HF 2440 – Clean-up and clarifications to SF 512 (Water Quality funding).
COMMITTEE ACTION:
HF 2440 addresses problems with SF 512. The House made changes to the bill through separate legislation rather than amending SF 512 and sending back to the Senate earlier this session. This allowed the House to approve SF 512 and send it to the Governor for her signature.
These items are included in the bill:
- Allows industries that are required to reduce the nutrients they discharge from their wastewater treatment facilities as a part of the Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS) to access funding to cover a portion of the costs associated with monitoring the discharge.
- Removes a provision that required drainage districts to use money from the water quality infrastructure fund to install edge-of-field infrastructure to improve water quality. The stated reason for removing this provision is to correct an oversight. The language could be construed as a mandate on drainage districts to install edge-of-field structures. That was not intended, since the bill deals with voluntary measures to improve water quality.
- Amends SF 512 to ensure consistency for references to the Iowa Nutrient Research Strategy. SF 512 had created a code section with a definition of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, but that definition was not used consistently in the bill.
- Allows rural improvement zones to be among the government entities that are members of a watershed management authority.
- Give priority funding to projects that improve surface waters on the impaired waters list that are used for drinking water.
- Authorizes an additional two years to use money appropriated in 2015 for a data collection project administered by Iowa State University. The funds can be used to administer education and outreach programs on in-field agricultural practices and their value to encourage adoption of these practices.
- Updates dates in the bill to reflect that the bill was passed in 2018, instead of 2017.
[3/6: 8-4 (No: Dvorsky, Hart, D. Johnson, Lykam; Absent: Bertrand)]