July 30-1050-Maggie Norton

Department of Sociology
Water scarcity in a water-rich state: Northwest Iowa’s groundwater
challenges and the potential for collaborative governance
Maggie Norton
J. Arbuckle
Sterling 3 | 10:50 AM
Water Resource Assessment and Management
July 30, 2019

Mae Davenport Bonnie Keeler Kate Brauman J. Arbuckle Ray Arritt
Center for Changing Landscapes Institute on the Environment Institute on the Environment University Extension Department of Agronomy
University of Minnesota University of Minnesota University of Minnesota Iowa State University Iowa State University
Amelia Kreiter Maggie Norton
Natural Resources Science and Management Rural Sociology and Sustainable Agriculture
University of Minnesota Iowa State University

1. Map risks to water availability for agricultural and non-agricultural water uses
and values.
2. Evaluate how stakeholders’ risk perceptions align or misalign with water
supply projections.
3. Understand agricultural producers’ water values, beliefs, and risk perceptions.
4. Engage diverse water users and decision makers in exploring shared water use
and governance frameworks.
Project Objectives

Project Objectives
4. Engage diverse water users and decision makers in exploring shared water use
and governance frameworks.
A governing arrangement where one or more public agencies directly engage non-state
stakeholders in a collective decision-making process that is formal, consensus-oriented,
and deliberative and that aims to make or implement public policy or manage public
programs or assets.
Ansell & Gash (2008)
Collaborative governance

Straight River Groundwater Management Area
Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area
Northwest Iowa
Study Areas

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Park+Rapids,+MN+56470/@46.9681024,-95.2304058,31964m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x52b79414ed5d4ec9:0xc1b968054fc408e0!8m2!3
Imagery ©2018 Google, Map data
Starbuck - Google Maps
Imagery ©2018 Google, Map data ©2018 Google 2 mi
Starbuck

Increasing livestock in NW Iowa
Iowa Geodata: Animal Feeding Operations, IDNR, 2018
44%
animal feeding
operations

Increasing livestock in NW Iowa
USDA-NASS Census of Agriculture Data
3.5 4.0 3.9 4.0
15.3
19.2
20.4
22.7
11.6 11.3
33.4
25.3
0.9 1.3 1.3 1.45.5 7.1 7.2 8.27.8 6.8 14.0 6.1
2002 2007 2012 2017
Head Count
(millions)
Cattle Hogs Poultry
TotalNWIA
Cattle = 34%
Hogs = 36%
Poultry = 24%

50-90%
VOLUME
Iowa Rural Water Association (2013)
Rural Water Systems Territory Map

Exposing vulnerability
2012 Drought
• Decade prior, coolest and
wettest since the late 1800s
• Worst drought since 1988
• Production wells cycled on
and off to allow recovery
• Near crisis to supply animal
daily minimum water
Shallow: Alluvial aquifers
Deep: Dakota aquifer

2. Evaluate how stakeholders’ risk perceptions align or misalign with water
supply projections.
Project Objective
Research questions
• Do key stakeholders have similar perspectives on water availability
within NW IA?
• What is their level of concern?
• What influence does water availability have on planning?
• Are they prepared for drought?
• What are their views on water governance and policy?

Methods
• Purposive and snowball sampling
• In-depth, semi-structured interviews
• Face-to-face and phone
60
Water suppliers: rural water systems, city systems
Livestock associations
Government agencies
Livestock producers: hogs, cattle, poultry
Industry: livestock & dairy processors, service providers
Environmental advocacy groups
Participant Density

Emergent themes
Stakeholders have various levels of awareness and concern
about current and future water availability in NW Iowa.
Rural water systems (RWS) face three barriers in their ability to
plan for the future: uncertainty, infrastructure costs, safety net
expectation.
There is a lack of coordination and communication between
stakeholder groups.

Emergent themes
about current and future water availability in NW IA.
HIGH
MODERATE
LOW
Government agencies
Rural water systems
Livestock producers
Livestock associations
Industry

HIGHAwareness and concern
“If we have a situation where the water dries up, there’s no way we’ll be able to truck
enough water in for those animals, and no way to truck all of those animals out.
If the water runs out, the public will ask the rural water systems, 'Where's my water,'
then they'll go to the state and say, 'How could you let this happen?’”
Chuck Gipp | Director, Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Iowa Rural Water Association meeting on water scarcity planning (12FEB2018).
“[2012] was a nightmare…. We were pumping 24/7. We could see the water levels in our
wells going down…. We told the farmers to start trucking the water if they could-
marketing their hogs at a lighter weight….If you empty out a barn, don’t refill it. We’re
not going to guarantee that you’re going to get water. People come before pigs. People
that own pigs don’t necessarily see that. And I get it- I get it. It’s tough.”
RWS #6

“Here’s the drought, blazing down on us…. And the crop guys have crop insurance to hide behind to help protect them and shield them from
the drought. We really had nothing for that. So those really got to be really interesting discussions….how do you tell a farmer that
you’re going to dehydrate their livestock or animals? Fortunately, we never had to come to that point, where somebody had to pull
the lever of which way the train goes. And I don’t think it ever really got resolved to be honest. It’s like- it started to rain, the aquifers filled
back up and everyone went, ‘Phew!’ and life went back on.”
Livestock Association #5
Farm News | Fort Dodge, IA
HIGH

Awareness and concern
“And [the 2012 drought] was the kind of thing that also really told us where our problem
areas are. It wasn’t so much the issue of having the water, it was getting it out there. Our
issue was really the distribution- of having big enough lines to get it out there.”
RWS #5
“If we're in an area where there's issues finding enough water maybe we just need to be a
little more cautious on further major livestock expansion. Maybe it needs to be looked into
a little bit more and stuff because I mean, if you've got a problem there's no sense making
a situation worse than it already is.”
Livestock Producer #2
MODERATE

