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Iowa Corn calls on legislature to maintain support for water quality programs

The Iowa Corn Growers Association is urging the state legislature to maintain funding for conservation programs.

President Mark Mueller, who farms near Waverly, says water quality is a polarizing topic that’s not going away.

“But at the same time, it’s an expensive thing. I will give one example from my own farm, I had a wetland installed and it is not cheap. My wetland cleans up the water for roughly 400 acres, and yet it cost almost $300,000 to build.”

He tells Brownfield the wetland would not have been built without cost-share dollars from the state.

“And I can say a lot of farmers would be in the same boat as I am. It takes a partnership of county, state, and federal funding, at least it did in my particular case, to get that wetland built. But as a result, the water is cleaner.”

Mueller says Iowa Corn is also seeking support for all efforts to lower the carbon intensity score of corn-based ethanol during this year’s session, which began Monday.