The Department and Commission recommended a comprehensive groundwater protection strategy be developed and implemented to address groundwater issues. Groundwater competition concerns were examined to address issues of interference between two wells drawing from the same source and any consequent compensation when one user loses access due to interference. The Department and Commission recommended that interference compensation be provided to a greater degree for small non-regulated users. The law provided protection to small non-regulated users if loss of access to groundwater occurred, but minimized the need for use of the statute by maintaining the water permit review and public hearing process and encouraged communication between the two affected parties prior to involvement of the Commission. The management of alluvial water was identified as a pertinent issue because of the quantity of water withdrawn from alluvial aquifers for use in Iowa.
Alluvial aquifers are shallow, sand and gravel deposits along the state's rivers and streams.
To protect alluvial waters, it was recommended that water use priorities for cutting off use during a drought be established and that activities which may cause contamination to an alluvial aquifer be restricted. The protection of surface water availability was examined by the Department and Commission. Because surface water availability is impacted primarily by the variability of discharge to surface streams, the focus was on the maintenance of flow. The Department and Commission recommended that current practices be maintained with encouragement for more efficient irrigation practices. The expansion of rural water systems in the state, providing increasingly more water to rural water users, prompted two recommendations in the 1985 State Water Plan .