Section 466.7. Water quality protection program.

  1.  The department of agriculture and land stewardship shall implement, in conjunction with the federal government and other entities, a program that provides multiobjective resource protections for flood control, water quality, erosion control, and natural resource conservation.

  2.  The department of agriculture and land stewardship shall implement a statewide, voluntary farm management demonstration program to demonstrate the effectiveness and adaptability of emerging practices in agronomy that protect water resources and provide other environmental benefits. A demonstration program under this subsection may complement, but shall not duplicate, projects conducted by Iowa state university extension service. The demonstration program shall be designed to concentrate on management techniques in both the livestock and crop genres and shall be offered to farm operators through an educational setting and demonstration projects. The demonstration program shall be offered in conjunction with the community colleges, Iowa state university, and private farmer demonstrations. Continuing education units shall be offered. The educational program shall be offered at no cost to farm operators who file a schedule F with the internal revenue service and do not have permitted livestock facilities or are certified under a manure management plan.

  3.  The department of agriculture and land stewardship shall provide financial assistance for the establishment of permanent soil and water conservation practices.

  4.  The department of natural resources shall provide local watershed managers with geographic information system data for their use in developing, monitoring, and displaying results of their watershed work. The local watershed data shall be considered public records and are accessible to the public pursuant to chapter 22.

  5.  The department of natural resources shall develop a program that provides support to local volunteer management efforts to the different programs concerned with water quality. The department shall assist in coordinating and tracking of the volunteer component of these programs to increase efficiency and avoid duplication of efforts in water quality monitoring and watershed improvement.

  6.  The department of natural resources shall provide for activities supporting the analysis of water quality monitoring data for trends and for the preparation and presentation of data to the public.

  7.  The department of natural resources shall contract to assist its staff with the review of national pollutant discharge elimination system permits.

  8.  The department of natural resources shall expand floodplain protection education to better inform local officials that make decisions with regard to floodplain management.

  9.  The department of natural resources shall continue the establishment of an effective and efficient method of developing a total maximum daily load program, based on information gathered on other states’ programs and investigation into alternative methods for satisfying the requirements.

2000 Acts, ch 1068, §7

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2001 Acts, ch 37, §1, 4