Stories

Iowa’s rural private drinking water wells “have several contaminant problems, some long-standing and some emerging,” according to the results of a two-year study released last week.

Reversing an earlier decision, Iowa’s three public universities will begin a groundwater-monitoring program at a quarry in Waterloo that they use to dump coal ash.

A 19-year-old who failed classes at the University of Iowa is now the first patient at a new five-acre rehabilitation center for those who suffer from Internet addiction.

Student activists at Iowa State University want their school to alter its coal ash disposal method by the end of 2009, and they began their campaign Monday to make that happen.

Students at Iowa’s state universities say getting their schools to change their coal ash disposal methods will be a priority during the coming school year, and a new organization could make that easier.

Iowa’s three largest public universities have determined that their coal ash disposal method does not pose a risk to the public health, a decision some say was made without sufficient evidence or regard for experiences with contamination in neighboring states.

Officials at Iowa State University will meet with the owners of the site where its toxic coal ash is dumped to discuss possible public health dangers, a move that could lead the school to weigh “the ramifications of changing” its dumping policy.

Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities for Iowa State University, said since new information has come to light, “it was time to touch base again” with the owners of the unlined, unmonitored dump.

The University of Iowa is reviewing new reports on the environmental impact of coal ash and whether the way it disposes of the ash it produces should be changed, the school’s spokesman said Thursday.
Following an Iowa Independent story discussing the school’s method of disposing of coal ash in an unlined, unmonitored quarry in Waterloo, university [...]

When Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources last year began to draft tougher regulations on the disposal of coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal, it faced an enormous backlash. And joining the fight against regulation was the University of Iowa.

As the Des Moines Register reported yesterday, anti-war activists in Iowa City were spied on by at least two law enforcement sources in the lead-up to the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.: a female undercover officer from the Ramsey County (Minn.) Sheriff’s Department, and a confidential FBI informant.
The Register could not confirm [...]