(Radio Iowa) – Lawn watering in central Iowa is now banned, except for newly-installed sod or seed placed during the current growing season. Central Iowa Water Works says the ban is needed to preserve the region’s drinking water supply, as nitrate levels in its source waters remain high. Tami Madsen, executive director of the regional water authority, says lawn watering consumes around 40-percent of the system’s drinking water supply during the summer.
“It’s a very large portion,” Madsen says, “which is why asking for a reduction in lawn watering is the biggest, single use that we can ask for a reduction of that can make the biggest impact, the most quickly, to make sure that we can continue to produce safe drinking water for our communities.” Madsen says the drinking water continues to meet all state and federal standards.
The lawn watering ban goes into effect immediately. Amy Kahler is C-E-O of Des Moines Water Works, the largest contract operator for Central Iowa Water Works. Kahler says customer demand on Saturday hit 91-percent of the capacity of the treatment plants. “So as water utilities, we can’t control the nitrate levels in our sources,” Kahler says. “The nitrate levels are even higher upstream. But again, the one thing we can manage right now, in the moment, is demand.”
Kahler says the Fleur Drive nitrate removal facility has run for nearly 150 days this year. The record is 177 days in 2015. Central Iowa Water Works serves roughly 600-thousand customers, or about one in every five Iowans.
