What are the Water Quality Concerns?  When it rains in most areas of Ames, the stormwater is collected in street drains that discharge directly to our local streams. Stormwater moves across surfaces such as streets and lawns and carries any pollutants along with it directly to our local streams.

Do you know that the following are pollutants in stormwater?

• Bacteria from pet, animal, and waterfowl wastes, and improperly functioning septic systems.
• Nutrients from excessive and improper use of fertilizers.
• Hydrocarbons and other chemical pollutants from motor vehicle fluids and improper disposal of paints, oils, and antifreeze.
• Pesticide residues from excessive and improper use of lawn chemicals.
• Thermal pollution of stormwater discharges from heated impervious surfaces such as roads, driveways and parking lots.

Story County Water Monitoring Plan, 2021-2030

Click here to get up-to-date results and information.

Click here to see the plan.

In 2020, 24 members of a planning team began meeting by Zoom to take a comprehensive look at stream and lake monitoring in Story County.  After state support for volunteer water quality monitoring ended, Story County had proposed creating a local program, while the City of Ames continued to provide laboratory services for watershed projects.  However, it became apparent we needed an inventory of the data that had already been collected by various agencies and guidelines for how the data could best be used before we could make plans for additional monitoring.  Prairie Rivers of Iowa convened a larger group of stakeholders to grapple with this challenge.

The planning team was the following agencies and representatives: Story County Conservation (Mike Cox, Jerry Keys and  Margaret Jaynes); the City of Ames (Tracy Peterson, Liz Calhoun, Neil Weiss, Dustin Albrecht, Maryann Ryan and Ashley Geesman); the City of Nevada (Jordan Cook and Jeremy Rydl); the City of Gilbert (Sonia Arellano-Sundberg); the City of Huxley (Rita Connor and Mark Kahler); Iowa State University Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Mark Rasmussen); Izaak Walton League (Zack Moss and Paul Readhead); Story County Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner (Kayla Bergman); the Story County Community Foundation (Jennifer Dieter), and Prairie Rivers of Iowa (Penny Brown Huber and Dan Haug).

The Story County Water Monitoring & Interpretation Plan, 2021-2030 has now been completed.  The outline of the plan mirrors how the planning team walked through the information to try and understand, and to also ensure we were all on the same page.  You will note that the chapters reflect those learning curves: (1) Why do we want data? (2) Where do we want data? (3) What data is already available? (4) How do we interpret the data once we have it? (5) How can we collect new data? (6) Goals for future monitoring. 

This plan is the first of its kind in Iowa where a county-wide plan has been developed.  It provides a working document for meeting goals and strategies as the planning team continues to meet and support effective and practical stream and lake water quality monitoring efforts.