posted a video of the subcommittee hearing.

It seems obvious that we will never have clean water in Iowa until we elect public officials who are willing to do something about the problem. We have elections this November. Let’s make clean water an issue.