Wetlands project hopes to stop nitrate from entering water supply

MANCHESTER, Iowa (KCRG) - In Manchester, a new pilot program with the city and private groups is building two wetlands.

The nearly $300,000 project will offer flood protection. It will also work to prevent nitrate from entering the city’s wells, which officials say is already high.

Manchester City Manager Tom Vick said, “We have a number of tributaries that go into Maquoketa River and if we can accomplish what we think this will do, which will reduce our nitrates then that’s a great example of how we can repurpose and slow things down and stop them getting into our drinking water.”

Vick says the wetland project is one of only a few in Iowa and if it’s successful it could expand outside of Manchester and across the state.

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