Throughout the trip we have continuously talked about water quality in Iowa and Saturday was no different. We started our day at the Storm Lake Times, where we talked to Pulitzer Prize winner Art Cullen. During our conversation with him, we hit on so many different points. The first and biggest one was with water quality and Storm Lake. This water issue was highlighted by the fact that Storm Lake uses to be super deep and clear, but over the decades of farming, the lake became foggy and much more shallow. This is due to runoff created by farmers who till and don’t plant cover crops. Many of the lakes are becoming more shallow or drying up completely throughout Iowa. Art views that one of the two biggest issues in the upcoming caucus is the environment related to farming. The conversation then shifted over to more political issues. Just like Councilman Ibarra, Art pointed out a big thing within the election on the single issue voters. Art thought that the politicians should not be so focused on these issues and try to please both sides and not be extreme to one idea.
After the long drive up to Lake Okoboji to meet with the queen of water, Mary Skopec. While with her she showed us how we can test our own water from our taps. We first tested a little river that was on the property of the laboratory. We found that it was very clean because we tested for nitrites and nitrates, phosphorus, and dissolved oxygen. We then went to another site where there was planting and the tests came back a lot different with higher levels of all of these items..