SIERRA CLUB IOWA CHAPTER SUBMITS WATER STANDARDS RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE IOWA DNR
Iowa Water Quality Standards Lacking, Not Funded, Not Monitored, and Not Enforced
Every three years, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducts a Triennial Review of its water quality standards. Sierra Club Iowa Chapter reviewed Iowa DNR’s water quality standards and submitted comments calling for increased funding, monitoring, enforcement and in general, stronger standards.
Water Quality standards are important because they set a standard and allow DNR to monitor whether or not the water body is polluted and to take action to clean it up.
“After digging into these topics during the Review meeting, what jumped out was the lack of investment the State of Iowa and the DNR has made in water quality and improved water quality standards over the last two decades.” Said Pam Mackey-Taylor, Director of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter.
Iowa is going in the opposite direction of clean water. The DNR has a backlog of expired permits, a lack of funding to maintain our already low number of water quality monitoring sensors across the state, old standards that have not been updated in decades, and improper methods for determining limits of pollutants that a facility can discharge (TMDLs).
There are 250 water discharge permits that have expired, some since 2007, and cannot be completed because they are waiting for the DNR to complete the Use Attainability Analysis (UAA). UAA’s are a water quality standard based on how the water body is used - aquatic life, recreation, drinking water, and human health.
A full review of NPDES discharge permits shows 1,587 permits as of September 28, 2025. Of those, 451 permits had expired on or before August 31, 2025, and 22 permits were scheduled to expire on September 30, 2025. The oldest expired NPDES permit expired in 2002, over two decades ago.
“More than one-quarter of the NPDES permits have expired. The backlog of work needed to comply with the most basic requirements of the federal Clean Water Act is shocking. All of this points to a need for funds for staff, equipment, materials, and other resources.” said Wally Taylor, conservation and legal chair for the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club.
“If Iowa doesn’t set standards, issue permits to meet those standards and monitor whether facilities are compliant with those permits, we will never clean up Iowa’s waters. Iowa is failing every step of the way.” said Jess Mazour, Sierra Club Iowa Chapter Conservation Program Associate.
Read Sierra Club’s full comments here.
