Efforts to move Iowa’s water quality enforcement from the Department of Natural Resources to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship face an uncertain future in the Iowa Senate after clearing the Iowa House in March.

But even if the DNR retains authority over most of the state’s water programs, the agency will have more trouble assessing the state’s polluted waterways. That became clear yesterday when DNR Director Roger Lande announced more than 100 layoffs, citing anticipated funding shortfalls in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Iowa lawmakers have yet to agree on a 2012 budget, but appropriations for key natural resource programs are almost certain to decline. Lande axed three positions in the DNR’s bureau that monitors water pollution.

Looks like Governor Terry Branstad is getting the “change in attitude” he sought for the DNR. More background and details are after the jump.

Perry Beeman covered Lande’s memo to DNR staffers at the Des Moines Register’s blog. Most of the positions Lande axed are seasonal part-time jobs, but he also cut three jobs in the Geological and Water Survey Bureau, effective July 1.

Mary Skopec, stream monitoring coordinator for the department, said she and the remaining employees will struggle to monitor lake and river pollution after the cuts. She declined to identify the employees losing their jobs, or their positions.

The geology and water division is the only one that lost full-time employees at the department. “This is a significant hit,” Skopec said.

“This is definitely going to impact our ability to do data management and lake monitoring,” Skopec said. It’s possible the department won’t be able to load lake data onto public Internet sites anymore, she added.

“We don’t know how we are going to cover our work,” Skopec said. “There are things we won’t be able to do, but we still need to figure that out.”

There could hardly be a worse time to cripple Iowa’s water monitoring efforts. DNR staff reported earlier this year that the “number of polluted Iowa waterways increased from 542 in 2008 to at least 572 in 2010 – the highest figure since the state began keeping records 14 years ago.”  

The DNR’s budget suffered disproportionately during the tight budget years caused by the “great recession.” Speaking to the Des Moines Register last September before taking a federal position, former DNR Director Rich Leopold described the impact of budget cuts.

“As far as the resources for our department to do what we need to do, we are – in my opinion – woefully and shamefully underfunded,” Leopold said.

Less than one-forth of one percent of state “General Fund” spending is allocated to the DNR and Leopold says that’s why the State of Iowa ranks 49th among the 50 states in terms of support for natural resources.

“It speaks volumes to the quality of environment that we have to the employees that we have,” Leopold said, laughing. “Because we are doing a whole lot with not much.”

The general operating budget for the Department of Natural Resources has been cut over 30 percent over the past two years – the largest cut to any state agency, according to Leopold.

Although state revenues have rebounded this year, the Republican-controlled Iowa House is pushing for deeper cuts to DNR programs in the next fiscal year.

The Iowa environmental community mobilized to oppose Governor Branstad’s proposal to move Clean Water Act compliance and other programs from the DNR to the agriculture department. The DNR’s mission is to “conserve and enhance our natural resources […] to improve the quality of life for Iowans and ensure a legacy for future generations,” while the IDALS mission is “to encourage, promote, market, and advance the interests of agriculture.”

This Ames Tribune story discussed House File 643 and its companion bill, Senate File 500:

Erv Klaas, professor emeritus of Iowa State University’s department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, has participated in the DNR’s volunteer water monitoring program for nine years. He thinks both bills are “an extremely bad idea.”

“The people I talk to are really worried about (the Agriculture Department) being unable to really continue watershed assessment,” Klaas said. “Volunteers monitor 3,000 sites across the state with a minimum amount of expense from the DNR. We’re are the watchdogs; we are often the first to discover problems.”

Klaas said the bills hand down much of the burden of the added programs to local soil and water conservation districts, which are “operating on a 1994 budget,” which will also result in less water monitoring. Klaas is a commissioner for the Story County Soil and Water Conservation District.

[Iowa Environmental Council Executive Director Marian] Riggs Gelb believes that is part of the intention of the legislation.

“Part of the point is to monitor less,” she said, “and then the less data you have, the less information you have to make claims that something is an impaired waterway. If we don’t know about it, then everything’s fine.”

As Bleeding Heartland discussed here, House File 643 advanced with unanimous Republican support and yes votes from seven House Democrats. Senate File 500 remains in an Appropriations subcommittee at this writing. Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal responded to a question about the bill during an Iowa Public Television appearance last month:

Borg: Senator Gronstal, another crystal ball here projecting. Is it likely that the Senate will allow monitoring of Iowa’s water quality to be shifted from the Department of Natural Resources into the Department of Agriculture?

Gronstal: No. We’re not going to move monitoring out of the regulatory body. We are looking at something relative to the on-farm conservation projects that DNR currently contracts with Ag to do. We are looking at where that money is parked. And if we move that over to Ag — and we may, in fact, be looking at a way to maybe even add some resources there, but the monitoring is not going to move. The regulatory function of protecting Iowa’s streams and waterways is going to stay at DNR.

Borg: And that’s a done deal. You’re saying is going to stay and is not –

Gronstal: Yes. Yeah. We’re not moving — yes, I said it as firmly as I — I deliberately said it firmly. We are not moving monitoring out of DNR.

Those assurances offered little comfort to advocates for clean water. They pointed out that even if water monitoring funding stayed with the DNR, “all decisions would be made by IDALS on where and how to monitor water quality.” The agriculture department would develop Total Maximum Daily Load plans (TMDLs) for what is known as “non-point water pollution,” which in Iowa originates primarily from farms.

As I mentioned above, it’s not yet clear whether Senate File 500 will advance before the legislature adjourns for the year.

Nevertheless, by giving pink slips to three staffers in the DNR’s Geological and Water Survey Bureau, Lande has guaranteed that less information about water pollution will be collected in Iowa and made available to the public. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

UPDATE: I spoke to Mary Skopec of the DNR on May 12. She said one of the three full-time positions and three of the 13 contract positions Lande is eliminating are solely focused on the water monitoring program. In addition, several other employees and contract workers who will be cut do some work related to water monitoring. Skopec said some of these employees and contract workers have higher degrees and expertise that will be hard to replace, even if funding for these programs is restored in future budget years.

SECOND UPDATE: Iowa Water and Land Legacy Executive Director (and Bleeding Heartland user) Mark Langgin released the following statement on May 13:

“Make no mistake, these cuts are real and Iowans will notice the effects all over the state.

While we may sit back and think the Department is merely not filling unfilled positions, Iowans need to realize the important services that seasonal staff provides – beach monitoring, wildlife management, public safety, technical assistance, and many other programs are at risk.  

Contract positions and seasonal employees keep our water clean, our parks & trails open, and our fisheries stocked.  These cuts will ultimately negatively impact the experiences of Iowa families who use our parks, fish in our streams, and hike our trails this summer and into the near future.”