For us, there is an additional application because of nitrate concerns in the des moines and Raccoon Rivers. About 80 million will go simply to improve nitrate removal process. Steve water works has taken a little heat for taking the nitrates out, treating the water, and putting the nitrates back in. How are we going to fix that process . Bill we have taken heat. We have a permit from the state of iowa that lets us remove nitrates and put the slurry back in the Raccoon River. The board of trustees that i work for has reached the conclusion that that does not make a lot of sense from an environmental standpoint. We have the legal right to do that but we want to go above and a process will eventually take that slurry into a Sanitary Sewer System before it is released by the wastewater reclamation facility. We are going well above and beyond the rights we have to make sure we are better stewards of the Raccoon River. Steve will that totally remove the nitrates . Bill cycles and elements, whether were talking about carbon or nitrogen is not something that is removed. It is changed in its form. Aqueous nitrogen is what we receive and we have to remove it to be safe, but we do not get rid of the nitrogen. The nitrogen is delivered to the wastewater reclamation and will be fed to microorganisms. It reduces the environmental list risk, but nitrogen a far better system instead of putting it directly back into the Raccoon River now will go for microbiological treatment process at the regional wastewater reclamation authority. Stacey each year water works pens a significant amount of money taking the nitrates out of the water for drinking purposes in the metro. Anyway to estimate how much money water works only to spend in 2016 . Bill there really is not. Our experts continue to point to what they say is a deteriorating Water Quality, particularly as it relates to nitrate concentrations. In 2015 we had to dean i turf i a record amount of days den plus, the hypoxic zone in the gulf of mexico continues to grow. It is clear that Water Quality degrades in iowa. We do not know what we are going to be facing in 2016 other than january, the month we have just completed. We saw a record high nitrate loading in the Raccoon River. Pollutants are very much unfortunately a part of our characteristic of surface waters in iowa. We would anticipate having to spend a significant amount of money to treat, but more importantly the technology we have is one that we have had for all must 25 years, was never constructed with the idea of running it as frequently as we have to run it. We are going to have to place that if agropollutants you coming. Steve we heard about the lawsuit, three drainage districts that the water goes down to the des moines waterworks. We said where you said, we need to file a lawsuit . Bill des moines waterworks has been engaged in a lot of collaborative and cooperative arrangements with the agrobusiness groups throughout iowa for really 20 or 30 years, talking with them about our concerns about surface Water Quality. I came to water works about four years ago, not long after i came we saw a Record Number of nitrate concentrations on both the des moines and raccoon at the same time, and the state of iowa announced a nutrient reduction strategy. The all volunteer conservation and process that is supposed to protect water, it is very clear, hearing from the usda and governor branstad, that there is this huge emphasis on volunteerism. It will take generations to be able to reduce these kinds of pollutants. That coupled with a record high number of pollutants, led me to the belief that collaboration and cooperation was not adequately protecting our consumers, and we made the decision to go out and get a significant amount of Scientific Data to be able to demonstrate that drainage districts or underground Plumbing Systems that run through the counties, where direct polluters into the surface waters of the state, and hence our lawsuit. Steve coming up, we look at how the significance of water cleanup legislation now being considered at the iowa statehouse and just who should pay to keep our Drinking Water clean. Welcome back. This morning we are talking with Des Moines Water Works ceo bill stowe about the on stacey welcome back. This morning we are talking with Des Moines Water Works ceo bill stowe about the ongoing efforts to keep your Drinking Water safe. Steve we were talking earlier about the pending lawsuit over nitrate runoff from three Northern Iowa wage raonic districts but in january, iowa , Senate Majority leader Mike Gronstal said he thinks the lawsuit against buena vista, sac and calhoun counties will be dropped, if the Legislature Passes a significant package funding Water Quality. As you see it, is this the responsibility of the legislature and the taxpayers or are the people who are polluting bill ultimately, our issue is agricultural accountability for the pollutants they are putting into the water. Any other business in the state that takes a pipe from their business and runs into the waters of the state are responsible for the pollutants. We think agriculture should be similarly a responsible for what they are putting into the waters of the state. When we go from accountability and who is to pay, there is a construct of federal dollars or state dollars that may subsidize that, that becomes a policy issue. We are interested in stopping pollution at its source. We think agriculture should be accountable and ultimately what we are looking for here is a greater appreciation in iowa of conservation and environmental protection, and ultimately the cost of production being pushed from Agro Business down to our ratepayers. Steve the ratepayers are