Water testing sets record in 2025, with Iowans leading the way

As water quality issues dominated headlines and nitrate levels spiked in central Iowa rivers last summer, the Izaak Walton League of America is reporting a record number of Iowans requested water testing kits in 2025.

Nitrate Watch, part of the Izaak Walton League, reported a substantial surge in nitrate testing kits, with the group distributing more than 2,000 kits nationwide — about half of them going to Iowans.

Nationwide, the organization distributed 2,223 test kits in 2025, a 270 percent increase from the 821 kits requested in 2024. The kits were used to obtain 6,681 nitrate readings.

The water testing, which is largely done by citizen scientists, reports results to the Izaak Walton League’s Clean Water Hub national database.

Nitrate in drinking water is linked to blue baby syndrome when its levels exceed 10 milligrams per liter. Long-term exposure to lower levels could lead to cancer and other negative health impacts, research suggests.

Zooming in on Iowa

In 2025, 60 percent of all nitrate readings the organization received came from Iowa volunteers.

“Iowa has clearly pulled away as a leader” in community engagement, according to Heather Wilson, the Midwest Save Our Streams coordinator who works with the Izaak Walton League of America and its Nitrate Watch database.

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“This is a product of a large existing volunteer base, growing relationships with partner organizations in Iowa, plus a growing awareness among Iowans of nitrate pollution and its impacts,” she said.

Wilson said the Izaak Walton League’s community science and water monitoring programs have been strong in Iowa for years. That work was “reinvigorated” in Iowa after the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ IOWATER program was dissolved by the agency due to funding challenges.

The work was picked up when the League’s Save Our Streams program, a national volunteer effort that trains people to test local waterways.

The uptick in Iowa testing also comes as the state’s largest water quality testing system, run by the University of Iowa, is facing the end of its funding in Iowa, that is set to dry up in July 2026.

Wilson said Iowa has been the largest contributor to the Nitrate Watch’s volunteer-submitted database each year since the database was launched three years ago.

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Why so many tests?

Wilson said 2025 marked an increase in tests requested largely due to nitrate pollution in Iowa making headlines and “becoming an unavoidable part of life for many Iowans.”

Wilson added that Nitrate Watch saw an uptick in requests for testing kits when nitrate was a dominant environmental issue particularly in central Iowa last summer, when Des Moines implemented a lawn watering ban due to high nitrate levels.

She said the uptick is also due to Iowa researchers releasing the Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment over the summer, which provided an in-depth look at central Iowa’s Des Moines and Raccoon river watersheds.

“Nitrate pollution and the Nitrate Watch program itself were in the news more than ever in 2025, and this has been a key driver of engagement,” Wilson said. “Many of the people reached by these stories have requested a Nitrate Watch kit and started to monitor waterways and share data, contributing to record growth in this community science movement in 2025.”

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Here’s how Iowans can take ownership over their water quality

Wilson said that water monitoring can serve as a “jumping-off point” for people interested in deepening their involvement in and knowledge of water quality issues.

“Volunteer stories and data take an abstract concept (like) water quality and make it concrete,” Wilson said. “They provide powerful, tangible examples of how water quality impacts our lives and our well-being and can be used to make a compelling case for why water quality should be a top priority for leaders at all levels.

“A common misconception is that you need to be an expert in order to talk to your lawmakers and advocate for change. This is not true.”

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com