Protecting and Restoring the Impaired North Raccoon River
How does the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) know that the North Raccoon River is impaired? It’s because small aquatic animals large enough to see without a microscope are not doing well. Called Benthic Macroinvertebrates, these aquatic animals -- including worms, crustaceans, and immature forms of insects such as stonefly, mayfly and others -- struggle in the North Raccoon River because, unlike fish, they don’t move much and can’t easily escape the effects of pollution and sedimentation. Like a canary in a coal mine, these aquatic animals point to the overall health status of a river.
Improving the habitat in the North Raccoon River so the Benthic Macroinvertebrates can thrive starts with understanding watersheds and non-point source pollutants. Simply stated, a watershed is the area of land that drains into a lake or stream. There are small watersheds where waters flow into a small creek. There are larger watersheds where many creeks and waters from the land flow into a river, like the North Raccoon River Watershed that includes all of Greene County. Then there are even larger watersheds where many rivers flow into a larger river, like the Mississippi River Watershed that eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
To understand nonpoint source pollutants in Greene County, consider your knowledge about pollutants that flow in our waters, over the surface of our land, through tiling systems and groundwater that ultimately ends up in the North Raccoon River. All the items on your list are called nonpoint source pollutants meaning they come from the entire watershed rather than from a specific point source. Nonpoint source pollutants include soil and sediment, nutrients from farm fertilizer and manure, pesticides, pathogens (bacteria and viruses), salts, oil, grease, and herbicides. These pollutants may come from agricultural land and other open spaces, urban areas, residential lawns, construction sites, roads, parking lots, golf courses, and human waste water/sewage.
Though the large, point source spills like the recent one from the Tyson Foods Pork Processing Plant in Perry always make for a big news story; in a publication called “Watershed Basics,” the DNR explains that “the major water quality problem in Iowa is non-point source pollution, and it has landed a number of streams and lakes in Iowa on the impaired water’s list.” This includes the North Raccoon River.
So, what can we do to restore the impaired North Raccoon River? In a basic way, the answer is simple. Whether we live in a town, city or farm, starting with our own yards, anything we can do to keep soil, sediment, yard waste and other waste of all types out of our waters, including streams, rivers, and our storm water system, sewers and water treatment plants, is part of the solution. Likewise, anything we can do to reduce, even eliminate, the use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides on our gardens and farms and keep them out of our creek, river and ground waters will only help? In a real sense, our personal watershed starts in our kitchens, laundry rooms, and bathrooms with the choices we make about the cleaning products we put down our drains.
Making improvements of any kind starts with learning new ideas. For example, to prepare to write this column I visited the United States Department of Agricultural (USDA) office at 1703 N Elm Street in Jefferson. Here I learned about conservation planning, delivery and stewardship programs, the benefits of cover crops, and improving farmland health with planting prairie strips. Best of all, I learned that, for farmers, taxpayer funded incentive programs can greatly reduce implementation costs.
By stopping at the Iowa Cover Crop office, located on the east side of Highway 4 just south of Jefferson past Henderson Park, I learned more about cover crops for both farmers and gardeners, about incentive programs for farmers from different sources than offered by the USDA, and received a copy of the booklet “Cover Crop Basics” used to educate members of the Future Farmers of America.
Of great interest, I learned that Iowa Cover Crop is a sponsor of a two-day movie/farmer panel event, held at the Sierra Community theatre in Jefferson, on June 5th and 6th starting at 7:00 p.m. each evening. The event features the showing of the movie, “Common Ground” and a Question and Answer session afterwards (only on June 6th) with local farmers moderated by Iowa Cover Crop. The event focuses on how large- and small-scale farmers are finding common ground in the Regenerative Farm Movement. To learn more about this movement search “Regenerative Farm Movement.”
According to the publicity blurb, the entire event is open to farmers, environmentalists, gardeners, nature lovers or those who are simply curious. While the movie admission is full price, each evening the first 50 movie attendees will receive a free 46 oz popcorn. For each of us, the journey towards protecting and restoring our impaired North Raccoon River starts with our first or additional small steps. In this case, that could simply be attending the movie/Q and A event and, if you are one of the first fifty to attend, by simply enjoying a free 46 oz popcorn while you watch “Common Ground” subtitled “Saving the planet one acre at a time.”
Remember, we will only protect what we love. Hope to see you at the movie.
Having lived in Jefferson since only December 2021, Bryan knows he will always be a newcomer in town. Though this may surprise his readers, he wants everyone to know that he truly delights in this role!
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