already paying for the nitrate removal. Is it fair to have them pay for these mitigation projects . Bill that is a great policy question. There have been a lot of questions about state tax. A lot of state tax is generated in counties like polk county where our as opposed to counties like sac county. There are questions of equity that come into play. The policy issues, we will let the policy people talk about. We want to hold businesses accountable for the water they are discharging. Stacey farm groups say the nitrate levels in the water are improving and farmers are doing a better job as a whole when it comes to nitrate management. Bill the only number that counts is the day to day level. Theres a lot of discussion about trends and a lot that can happen in how we deal with averages, but in 2015 a Record Number of beach closures, impaired waterways, and we had to take nitrogen out more often than we had in the past. There is deteriorating Water Quality, no matter how you define the trend. Anyone who is serious about Water Quality who has any knowledge about iowa was surface water knows it is on acceptable. It is a Public Health concern. Steve how important first of all is this lawsuit, and what happens if you lose it . Bill it is very important from a rate payers perspective. We are going to spend 80 million in ratepayer dollars to better denature niger five as we that is a denitrofy. If we were to lose, clearly we think there will be an equal response in the political process has our ratepayers will be seeing rate increases that are 10 each year compounding or more to be able to support the indebtedness for greater den itrofication. We think this issue will straighten itself out that we are disappointed that there is not greater responsibility from Agro Business leaders in understanding our problem, the Public Health risk, and the economics of this issue in stepping up and taking responsibility to clean the surface waters. Stacey finally, flooding is certainly an issue when it comes to spring months especially. Where does the des moines waterworks facility stand right now if we were to experience another flood like we had in 1993 . Had to close our parks down. The jolly light closing happened in december because of flooding. We are going to have flooding, but the kind of 1993 experience that many of us remember where we lost our Drinking Water surprised supply because the fleur drive area was under water, you will see basically a ring levee now around fleur drive intended to protect that. Any of us in the water business or flood protection business note to say no to never say never. We think we are very adequately protected to deal with Something Like a 1993 flood. Stacey bill stowe, thank you very much for joining us. Coming up what farmers and farm , groups are working to do to reduce the amount of farm and streams. Increasing number of iowa steve right now on close up, an increasing number of iowa farmers are attending meetings to learn more about how to reduce nitrate loss from their fields. Welcome back. We just heard from ceo bill stowe, about the Des Moines Water Works efforts to maintain nitrate levels in your Drinking Water, at or under federal standards. Stacey were now joined by mike naig from the Iowa Department of agriculture and land stewardship. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Stacey well talk about the water works lawsuit in just a moment. But first, iowa farmers know that nitrate runoff is a problem. What conservation practices are being used right now to reduce the runoff before it gets to the rivers and streams and our Drinking Water . Mike theres a variety of practices that iowa pharmacist iowa farmers are used to using, typically those that control soil conservation. Increasingly we are looking at practices now that will help us improve the Water Quality and address nitrate specifically. A lot of those practices are laid out in our nutrient reduction strategy, things like cover crops and switching to know till, wetlands and bio filters, we are seeing farmers adopting those prom practices. Steve all of those are voluntary. What percentage of farmers do mike most farmers are using multiple conservation practices on their field. Soil erosion prevention or soil conservation, and increasingly again we are seeing adoption of things like cover crops that can address the nitrates piece. Part of our nutrient reduction strategy is to offer cost share to farmers to give them an opportunity to try out one of those practices that maybe they have not used before. We are also funding demonstration products projects as well where we can teach farmers how to implement practices they might not be used to using. Most farmers are using some sort of conservation practice on their field. Stacey do we need to be more aggressive in stepping up those efforts and making a faster reduction of the nitrates . Mike we do think we need to accelerate our implementation of the strategy. Is just under three years old so we are at the beginning of looking at nitrates specifically. Have a long history of soil erosion project prevention but now we need to look at the nitrate piece specifically. We must accelerate our progress. The way that we intend to do that is by demonstrating the implementation of these practices, allow farmers to teach other farmers about their experience, and we think that will help drive implementation. Steve how large a role does Mother Nature play in nitrates getting into our water supply . Mike Mother Nature plays the predominant role in nitrates getting into our streams and rivers and ultimately impacting Drinking Water. Nitrates, nitrogen is a naturally occurring thing within our soil profile, and in certain weather