Awareness and concern
“I feel that it's probably good that [water availability] is on the radar, but realistically, you
look around the country and- I don't know… This will be the last place we have to think
about losing our water.”
“To be honest, the first time I’ve heard of the drought situation [2012] or water scarcity as
an issue was when you brought it up.”
Livestock Association #3
“I sent the questions to the associate sourcing manager that deals with the dairies the
most and she gave me a pretty direct and short answer: ‘We do not discuss any water
related questions or issues with our dairy farms. It does/has not been a concern in our
area.’”
Processor #1
LOW

Emergent themes
about current and future water availability in NW IA.
Rural water systems (RWS) face three barriers in their ability to
plan for the future: uncertainty, infrastructure costs, safety net
expectation.
There is a lack of coordination and communication between
stakeholder groups.

Barrier | Uncertainty & Infrastructure cost
“We spent a pile of money on that one day a year. It’s a moving target. What’s good
enough? Do you need 1000 gal/min above regular load? We all live with [weather
variability] each and every day. We can have treatment going 24 hours a day and have the
same conditions for five days and we’re like [crosses fingers].”
RWS #10
“Something our board really struggles with is, ‘Who’s going to pay for this?’ Ya know, well
these original users, the smaller guys, really shouldn’t have to shoulder the burden of up-
sizing for the big livestock facilities. There’s a balance there. So, ‘Who’s going to pay for
it?’ is what it comes down to. We know what needs to be done, but how are we going to
finance it?”
RWS #5

Barrier | Safety net expectation
“On a day when your well goes down...I hook [the tank] up and run it through the hydrant
here to let gravity flow down there. But, if you have rural water and it’s Saturday
afternoon, you don't have to call the plumber or anybody to fix somethin’... You just turn
on rural water. It's kind of a no brainer….It'd be nice for everybody to have the
opportunity to hook up to rural water, for safety.”
“[Systems] have to have source and treatment to meet their peak day demand….So it’s a
real challenge when they’ve got these emergency connections because they have to build
to meet that….They’ve already put the cost in on the source and treatment side and
piping side but they’re not getting any income from that….[W]e’ve encouraged the RWS’s
to do user agreements…so that if [producers] enlarge, they have to come back and say, ‘I
need to increase my contracted amount.’ And that gives the RW an opportunity to say,
‘Yes we can provide that- No, we can’t.’ Rather than, all of a sudden- get to…June, July,
August when water is needed everywhere and finding that this person has increased his
livestock.”
Government agency #2

Lack of coordination and communication
“We have an annual meeting every year where everybody is invited.…Of those that do
show up- I’ve blatantly asked the question, 'You all received a newsletter a month ago-
how many of you read it? Just be honest with me.’ Less than half the hands go in the air.
Ya know, they don’t pay attention, they don’t care. So to communicate with our
customers, the only time I hear from them is when something is wrong or they need
something more.”
RWS #6
“DNR gets an application for every livestock producer that’s going to build. That
information never gets to a RWS. I don’t understand why a livestock producer can put
down on a piece of paper that they’re going to get water from [a RWS] without ever
talking to them or getting any acknowledgement that that water is available.”
Engineer #1

What does this mean for collaborative governance?
Regardless of awareness level:
• Eagerness and willingness to participate and learn.
Collaborative efforts:
• The core stakeholders are concerned: water users, suppliers,
and regulators.
• DNR organized a follow-up meeting at the IRWA annual
meeting in February with a good turnout of RWS managers.

Next steps
Drought
Tournament
National Drought Mitigation Center will facilitate
stakeholder collaborative planning process
• Interview and survey data will inform process
Stakeholder
Analysis
• Evaluate levels of involvement, interest, influence, and
impact, for each stakeholder group.
• Create actor-linkage matrix to understand communication
patterns between groups.
(Reed et al. 2009)

Maggie Norton | norton@iastate.edu

REFERENCES:
Ansell, Chris and Alison Gash. 2008. “Collaborative Governance in
Theory and Practice.” Journal of Public Administration Research and
Theory 18(4):543–71.
Reed, Mark S., Anil Graves, Norman Dandy, Helena Posthumus, Klaus
Hubacek, Joe Morris, Christina Prell, Claire H. Quinn, and Lindsay C.
Stringer. 2009. “Who’s in and Why? A Typology of Stakeholder Analysis
Methods for Natural Resource Management.” Journal of Environmental
Management 90(5):1933–49.
STAKEHOLDERS Interviews
Government
7
IA Dept. Natural Resources
IA Dept. Ag and Land Stewardship
IA Homeland Security & Emrg. Mgmt
Economic Development Group
Water Suppliers
14
Rural water system
City water system
Engineer
Livestock Producers 20
Industry
14
Livestock association
Service provider
Processor
Advocacy Groups
4Environment
Farmer
University/Research 1

1
2
3
4
5
1 2 3 4 5
HighLow
HighLow
Interest
Influence
Subjects –
have a significant interest,
but little influence
Crowd –
have little interest and not
much influence
Context Setters –
have substantial power, but
little direct interest
Players –
have a significant interest
and substantial power Government
Water
SuppliersLivestock
Producers
Advocacy
Groups
Livestock
Associations
Service
Providers
Interest
Influence
Influence/interest matrix adapted from Eden and Ackerman (1998: 122)

July 30-1050-Maggie Norton

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July 30-1050-Maggie Norton