From our inbox – Action alert from JFAN (Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors)
Driftless Water Defenders (DWD) is launching a powerful initiative this Saturday to heighten attention on the poor state of Iowa’s waterways. The 48 Lakes Initiative will gather stories from Iowans from across the state on how the deteriorating quality of Iowa’s water is impacting our recreational use of its lakes.
These stories will be used to start a vibrant social media dialogue to make water quality an issue our legislators can’t continue to ignore.
This Saturday focuses first on 10 lakes that repeatedly suffer with the most “swimming not recommended” advisories. Lake Darling is on that list.
JFAN is helping DWD to collect stories from anyone who wants to share what Lake Darling means to them and their concerns about the lake’s all too frequent swimming advisories. What better location to do that than at this beautiful lake!
We’ll be at Lake Darling on Saturday from 11:00 am – noon to collect videos of anyone who wishes to share their experiences and concerns. DWD will use these videos on social media to start the dialogue.
We’ll meet at the picnic area directly on the Lake Shore Loop Trail next to the Lake Darling Main Boat Ramp. This is BEFORE the beach. (Here’s a map of where to find us.) We’ll have a few treats on hand to share, too!
Water quality was dubbed the “third rail of Iowa politics,” but it’s a major concern of nearly every Iowan. Join JFAN on Saturday from 11 am – noon, and let’s help DWD make water quality an issue legislators have to face and fix!
If you’re camera shy, click here to see how you can contribute your stories.
Blog For Iowa 
Good for DWD and JFAN for focusing on dirty water. One irony of Lake Darling is that there was a celebratory documentary made years ago about the lake restoration. The documentary was shown on Iowa PBS, and the theme was how, after a large boatload of tax dollars had been spent, Lake Darling was “back.” Yes, back with very bad water quality in one of the most hoglot-intensive counties in Iowa. Who could have foreseen that.
I am not a fan of drowning natural river valleys to build fake lakes. But when Iowa does that, Iowa taxpayers should not have to pay big money later on to restore the lakes that are essentially doomed to dirty water because Iowa industrial agriculture is unregulated, uncontrolled, and outrageous in what it gets away with.
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