By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Environmental Council says the clean water proposal approved in the last days of the legislative session does nothing new.

IEC Senior Director of Policy and Programs Kerri Johannsen says the plans touts hundreds of millions of dollars spent on water quality. “This was really a last minute response to a public outcry, but there really was no substance to this proposal,” she says.

Johannsen says the bill did not fund the state-of-the art University of Iowa real time water monitoring system, and instead gives money to the DNR for monthly testing. She says the DNR does not provide clearly understandable data from its testing.

Johannsen says this plan doesn’t get everyone involved. “We’re deploying funding for conservation on a voluntary basis, not targeted on a specific as needed basis,” she says. Johannsen says we need to understand where practices are going to have the most impact to deploy them there. “That targeted sort of conservation approach would really help make a bigger impact with the same amount of dollars potentially than the way that we’re doing it right now,” Johannsen says.

Johannsen says a lot of what’s included in the nutrient reduction strategy are a lot of edge of field practices. “We know that in-field practices have a double benefit, which includes both decreasing the inputs that are going on the land, and by doing that also decreasing the money that farmers are having to spend on those inputs,” she says.

Johannsen made her comments in a conference call with reporters.