By Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register
Get ready for another watering ban, Des Moines.
While no restrictions are in place yet, central Iowa water officials are warning that 2025’s unprecedented lawn watering restrictions will likely make a reappearance this summer because of the high nitrate levels in most of its major water sources.
Central Iowa’s nitrate removal facility plant has run most of the year — 111 days since January — because of high nitrates in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers as well as other raw water sources, Tami Madsen, Central Iowa Water Works’ executive director, said during a Monday, May 4, news conference at the shrinking Maffitt Reservoir.
Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register
Those high levels are expected to continue, she said.
“Due to what we are currently seeing, continued precipitation, nitrate conditions and the onset of warmer weather, data are telling us that an irrigation ban may be likely,” Madsen said.
Last summer, Central Iowa Water Works issued its first-ever ban on lawn irrigation as the metro area’s ability to treat water to meet the federal safe drinking water limits failed to keep pace with demand. The ban was in place for nearly two months.
This year, central Iowa is likely in worse shape as the summer is set to begin, given the unusually high nitrates over the winter. Fertilizer runoff from upstream farm fields contributes to high nitrate levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, a process exacerbated by record rainfall last year.
“Peak season is upon us — and our system, our sources are stressed,” Madsen said.
Amy Kahler, Des Moines Water Works’ CEO, said Maffitt Reservoir, south of Des Moines, is about 5.5 feet “lower than it should be” at this time of year, primarily because Des Moines Water Works has tapped the mostly nitrate-free water over winter to blend it with water from the Raccoon at the McMullen treatment plant.
That plant doesn’t have a nitrate removal facility, she said.
Kahler called Maffitt an “emergency water supply” or a savings account — and “our savings account is dwindling,” she said. The Des Moines utility also has wells that it injects treated water into during the winter and can tap when demand peaks in the summer.
Adding to challenges, Kahler said: The Des Moines utility’s Fleur treatment plant is the system’s largest. While it can rely on multiple water sources — an infiltration gallery that collects water, cleaned naturally by sand and rocks, in addition to the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers — all three are over the federal clean water standard.
The utility must use the nitrate removal system, she said, to meet the federal limit of 10 milligrams per liter.
“In times like this, the nitrate removal facility is really our workhorse, we lean on it,” Kahler said, adding that the plant has been running at “near capacity all year long.”
She said she felt confident that the plant will continue operating at full strength.
The news comes as Gov. Kim Reynolds Friday announced that the state will give Central Iowa Water Works a $25 million grant to expand and upgrade its nitrate removal facilities, part of a statewide overhaul of Iowa’s water quality funding.
Much of the money to fund the revamped water quality initiatives comes from redirecting funding streams that have supported water quality efforts, beginning with a 2018 law Reynolds signed.
State officials said Friday the Iowa Department of Agriculture will receive $3.72 million per year for watershed improvement projects in 22 central Iowa counties that feed into Central Iowa Water Works source waters.
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig said that will include money for practices such as cover crops, edge-of-field buffers, wetlands and working land conservation programs.
Reynolds also announced a plan to boost the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ water quality monitoring, fund for wastewater and drinking water treatment grant programs and create a low-interest loan program for rural communities statewide seeking to upgrade their facilities.
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Madsen said the regional authority would begin planning to expand the nitrate removal facility, which should be completed about three years after construction begins. And while the grant “will help with future planning and the ever-increasing population growth, we most pressingly need to address our current concerns.
“As we have noted before, last summer was an unprecedented event,” she said. “Now this year, we are facing even more challenges.”
The regional authority’s plan for restricting water uses first calls for voluntary conservation efforts — a 25% reduction in use, then 50% cut — before restrictions are mandated on irrigation use.
“If our system is already stressed, delaying irrigation is really important,” West Des Moines Water Works’ Christina Murphy said, adding that recent rainfall made irrigation unnecessary for most central Iowa residents.
Unlike last summer, Central Iowa Water Works’ plan allows some water use for seeding or new sod, golf courses and splash pads, Madsen said. Last year, cities and towns set warnings and penalties for residents and businesses that failed to meet the requirements.
Murphy said central Iowa residents and businesses should fix water faucet, toilet and other leaks, have full loads when running dish and clothes washers, water lawns early in the morning or in the evening.
“If you’re going to turn on your irrigation system — preferably not now, right? — please don’t set it and forget it,” she said, adding that 30% to 40% of summertime use comes from irrigation.
Central Iowa Water Works is a regional authority that owns the metro area’s water utilities. Metro area facilities such as Des Moines and West Des Moines water works supply water as contract operators.
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