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Went back to my hometown in Iowa after 8 years, and the river I grew up swimming in is gone
I grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa and swam in the Cedar River every summer as a kid. Went back last month for my cousin's wedding and the same spot where we used to jump off the rocks is now just dry, cracked mud for maybe half a mile. The drought plus the city pulling more water upstream has basically killed it, and a guy at the bait shop told me the river has dropped almost 4 feet since 2016. How do you even start fixing something like that when the water just is not there anymore?
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young.ryan1d ago
Man, that is rough. Eight years and the whole thing just dries up, that has to mess with your head a bit. When you were back there did you ask anyone if it comes back at all after a wet spring, or is it looking like a permanent thing now? The 4 feet number is what gets me, that is a lot of water to just vanish, and I am curious who is actually in charge of deciding how much the city can pull vs how much stays in the river. Seems like fixing it would mean somebody upstream giving up something, and that never happens easy.
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