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Watershed agency offers farmers $1,000 for access
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · February 15, 2023
The Lower Cedar Watershed Management Authority last week offered farmers $1,000 to let them build nitrate-reducing structures on their property.
Representatives also announced a goal to build 20 to 30 of these structures — saturated buffers and woodchip bioreactors — in the next year at no cost to participating farmers.
“These are proven techniques to clean nitrates out of the water,” West Branch Mayor Roger Laughlin, a member of the Lower Cedar WMA, said. “They work.”
In an hour-long meeting on Feb. 1 at Valley View Farms, 662 290th Street, about six miles east of West Branch, Heartland Co-op representatives talked about the “batch and build” effort in conjunction with the Lower Cedar WMA.
The Lower Cedar WMA, which formed in 2018, contracted with Heartland to be the “boots on the ground” to coordinate and administer the Lower Cedar Watershed Management Plan, Chairman Jon Bell said.
Emery Davis, conservation agronomist with Heartland, will lead the effort to implement the management plan.
“I’m excited about the edge-of-field practices” to eliminate nitrates, he told a crowd of about 60. “They’re easy to install, they’re cheap and fast, and they will slow water down.”
Both the saturation buffer and the woodchip bioreactors catch drainage water after it leaves the field but before it trickles down to a creek or stream.
Depending on the size, the systems can support between 30 and 150 acres, and both slow down drainage by about 5 percent, according to Heartland. To make each project worth the expense, Heartland wants farmers willing to install drainage tile between 400 and 1,000 feet.
Further, both capture or remove about 95 percent of the nitrates from the water that flows through the tiles. Both systems also include an overflow bypass in case heavier-than-normal rainfalls exceed the structure’s capacity. Davis said that when factoring in the water that escapes through the bypass, total nitrate reduction drops to about 50 percent.
The saturation buffer diverts the drainage through perforated tiles to evenly soak the soil away from the crops and allow natural vegetation to absorb or break down the excess nitrates. The bioreactors instead use a bed of woodchips — usually walnut, ash, or maple — buried about a foot underground to convert the nitrates into “harmless nitrogen gas,” according to one handout.
Farmers would need to replace the woodchips every 10 to 15 years, but Davis said both systems would last as long as the drainage tile lasts.
Installation takes one to two days, he said, and he wants to line up farms now so the contractor can begin installation this fall and finish by next spring.
‘Not judging’
Ruth McCabe, the senior agronomist with Heartland, said the two groups want to address nitrates because excessive amounts lower the oxygen levels in water and kill fish and other marine life. The Cedar River flows into the Iowa River, which feeds into the Mississippi River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. An overabundance of nitrates contributes to the gulf’s “Dead Zone” — or hypoxic zone — that measures more than 6,000 miles.
“It doesn’t matter what practice they want to adopt,” she said. “We want to work with them. We’re not judging. We want what works best for their farm.”
Davis noted that the $1,000 incentive is privately funded by agriculture industry companies and that farmers may have more than one structure installed to qualify for more incentives.
Davis and McCabe also took time to encourage farmers to use cover crops to reduce runoff and promoted a privately funded cost-share program.
The cost share offers $10 per acres to purchase cover crop seeds, and Davis noted that it can be grouped together with a $25-per-acre offer from the state.
“That’s a very good chunk” of the cost of the seeds, he said.
1,000 square miles
According to the Lower Cedar WMA, the watershed covers 1,098 square miles and touches seven counties and all or parts of 25 cities, almost all of which are members of the WMA. Other members include Soil & Water Conservation Districts in that watershed.
The watershed is shaped roughly like an off-kilter triangle. At the topmost part are Alburnett, Marion, and Mount Vernon. The southeast corner includes Wilton, Durant, and Stockton. The southernmost tip includes Conesville, Nichols, and Lone Tree. Tipton, West Branch, and West Liberty are all completely inside the watershed.
The watershed covers more square miles of Cedar County than any other. Laughlin noted that Cedar County recently gave $100,000 of its American Rescue Plan Act funding to the Lower Cedar WMA.
The group also gets its funding through contributions from member agencies — West Branch gives $500 a year — grants, and funding through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The Lower Cedar Watershed is part of the larger Cedar River Watershed.
Laughlin said West Branch chose to join because Lower Cedar’s management plan includes flood mitigation, which is a priority for the city. He likes that the saturation buffers and woodchip bioreactors both slow water drainage into creeks.
City membership in the Lower Cedar can also help the city get grants for its own flood control efforts, the mayor said.
A small part of the Lower Cedar Watershed is the West Branch Wapsinonoc Creek watershed. Most of this watershed covers West Branch, with areas to the northwest reaching into Johnson County and areas to the southeast reaching into Muscatine County. About 5,318 people live inside the Wapsinonoc Creek watershed, according to the Lower Cedar WMA.
The Lower Cedar WMA’s next quarterly meeting takes place 6:30 p.m. Feb. 21 in the basement of the Cedar County Courthouse.
Getting involved
Those wishing to install nitrate-reducing structures on their property, you may contact Heartland Co-op Conservation Agronomist Emery Davis at 515-250-5243 or edavis@heartlandcoop.com.
The projects are fully funded by private organizations and come with a $1,000 incentive per structure.
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