DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa Capitol Bureau) - Three out of four of Iowa’s nitrate monitors will stop operating by next June after the state reallocated $500,000 in funding from the water quality monitoring network.

The cuts will leave only 20 monitors in operation out of the current 80 network, according to Des Moines Water Works CEO Amy Kahler. She warned the reduction could leave communities without critical information about contamination risks.

“The statewide monitoring system is really the eyes and the ears on the ground to tell us what’s happening in Iowa’s rivers and streams,” Kahler said. “It tells us if the practices that we are putting in the ground upstream are actually having an impact on our water quality.”

In 2023, the Iowa legislature reallocated the $500,000 from t

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