conditions, that nitrogen becomes nitrate. We can control some things on wish we could control rain, we cannot so what we need to do is its our field in a way that we can analyze nitrogen leaving the field when we do have a rain event. Participate in these kinds of conservation issues, should they be held financially accountable for their contribution to the run of problem . Mike i think the ultimate accountability for a farmer is whether or not they can stay productive and stay in business. If you are not doing the right things on your farm, youre not going to be productive. Your land will not hold its value and you will not be able to produce the crops you need to stay in business. Should we have a regulatory approach to this . We just do not believe a regulatory approach is the solution. What we are talking about is a quality. In order to do that, we need to be targeted in our conservation, not arbitrary regulations coming from des moines or washington, d. C. , but targeted conservation where we are getting a maximum return on our dollars. Stacey we understand from bill stowe that we do not have a generation to get this under control. Steve 80 million will be spent on nitrate removal by des moines waterworks customers this year. That is a lot of money, and a big burden on the customers. Mike i live in the des moines area, i want safe Drinking Water for my family, and i know others do as well. I think it is a very good thing that des moines waterworks is making the investments that they are. That is a core element to our strategy in iowa, we all have a role to play. It does not matter where you live, you have an impact on the environment and you can do on the environment. I think it is a good thing that water works is making the investments they are, just like farmers are making investments all across the state to improve their operations. Stacey coming up well talk more about the pending lawsuit by the Des Moines Water Works levied against three counties in well be right back. Iowa department of agriculture and land stewardship regarding stacey welcome back. Were talking with mike naig from the Iowa Department of agriculture and land stewardship regarding the efforts of iowa farmers to reduce the amount of nitrate runoff into rivers and streams. Steve we already talked a little bit about the lawsuit filed against three northwest iowa counties. Do you think that lawsuit has had any impact on speeding farmers up and agribusiness groups up in implementing these conservation practices . Mike that is kind of a difficult thing for me to say. I know what you are driving at. To the extent that it increased in awareness that an increase in awareness can lead to action, i suppose there has been. A lot of folks have a lot of frustration about what appears to be a wage driven between des moines and agriculture, the ag community here at it does not have to be that way and in fact, if you get outside of des moines, it is not that way. Cedar rapids, for example, the city that is dependent on agriculture, they have decided to work upstream with farmers in a collaborative way. Storm lake, a lot of ag connection, working with farmers on addressing all of their goals related to improving Water Quality. He seen collaboration in form across the state. If there is maybe a good thing across that can come from that, maybe it can inspire some can be done through partnership. Stacey do you think this will go to trial or can there be an agreement reached before that . Mike we are not a party to the lawsuit, department of agriculture, so i do not have any particular legal insight. As we look at it from the outside, he certainly hope the lawsuit would be withdrawn. I do not think that is probably going to happen, and there have been conversations, the sides have talked over the years and i do not know that there is middle ground. Water works is trying to force regulation and we just do not see it that way, so im afraid it is probably going to trial. Steve this is about more than just water. Iowa also feeds and fuels the world so we need to develop some kind of a balance here. Do you see that balance being achievable . Mike absolutely, and im glad that is exactly the kind of context that we should be looking at this issue in. Iowa agriculture is tremendously productive. We lead the nation in corn, soy, eggs, ethanol. Iowa punches above our weight when it comes to agriculture, given the size of our state and our population. It is critically important locally and globally. The jobs that agriculture support in the state, we have got to do this. We have got to produce food more sustainably so there is a balance. Stacey thank you so much for joining us this morning. Steve that is it for kcci 8 news closeup. Have a great day. Welcome to teen kids news. Im veronique. Heres this weeks top story. One of the highest compliments you can pay someone is to call him or her a rocket scientist. But as our next report shows, genius to build a rocket and successfully launch it. Before we get into that, heres a short lesson on the history of rockets. [ asianstyle music plays ] when the chinese invented the first rockets, they didnt care that their rockets blew up midair because they mostly used them to create fireworks. Fast forward 2,000 years, and a british soldier named congreve turned rockets into weapons, an idea he borrowed from india. But controlling their flight was difficult, and his own soldiers were as likely to be hit by the erratically flying missiles as the enemy. Rocketry really didnt take off until an american named goddard successfully launched the first liquidfuel rocket in 1926. [ explosions ] during world war ii, england was bombarded by german rockets called the v1 and the v2