DNR adjusts water restrictions again to prevent river from going dry

The Ocheyedan River in far northwest Iowa in April 2023. (Photo by Jared Strong/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

A rural northwest Iowa water utility will be required to shut down its wells near the Ocheyedan River when its flow is very low, according to a permit recently issued by state regulators.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has determined that several wells operated by the Osceola County Rural Water System have contributed to the river running dry near May City. That has happened five times in eight years.

The DNR put more-restrictive conditions on the operation of the wells last year that did not prevent the river from drying out again in September.

New conditions that were finalized in April are similar but use different triggers. Specifically, when stream flow in the area is less than one-half cubic feet per second, the wells must be idled.

Previously, the wells were required to be shut down separately as their levels dropped.

“That one-half cubic feet per second seems pretty low,” said Ed Jones, an Osceola County supervisor who lives near the sometimes dry section of the river.

Downstream from the area, near Spencer, the river has been flowing at hundreds of cubic feet per second, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

The DNR did not immediately respond to requests to comment for this article.

The water utility has opposed the restrictions, claiming that other factors are responsible.

Indeed, the DNR determined that Osceola County was partly responsible for a 2022 dry-up, when it pumped water from a quarry near the river. That can reduce the amount of water in the ground and draw water from the river. But the county had not dewatered its quarry when another incident happened last year.

The county has agreed to avoid pumping water from the quarry in July, August and September, when the river is typically at its lowest.

The latest permit conditions for the water utility — which serves about 8,000 people and also sells water to a Minnesota utility — require it to photograph the river and document its pumping rates when one of the well levels drops to a certain elevation.

Then the wells must be idled when the river flow is too low at the Verdin Avenue bridge, just northwest of May City.

The special permit conditions are not effective if the river is dry upstream of the well fields, nor if the river is frozen.

Osceola County Rural Water System did not immediately respond to a request to comment for this article.

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