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« May 20 | May 22 »

Saturday, May 21

Iowa Media Reform Group Up and Running!

by Trish Nelson on Sat 21 May 2005 12:58 PM CDT

Iowa Media Reform Group Up and Running!

Introducing:

IOWANS FOR BETTER LOCAL TV

Blog for Iowa would like to announce the formation of a group of citizen-activists, Iowans for Better Local TV. Check out their brand new website at www.IBLTV.org.

IBLTV is a group of concerned citizens fighting the negative effects of media conglomeration on local communities in Iowa. Part of IBLTV’s mission is to raise awareness and educate Iowa communities on the dangers to democracy and the harm done to people when local broadcast stations are owned by huge corporations.

Some of the problems resulting from corporate ownership include: views tend to be one-sided, reflecting corporate interests and opinions, not those of average Iowans; disappearing local news coverage; loss of civility in the public discourse; and programming which in general does not serve the public interest but instead serves the company’s interests and political agenda.

IBLTV is concentrated in eastern Iowa, but would like to expand. If you live in a community in Iowa within a broadcast area of a local TV station owned by a remote corporation (hint, hint..), contact us at feedback@IBLTV.org. We will be happy to give a presentation to your group about the corporatization of our local media, the harm it causes our communities, and what you can do about it.

Find out more by coming to our next meet-up, Tuesday, May 24, 6:30 pm at the Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room B.

Iowans for Better Local TV (IBLTV)

“ Working to bring civility and public service back to local broadcasting”

Click here to receive action alerts from Rapid Response - Iowa

Leave Comment | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Ottumwa Lagoons Among Iowa's Most-polluted Bodies of Water

by Linda Thieman on Sat 21 May 2005 04:46 AM CDT

Ottumwa Lagoons Among Iowa's Most-polluted Bodies of Water

by Carly Schuffler, KTVOTV3.com

Why wait for Bush to destroy the nation's water with sewage dumping? Iowa is already doing it!

(Ottumwa) The lagoons add beauty to Ottumwa's parks; but look a little closer, and you may be surprised at how dirty they are.

"They are among the worst in the state that are in cities," said Ottumwa City Administrator Steve Rasmussen.

Several factors contribute to the lagoon pollution. Possibly the most-obvious source of pollutants is the city's combined sewer overflows. "All storm water, all waste water, both domestic, residential and commercial, industrial goes into one pipe, and when the sanitary sewer is overloaded it'll overflow into, in this case, the Ottumwa lagoon," said Ted Payseur of Veenstra and Kimm, Inc.

Believe it or not, raw sewage discharge in the lagoons isn't the biggest problem. Chlordane, a dangerous pesticide outlawed in the 80s, is in the water, in the silt and in the fish.

"This insecticide gets into the environment and ends up settling in the sediment in the lagoon and unfortunately it's half life is decades long," said Payseur.

Also high levels of nutrients, like phosphorus and nitrogen, trickle in from farm fields and fertilized lawns.

"In the case of the Ottumwa lagoons, Kettle Creek which comes in kind of north has about a 2,300 acre watershed and of course there's a great deal of land outside and some of this has ag contributions," said Payseur.

Nitrogen levels will drop once Ottumwa's sewers are separated, but the DNR has placed the Ottumwa lagoons on a list of impaired properties and initiated a total maximum daily loads (TMDL) process for the city to watch and improve lagoon water quality.

"There's no quick fix for this; the DNR's TMDL process is a process whereby the community will move through a long process to fix it. If we make sure it doesn't get any worse, and work gradually to make sure it gets better, we'll get there. We will succeed at this," Rasmussen said.

(Source)

Leave Comment | Permanent Link | Cosmos

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