A short history of the quality of the Cedar River
November 13, 2008

The summer floods which did significant damage to much of Iowa, including many water and wastewater treatment plants, has brought renewed attention to the quality of the water in the Cedar River which runs through the eastern part of the state. Even as recently as the 1960s, the river was in bad ecological shape, but with improvements in wastewater treatment (particularly in the 1970s), the health of the river improved. While the effects of the summer flooding will probably continue to raise bacteria levels for a while, in the long term, lots of attention will be needed to the matter of non-point-source pollution, which is harder to control than what flows into the sanitary sewers.

November 2008
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last revised November 2008