Keeping the Tap On: Why We Support the Izaak Walton League's Nitrate Watch

It is hard to name anything more basic than safe water from the tap. Yet this week, across central Iowa, families were once again told to cut back on their water use just to keep the system running.

Central Iowa Water Works issued a Stage II alert, asking the 600,000 people it serves to reduce lawn watering by half. The reason is nitrate. Levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, the region's two main sources, have climbed so high that the treatment plants are running at capacity simply to hold finished water below the federal safety limit of 10 milligrams per liter. This is the same crisis that forced a watering ban in the summer of 2025. It is becoming a pattern, not an exception.

For a foundation with roots in an Iowa farm, this one hits close to home.

What Nitrate Watch Does

The Izaak Walton League of America has been protecting clean water and wild places for more than a century. Its Nitrate Watch program puts the science directly in the hands of ordinary people. The League sends free test strips to anyone who asks, shows them how to sample their local creek, well, or kitchen tap, and gathers the results into a public database that researchers, advocates, and water utilities can actually use.

The idea is beautifully simple. You cannot fix what you cannot see. Nitrate is invisible, odorless, and dangerous, linked to serious risks for infants and to growing concern for the rest of us. By turning thousands of volunteers into a citizen science network, Nitrate Watch makes the invisible visible, one sample at a time. Kit distribution has grown dramatically, and every new tester adds another data point to the case for cleaner water.

Why We Support It

At CHF we look for partners who combine courage, collaboration, and impact. Nitrate Watch does all three. It takes courage to name agricultural runoff as the source of a public health problem in a farm state. It is collaborative by design, built on neighbors helping neighbors. And the impact is measurable in a way philanthropy rarely gets to witness, a steadily growing map of where the water is safe and where it is not.

Half of our board lives on Iowa soil. The water that runs off those fields is the same water our grandparents drank and our grandchildren will inherit. Standing with the League is one way we honor that history while responding to a very present problem.

This week's alert is a reminder that the work is far from finished. We are proud to stand with the Izaak Walton League, and with every Iowan who picks up a test strip and decides to find out for themselves.