Lake Ahquabi State Park from Bob M.: I visited Lake Ahquabi State Park on May 25, 2025.  I arrived at 3:45 p.m.  The day was sunny to hazy.  The temperature was 66 degrees.

Other than a party of approximately twenty people in the shelter just east of the lake’s beach who were gathered for a picnic, there were three children using the beach and wading in the lake’s water.  Two more people, the parents of two of the children, were at the beach, but not in the water.  Further north, about seventy-five yards away, from two to five people were using a dock for fishing.  

I spoke with the couple who were parents of two of the children wading.  They live in Des Moines.  The young father had been to Lake Ahquabi once before, as a boy twenty years ago.  His spouse had never been to Ahquabi previously.  There were no comparative memories of the water and its quality.  

The young man was a fisher and a hunter.  His fishing has been, primarily, in rivers and farm ponds.  He recently had been fishing at a lake in northern Missouri.  When I identified myself as a volunteer for the 48 Lakes Initiative and explained our effort, he told me that the lake in northern Missouri has seemed to deteriorate and that the same seemed to be the case on some of the farm ponds where he has fished.

Both of these people did not seem concerned about their young children being in the lake’s water.  However, they did share concern about water quality in Iowa and did not question the legitimacy of my concern, as evidenced in the 48 Lakes one-page flyer, which I gave to them, as well as the Jones article.

In my time at Lake Ahquabi, about one hour, I observed less than thirty people at or near the beach area.  Only three were touching the water.  It was a nice spring day on a holiday weekend.     

Pleasant Creek State Park Recreation Area, Palo, IA May 24, 2025 from Libby S.: The forecast for the weekend (the likelihood of rain on Sunday and Memorial Day) should have prompted anyone to be at the Pleasant Creek Beach today. Alas, there were only two kids at the beach and in the water at 1:30 PM. Perhaps most were discouraged by the 66 degree temperature. However the adjacent campground was completely full.

Lake Darling from Rich S.:  I used to love swimming with friends at Lake Darling in the '90's. Then "Swimming Not Recommended" signs started cropping up on various days so I was cautious by staying away. Sometimes the DNR's lake testing would state 'safe for swimming' periodically on their website. By 2000 and 2010 there were more E. coli warnings. Algae blooms were more frequent from excess fertilizer nitrogen and phosphorus runoff and CAFO waste discharge.

All this while the state spent millions of dollars draining the lake and publicizing how beautiful the renewed lake would be for the public to enjoy. I also loved kayaking around Lake Darling paddling into the end zone among hanging tree limbs and cattails. But kayaking around 'no swimming' times felt uneasy in the air because of the lakes pollution effects. No fun to be there.

It's all too bad the DNR for years has been powerless lacking strong enforceable regulations and is stuck with inadequate authority to directly mandate changes in agricultural practices. Maybe our strong voices can instigate long overdue changes needed so our legislators can start acting in the public's best health and environmental interests over corporations and special interests wrong doing.

My Lake Darling story is, I used to go up there to swim in the 1980s, as did many others in our community. The water quality started degrading noticeably in the early 1990s and I stopped going there. I was disappointed but not surprised at how the lake’s water continued to slide into unswimmable status, even after the lake was drained and refilled, and millions of dollars were spent on measures to reduce runoff from the lake’s watershed. Most of the lake’s watershed is in Washington County, where CAFOs and widespread application of their manure reigns supreme. Ask the CAFO Industry or the Farm Bureau what’s ruined Lake Darling, and they reply “goose poop.”.

Lake Darling from Patrick B.:

The irony of it all is that this lake was named for Jay Norwood (‘Ding’) Darling, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, who was a lifelong advocate for wildlife rights and conservation.