July 2026

Hello friends of the Nishnabotna Watershed! 

It’s the middle of summer here in the Loess Hills  where I live. Everything is green and growing. Life is  exploding. I have no idea how many rabbits we have  here on our little farm, but it’s a lot. The pair of  barred owls that live nearby are raising their young,  and the coyotes are busy getting fat rather than  complaining to the moon about their diet. 

Over the winter, the birds spread seeds around, and  now the feeder itself is disappearing into a thicket of  sunflowers. 

We have more trees here than many places in our  watershed: hills and valleys, and steep draws filled  with downed trees among the oaks, walnuts, and  other hardwoods. We are surrounded by nature in  ways that much of Iowa is not. It’s a little more raw  here.

My wife and I spent the month of June driving to the  West Coast and back to visit family, tent camping  along the way. 

As much as I love it here, it’s always good to see  new horizons and meet new people. That’s the  vagabond in me. I am reminded once again of how  beautiful our country is, and how truly good our  people are. I returned energized and ready to see  my home with fresh eyes. 

Because I live here, what I see are people like  myself: caught up in their own concerns, working,  living, laughing, and crying. Some of us are deeply  concerned about life here in Iowa. 

From my perspective, it seems the threats to our  world are coming faster and in more complicated  ways than ever. Farmers struggled this spring with  high fertilizer costs and worries about future supply  chains, and then, several weeks later, record levels  of nutrient runoff entered our waterways with the  spring rains.

Unemployment in Iowa remains among the lowest in  the nation, while the high cost of living continues to  put pressure on household budgets. 

Underneath all this is a quiet movement, fueled in  part by rising cancer rates and a growing awareness  of our declining water quality. 

Cancer is no longer just a health issue; it has  become a civic issue. 

As cancer rates become increasingly linked in the  public mind to water quality, Iowans are, slowly but  surely, asking where the pollution is coming from  and how we got to this point. 

Over the last several years, organizations like the  Iowa Environmental Council have grown and  become increasingly active in conversations about  water quality and cancer, as well as filing lawsuits  over impaired waters. Our own Nishnabotna Water 

Defenders filed suit in March in a case involving a  fertilizer spill that has garnered national attention. 

Both political parties in Iowa are gearing up for an  election increasingly centered on agriculture and its  relationship to water quality and public health. 

There are many ways to get involved. Start by  visiting our brand-new website,  

nishnabotnawaterdefenders.org, and educate  yourself about what is happening and the ways you  can help. From there, you can branch out to other  organizations that have joined us in this cause. 

Joining these groups and actively supporting them is  perhaps the most powerful way to engage with  today’s concerns. In a world that often seeks to  divide and conquer, there is immense power in  people joining together for good moral causes to  create meaningful change. 

I want to end with this.

In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire. In  fact, it had caught fire at least four times before over  the course of nearly one hundred years. The  Cuyahoga had essentially become a drainage ditch  for the industries of Cleveland and the surrounding  area, industries that provided jobs for thousands of  people and products for a growing nation. 

The cost and disruption of changing manufacturing  practices were considered too great to justify  worrying about what many viewed as a “dead” river. 

Time magazine’s coverage and photographs  awakened America to the environmental  consequences of many of our manufacturing  practices and inspired a nationwide movement for  change. 

Just a few years later, Congress created the  Environmental Protection Agency, and shortly after  that passed the Clean Water Act.

Today, the Cuyahoga River is vastly improved.  People kayak, canoe, fish, and birdwatch along its  banks. The lower stretches are still lined with heavy  industry, but those industries are cleaner now  because of new technologies and practices that  ultimately created better jobs and healthier working  conditions rather than unemployment. 

All of this happened because ordinary people  became involved. They expressed outrage, offered  help, volunteered their time, and gave their financial  support. 

My point is this: 

I believe the New Cooperative spill in 2024 can  become our “Cuyahoga moment” here in Iowa, when  fifty miles of river were devastated in one massive  environmental disaster. That event awakened local,  state, and national awareness that our current  system of industrial agriculture is under increasing  scrutiny. Farmers themselves are often caught in a  difficult position between policies they must operate  within and growing public concerns about water quality, health, and their own economic future. There  is no easy way forward without policy changes and  support.

The difference is this: pollution in Iowa is largely  invisible. You can watch it happen and never realize  it. There is no flaming river. Instead, there are closed  beaches where the water itself may irritate your skin.  The “dead” river often looks much the same as it did  before the spill. 

The evidence is found in the monitoring of our  waters. The science and need is questioned by  some who oppose change, but the water itself does  not lie. Most people know better than to drink directly  from our rivers, and warning signs tell us not to swim  in many of our lakes. The greater tragedy may be  the unregulated private wells that many rural Iowans  depend upon every day. 

The concern and activism growing across Iowa are  real. Five years ago, someone might have joined an  organization because they enjoyed fishing, hiking, or  participating in a neighborhood watch. Today, many people are joining because they have questions  about cancer, water quality, and the future of our communities. 

It really doesn’t take much. Join us. Support us.  Subscribe to our newsletter. Tell a friend. Visit the website and begin educating yourself. Then find a  way to participate that fits your life. 

Iowa is in a difficult place, but the truth is, we already  know many of the solutions. What we need now is  the political and social will to put them into practice. 

Let’s get busy. 

As always, these are my thoughts and my ideas. Now I want to hear yours. 

I have a brand-new email address.

Let’s wear it out. 

keicher@nishnabotnawaterdefenders.org