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During a summer that’s featured high-profile nitrate spikes in Iowa waterways and water use restrictions for thousands of central Iowans, hundreds of people gathered in Des Moines this week to listen to discussion about the findings of a comprehensive water study that was commissioned by Polk County.

In what the researchers of the study — called the C entral Iowa Source Water Resource Assessment, or CISWRA, report — said were their top concerns, the report focused on livestock manure management, stream channel protection, land use adjacent to rivers, harmful algal blooms, and waterborne pathogens and nutrients — all of which can affect water quality across the state.

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