David Cwiertny

Thanks, Eli! Much appreciated.

A Misstep in the Wrong Direction News on August 25 reported Sheriff Mike Naig unholstering his squirt gun yet again to apply a gentle mist onto the raging inferno that is Iowa’s water quality and overall environmental condition.

open.substack.com/pub/riverrac...

A report tied Iowa’s water pollution to agriculture. Then the money to promote it mysteriously disappeared Roughly $400,000 in the $1m budget was for public awareness – but those funds were recently ‘zeroed out’

Why aren’t more people talking about this? Seems notable that Polk County officials don’t care to promote or raise awareness about the report’s conclusions. Are any local reporters gonna ask Polk County folks what’s going on here?

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Congrats Polk County! You win the “We All Want Clean Water” award for 2025 for zeroing out the CISWRA budget after funding a report and holding a community event that energized Iowans to take action on our water quality. Way to sustain the momentum!

www.thenewlede.org/2025/08/iowa...

Demanding action GUEST COLUMN | CHRIS JONESA progressive platform for Iowa food and agr

cedarrapidsgazette-ia.newsmemory.com?publink=2f2e...

Sounds more like ransom or extortion to me….

Iowa Farmers Union, Iowa Environmental Council and Harkin Institute host cancer listening session at Meskwaki Tribal Center MESKWAKI SETTLEMENT — As event moderator Tommy Hexter asked the 20 or so people in attendance for Wednesday night’s listening session how many of them had been affected by cancer in one way or another...

You can’t make this shit up. Representative of IFU says we can “suspect” things like the water, pesticides & fertilizer can cause cancer, but then turns around and says regulations won’t work and farmers simply need to be paid more to change their ways.

www.timesrepublican.com/news/todays-...

Editorials: People are waking up - Storm Lake Times Pilot It isn’t often that over 1,000 Iowans will gather on a summer’s Monday evening to learn about nitrogen, phosphorous and water. Something is in the air. People filled Sheslow Auditorium at …

From @artcullen.bsky.social
“The probable D nominee, Rob Sand, is still trying to find religion on how to think about pollution. He does not want to be perceived as being anti-agriculture. What he fails to understand is that you do not have to pollute to farm.”

www.stormlake.com/stories/edit...

📻 The common good and the establishment (w/ Chris Jones) - Cornhole Champions Interview Toss some bags at agricultural policy... why ethanol might be our biggest mistake... and what a progressive water policy might look like.

Hear about the D day invasion of crop dusters and other fun stuff here from me with @zacharyos.bsky.social

cornholechampions.substack.com/p/the-common...

Chris is spot on in this piece. Who wins with this decision? New dischargers. An enterprising reporter should track who receives new discharge (NPDES) permits into these segments now. Those are the interests that greased the skids to make this happen, Iowans’ water quality and health be damned.

'Clearly misguided': Experts condemn EPA's decision to rescind expansion of Iowa impaired water list Less than a year after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added segments of five Iowa rivers to the impaired waters list for nitrate, the same agency — now operating under the Trump administrati...

The call is coming from inside the house

www.thegazette.com/environment-...

Regents approve new policy aimed at “indoctrination,” instead of anti-DEI, CRT policy Iowa Board of Regent-controlled universities are now required to teach controversial topics “in a manner that fosters critical thinking and avoids indoctrination of one perspective” under a new board ...

“The new policy would aim to promote discussion of both viewpoints, rather than presenting one side or the other as a settled fact…”

dailyiowan.com/2025/08/12/r...

The article is paywalled, but this is some complete and utter bullshit…

Were I to run for governor, I would make environmental quality a centerpiece of my campaign from the word "go," rather than trying to workshop something on the fly. And to be honest, I'd probably just plagiarize @theswinerepublic.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/riverrac...

How pesticides help fuel Iowa’s cancer crisis Pesticides are part of why Iowa’s fields are so productive. Research into pesticide exposure also connects them to our cancer crisis.

@zacharyos.bsky.social
@amierivers.bsky.social and @iowastartingline.com doing a nice job with this cancer series, with some help from @dcwiertny.bsky.social

iowastartingline.com/cancer-in-io...

IDALS breaks ground on water quality projects in Tama and Grundy counties • Iowa Capital Dispatch IDALS is beginning construction  on 18 water quality and nitrate reduction projects in Tama and Grundy counties.

I’m old enough to remember when American Public Media reported that saturated buffers are a sham and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Here, we celebrate this wasteful spending as if that report never happened….

iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/idals...

Critical infrastructure.

Is it too late for rescue N in 2025? Editor’s note: The following was written by Richard Roth, Iowa State University assistant professor and Extension nitrogen science and soil fertility specialist, and Sotirios Archontoulis, professor o...

Here’s ISU extension talking about more N application yet this year.
Make the case this institution cares about water quality. Go ahead.

agupdate.com/iowafarmerto...

Michigan led on safe water after Flint, but mobile home parks are stubborn rough spot Michigan has become a leader in safe drinking water after the Flint crisis, but mobile home parks remain a rough spot.

Michigan has become a leader in safe drinking water after the Flint crisis, but mobile home parks remain a rough spot.

A hog slaughtering facility in Sioux City, Iowa promised to bring jobs to town, but blood and pollution came with Seaboard Triumph Foods as well. In footage provided to Sentient, animal waste can be seen flowing into a drain in the ground.

At an Iowa Pork Plant, Piles of Dead Pigs and Wafting Sulphur Dioxide When climate technology breaks down, the results can be deadly.

According to one source, the facility has caused a strain on the city’s wastewater treatment.

Read the investigation by @ninaelkadi.com:
buff.ly/7Xqj8zI

2 million miles of point source pollution

Iowa State researchers obscure the truth on water quality | Opinion Chris Jones, in a new letter, rebuts a guest essay's assertions about the causes of unsafe water in Iowa.

www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinio...

Iowa State researchers obscure the truth on water quality | Opinion Chris Jones, in a new letter, rebuts a guest essay's assertions about the causes of unsafe water in Iowa.

👀

www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinio...

And if Iowans are looking for a local angle, we have been waiting since 2010 for a new health assessment of nitrate that may tell us the SDWA standard of 10 mg/L as N isn’t sufficient to protect folks from cancer and adverse birth outcomes. The future of that assessment is seriously in doubt….

E.P.A. Says It Will Eliminate Its Scientific Research Arm

Difficult to put into words how devastating this is for environmental and public health protection. We will be less safe, more at risk, and our environment will be far more polluted and degraded because of this.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/c...

Yeah, the Gazette is great. But this opinion contribution, not so much…

Opinion: Clean water starts upstream How Watershed Work Protects Our Future

Everyone is doing so great with these conservation practices that we’ve only had unsafe levels of nitrate in our major drinking water sources for over a month. Good job! Good effort!

www.thegazette.com/guest-column...

Feed the People! Why Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, and other slow-food-loving locavores are wrong about food in America—and why Waffle House can save us all  The food ind...

Shameless plug, but Gabe and I delve into this issue in great depth in our forthcoming book about building a better food system that works for everyone. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jan-d...

Abolish the Department of Agriculture The USDA has become an inefficient monster that often promotes products that are bad for consumers and the environment. Let’s replace it with a Department of Food.

As @gnrosenberg.bsky.social and I wrote back in 2021, "we need an institution that will prioritize the public interest, including the interests of laborers and eaters, as well as public health and the environment. We need a Department of Food."
newrepublic.com/article/1648...