Flood didn't bring 'toxic soup,' environmental expert says

By Rod Boshart
The Gazette
rod.boshart@gazettecommunications.com

DES MOINES — Flooded areas of Iowa faced isolated and short-term water quality and sediment problems, but nothing like the "toxic soup" that some feared, a state environmental expert said Thursday.

Mary Skopec, supervisor of the state Department of Natural Resources' watershed monitoring and assessment section, said elevated bacteria and other potential health risks last June were washed away by record water levels in bloated Iowa streams and rivers.

"The good news is that a lot of the floodwaters helped to dilute contaminants in the water and in the case of sediment we really weren't seeing very high levels," said Skopec, who discussed water quality issues with the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission's agriculture and environment task force.

"We really didn't see sediment levels of contaminants that were at a public health risk in any way, shape or form. In most cases we were nowhere near that maximum allowable concentration," she added.

"The media talking about toxic soup was a little overblown," Skopec told task force members. "There was so much water and the dilution was so high that we didn't actually hit levels that were of a public health concern."

The DNR water expert said high levels of bacteria were noted in the Cedar River below the city's flood-impacted wastewater treatment plant, and residents were urged to stay out of the water until the problem subsided.

Skopec said follow-up water testing has indicated bacteria levels statewide are back at normal and acceptable levels.

Throughout the flood monitoring process, she said, only one sample in 22,000 analyte results for sediment found lead at a level that exceeded state guidelines in a non-residential area of the Des Moines River downstream from Des Moines.

Skopec noted there were other "isolated hits" where a few chemicals were detected at levels that exceeded government standards or didn't have state or federal standards, but they were so short-lived they did not pose a public health issue.

"In general things looked pretty OK with respect to exposure through either ingestion or skin contact," she said.

Task force members who are pushing for a complete flood plain mapping of Iowa were told the process likely will cost about $23.3 million and take up to 10 years to complete.

Task force co-chair Brent Halling said a 10-year timeline "isn't going to sell," and Skopec said the process should using risk-based assessments rather than past flood experiences in creating new maps that account for Iowa's changing hydrology.

DNR official Lyle Asell said about 8 percent of Iowa is flood plain. Currently, about one third of Iowa's 99 counties have no flood plain maps for their unincorporated areas, while the remainder have partial to full coverage but the quality and detail of their flood maps are poor.

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Residents, officials frustrated over pace of flood recovery

CEDAR RAPIDS - Council member Pat Shey is mild-mannered enough. So when he turns testy, it's time to ask why.

Shey launched off last week when the speechifying by a couple of his council colleagues dragged out the start of the City Council meeting for more than an hour before the council even got to its agenda.

"If we all decide we're going to blab about everything we know about everything, then we're not using our time together very effectively," Shey said Tuesday. "... My frustration is that we're not being as productive as we should be at this time. ... Otherwise it's going to be like a kids' soccer game where there's a lot of kicked shins and not a lot of forward progress."

Impatience with the City Council and City Hall is coming from outside as well.

Don Karr, owner of Affordable Plumbing and Remodeling, is one of the founders of Cedar Rapids Small Business Recovery. Some of the group's flood-hit members crowded the City Council meeting a week ago to press their case for the council to release the final $2 million of a $3 million city commitment to a local Job & Small Business Recovery Fund.

The council agreed, though the group still has its concerns about City Hall.

"We got our group going is for one major reason: It is because we think they're not making decisions," Karr said Tuesday.

Karr pointed to council member Justin Shields, who at one point at last week's council meeting turned to the small-business owners in the audience and pleaded for their help. Shields has been pushing, unsuccessfully, for his council colleagues to hire their own policy adviser to help the council sort through the issues related to flood recovery.

"He kind of let the cat out of the bag," Karr said of Shields. "There's no leadership, and they're not making decisions that need to be made as a group."

Chuck Swore, a former council member who was defeated for the District 4 council seat last fall, is heading a Developers Council in the city, and he, too, said his group continues to be frustrated by the City Council and City Hall.

In particular, Swore said the Developers Council is upset by what it thinks are impediments erected by City Hall that slow the effort to rebuild homes and businesses.

"The city still seems to be in the regulation mode rather than the assistance mode," Swore said. "Now is not the time to worry about regulating. Now is the time to worry about helping."

Swore, whose former council district includes the heavily flood-damaged Time Check Neighborhood, also is impatient with the council's reluctance to identify and buy out homes that he said cannot be rebuilt.

"Let's get a clipboard and walk through the neighborhood, and we'll agree which structures can't be rebuilt," Swore said. "And we can go to the Czech Village area and Rompot and do the same."

Scott Olson, a commercial Realtor who lost a close race for mayor in 2005 against Kay Halloran, on Tuesday said it was "scary" how flood-damaged businesses are "quietly" leaving the city. He called it a "triple whammy" — flood damage, fewer companies and jobs, and higher taxes on the horizon because of lost businesses. Some businesses, he added, are relocating in the metro area with the help of incentives.

"Who in the city government is protecting our borders?" Olson asked.

Olson said City Hall needed to create an aggressive program committed to getting flooded businesses back in business in Cedar Rapids.

"The City Council: I know them all well. They're working hard. But they continue to fiddle while Rome burns," he said.

Shey said that some measure of upset would be the rule no matter who was on the City Council.

The needs are many and the funds limited, and so groups are going to be unhappy, Shey said.

Into this climate of frayed nerves and growing impatience have come questions about 71-year-old Mayor Kay Halloran nodding off at council meetings.

Shey had little time for the matter, saying the attention doesn't capture all the work the council is doing or the role the mayor plays — one of nine votes — in the city's council/manager government.

"She puts in a full day," Shey said. "She's said all along, 'I'm one of nine.' If she nods off once in a while, is that really impacting how the body works as a whole? I don't think it does."

HERE