Responding to public concern, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has vowed to come up with a solution for cleaning up the pollution in College Creek by the end of the month.

“We committed to submitting a plan to the city in two weeks,” said Jim Stricker, Iowa DNR field supervisor.

Stricker, along with DNR officials from Boone and Story counties, agreed to take quick action to clean up the high levels of fecal coliform bacteria that have made College Creek unfit for human contact in a meeting Monday night at Edwards Elementary School.

Many Ames residents who attended the emotional meeting said they wanted the creek, which runs through the city’s west side, cleaned up as fast as possible, Stricker said.

“I think there was a huge gap between [citizens’] expectations and what we felt we could do about the creek in the short term,” he said. “We moved closer to some middle ground.”

The Ames City Council is also exploring possible solutions to lessen the contamination in the creek, said Herman Quirmbach, Ames City Councilman.

“We didn’t create the problem, but we can play a roll in fixing it,” Quirmbach said.

One of the possibilities the council is exploring would be to extend the city’s sewer lines west of Ames so the four facilities contributing to the excess pollution can have more sophisticated water treatment, he said.

Quirmbach also said the City Council is considering setting up future meetings with the DNR to track the progress of the creek, pumping fresh water into the creek, taking legal action against facilities exceeding pollution limitations and requesting for more permanent danger signs to be posted near it.

Many citizens at the Monday meeting were unhappy with how long the DNR has been aware of the pollution levels in College Creek.

The DNR has known that one of the four facilities contributing to the pollution, the Country Terrace LPM Mobile Home Park, has been exceeding legal limits for bacteria for about 10 years, Stricker said.

He also said DNR officials only recently became aware of pollution coming from the other three violators, Elwell’s Chef’s Inn Restaurant and Lounge, 6400 Lincoln Way, Crestview Mobile Home Park, 5615 W. Lincoln Way, and Hillsdale Mobile Home Park.

Of the four facilities, Stricker said both Country Terrace and Chef’s Inn have been making plans to install better water treatment programs, while Crestview and Hillsdale have no set plans yet.

Quirmbach said he was disappointed the DNR did not inform the city of the problem sooner, and the Ames City Council might also consider establishing a program to have city officials test all bodies of water within city limits instead of relying solely on the DNR.

“It turns out they knew about this problem for a long time, and we didn’t find out about it until recently,” Quirmbach said. “I’m looking to them to make a better response.”

The increased awareness of the pollution in College Creek has forced the DNR take an active approach to the situation, Stricker said.

“It is our job to take care of pollution problems,” he said. “I take the citizens’ concerns to heart, and we’ll try to address some affirmative way to improve the quality of the stream and to increase citizens’ assurance that their public health is not being affected.”