Learning from the Past: A Careful Wish for a Water Quality Future

It’s tempting to read the news, look at social media, or even chat with your next-door neighbor about Iowa’s water quality and think that the condition has never been worse. Indeed, high nitrate concentrations plague water supply systems and new emerging contaminants such as PFAS compounds, viruses, and pharmaceuticals are being increasingly detected in the water. However, you could make a case that Iowa’s water quality was once much worse in the state and that our challenges today reflect considerable improvements over the last 100 years.  

Recently as part of the symposium on the history of Iowa from 1900 – 1940, I had an opportunity to dig into the history of water quality during this interesting period. Like the rest of the nation, the first part of the 20th century coincided with rapid population growth in cities, agricultural intensification, and greatly expanding industrialization. Poor water quality was becoming increasingly recognized as detrimental to human health and environment, and new solutions were needed to solve these problems. 

It may be surprising to folks today who hanker for water quality conditions of 100 years ago, that in 1900, it was already recognized that surface water in Iowa was unfit to drink without treatment. One account at the time called Iowa’s rivers “dilute sewage effluent” since most communities and industries discharged raw sewage directly into the rivers without treatment. It was truly a time when dilution was actually considered the solution to pollution, as this was the simplest and least costly method of getting rid of wastes. Across the U.S., in 1927, only one-third of cities with 100,000 population or more, and only 15 percent of cities with 25,000-100,000, had sewage disposal plants. 15 of the 16 largest cities in Iowa at the time, including Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, simply discharged their raw sewage into the rivers.  

Imagine riverbanks lined with sludge — floating solids and congealed mats of grease in the rivers, obnoxious sewage odors, fish kills and other pollution conditions if you ventured out for river recreation at the time. In response to public concerns, the first studies of organic pollution in Iowa were conducted during the late 1920s, revealing astoundingly high bacteria levels in rivers downstream of cities. While today we are concerned with bacteria counts (E. coli) more than 235 organisms per 100 ml, the average E. coli in river water downstream of Fort Dodge, Des Moines, and Ottumwa was 146,000, 135,000 and 105,000 organisms per 100 cc. The lowest value measured was still 2,200 colony forming units/100 ml., a value 10X higher than the water quality standard today.  

These bacteria levels are almost too high to be comprehendible, but what is noteworthy is that advances in wastewater treatment beginning in the 1930s and continuing today have completely altered this picture. Today, we’ve largely changed the focus of water quality conversation from point source discharge at treatment plants to nonpoint sources. In the 1920s, farmers complained that pollution from cities was contaminating their streams so much that cattle could not drink it, or they’d get sick. Farmers demanded that cities clean up their act. Today, the situation is reversed where cities have done impressive work to reduce their pollution discharge, and urban folks are demanding that agriculture clean up its act.  

A legacy from the Progressive Era in the early 1900s was the awakening of the people to the health threat posed by environmental degradation and the need for government action and investment in infrastructure. In many ways, this need exists today, but perhaps with a greater focus on nonpoint source issues. In the end, while I would be careful about wishing for a return to water quality 100 years ago, you might instead wish for the change in mindset needed to combat the nonpoint source issues that we face today in the same way we once tackled the water quality problems a century ago. 

About the Author

Dr. Keith Schilling is the State Geologist of Iowa and Director of the Iowa Geological Survey at the University of Iowa. Dr, Schilling is also a research engineer at IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering at the University of Iowa and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Iowa Department of Earth and Environmental Science and at Iowa State University Department of Natural Resources Ecology and Management. He received an M.S. degree in Water Resources from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. degree in Geology from the University of Iowa. His research has focused on a variety of water-related issues in Iowa, including groundwater flow and quality, surface and groundwater interaction, nonpoint source pollution and watershed and floodplain processes.