URBANDALE, Iowa - Governor Culver signed Iowa’s Surface Water Protection Act (SWPA) into law on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008. Iowa’s SWPA is a statewide initiative aimed at measurably improving Iowa's water quality. The legislation was the result of a two-year effort by the Watershed Planning Task Force.

Roger Wolf, Director of Environmental Programs at the Iowa Soybean Association, was a member of the Watershed Planning Task Force. Wolf says that the key elements of the plan include using existing authorities to better manage and coordinate outcomes within watersheds, but that there will be oversight and strategic management of the process.

“The SWPA establishes a Water Resource Coordinating Council. The Council will complete a statewide water plan focused on water assessments and prioritization. It will also be responsible for a marketing campaign, providing local assistance for monitoring, putting together regional and community-based assessment programs, and developing waste and storm water infrastructure programs.”

Wolf says that the Task Force listened to the input of people from across the state during the process of creating its recommendations. “The task force listened to what makes watershed efforts successful and what barriers need to be addressed to step-up effectiveness. People in agriculture are open to examining the impact of the biofuels economy on established cropping systems in the Corn Belt and we are looking for ways achieve multilevel performance in our cropping systems.

"We know Iowans want clean water and want to be good stewards of our environment," said Wolf. “Passing this is part of developing a coordinated, long-term strategy to improve water quality — and we’d like to thank Governor Culver and the Iowa Legislature for their help in making this next step a reality."

In his remarks, Governor Culver said, “Today, we are taking steps in our commitment to clean water. This bill shows what can be done through bipartisan efforts, and constructs a framework at the highest levels of state government to coordinate statewide action in our watersheds.“

Wolf says the SWPA will help farmers work to improve water quality locally and that it advances the same kinds of watershed-based performance-focused approaches that the Iowa Soybean Association supports in its Environmental Programs.

“The Iowa Soybean Association has been working with several public and private partners on Regional Watershed Assessments — a systematic way of quickly prioritizing resource issues in watersheds. These assessments provide rough estimates of where conservation investments could best address concerns within a watershed. Landowners and local leaders can then use those estimates to determine where to focus additional planning on what the most cost-effective options are for action. We think it’s a good process for conservation, and we know that funding for conservation is limited.”

The Surface Water Protection Act calls for 56 regional watershed assessments and smaller community-based watershed improvement and monitoring plans. Funding is proposed to begin in fiscal year 2010 and the task force estimated that about $13.5 million per year would be needed after a five-year phase-in.