Latest news with #nitrate
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The tycoons behind terrifying cancer-causing water crisis... as contamination spreads to 60M Americans and turns babies BLUE
America's water supply is under attack - not from foreign adversaries or crumbling infrastructure, but the giant factory farms that churn out billions of pounds of cheap meat for profit-obsessed firms. A watchdog warns that producers including Tyson Foods, JBS, Smithfield Foods are behind scary levels of nitrate pollution contaminating rivers, aquifers and reservoirs that supply drinking water to millions of homes. Your browser does not support iframes.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Legislature passes Governor's groundwater protection bill despite criticism it was watered down
Gov. Tina Kotek on May 3, 2023 at the home of Ana Maria Rodriguez, a Boardman resident and Oregon Rural Action organizer, whose well water has nearly four times the safe drinking water limit for nitrate. Kotek was visiting with residents in Boardman, who are concerned that progress on the nitrate pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin has been slow. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) A groundwater protection bill proposed by Gov. Tina Kotek passed its final vote in the Oregon House Friday and will now go to her desk for signing. The bill passed in the Senate earlier this month. Kotek said Senate Bill 1154 will provide long overdue updates to the state's Groundwater Quality Protection Act first passed in 1989, giving state agencies more authority to coordinate and to intervene early in Oregon's contaminated groundwater areas. Since 1989, three critical groundwater management areas have been identified in Oregon. They are all still considered to be in critical condition due to nitrate contamination, almost entirely from agricultural fertilizers and animal manure, and none have seen vast improvement in the last two to three decades. But groups who helped craft and champion the bill earlier in the session pulled support before the bill was voted on earlier this month, claiming Kotek had allowed representatives from polluting industries to take the regulatory teeth out of it. 'The governor's bill started with great potential, and as passed, SB 1154 does make important process improvements for areas with emerging contamination,' said Kristin Anderson Ostrom, executive director of the nonprofit Oregon Rural Action, in a statement. 'However, it fails to learn the most important lesson of the LUBGWMA (Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area) – that political pressure from powerful polluters dictates how agencies regulate those same polluters.' The Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, designated as critically impaired in 1990, has gotten worse under state supervision. A volunteer committee established in 1997 to tackle problems has had little to no impact. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
E&E News
7 days ago
- Health
- E&E News
Study links nitrate-contaminated water and ovarian cancer risk
Further evidence points toward the cancer risk of nitrate in drinking water across the country, studies find, after a link was found with nitrate contamination and ovarian cancer. The study, published in May by the senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Rena Jones, found that of the over 30,000 women examined since 1993 across Iowa and North Carolina, 166 ovarian cancers were identified and their risk was elevated with increasing levels of nitrate in drinking water. Another study conducted by the senior investigator in California found corresponding results. Advertisement 'The motivation is really to try to better understand if long term consumption of nitrates, say through drinking water or diet, is associated with increased risk of many different types of cancers,' Jones told POLITICO's E&E News on her intentions with the study. 'And we have observed positive relationships for a number of different cancers.'
CBS News
13-06-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Near-record nitrate levels in Des Moines, Iowa-area rivers threaten drinking water
Local officials warned more than half a million Iowans in the state's capital city and suburbs on Thursday that near-record levels of pollutants in its rivers could make drinking water dangerous if immediate steps are not taken to reduce demand. But the officials declined to explain what they believe has caused the surge in nitrate levels, which has historically been tied to runoff from farmland draining into Des Moines-area rivers. The water utility, Central Iowa Water Works, issued a first-ever ban on lawn watering for the region after seeing the highest levels of nitrates in the river water since 2013. Federal regulations require a maximum nitrate level of 10 milligrams per liter. The current level being provided to 600,000 customers is 9, local officials said. "If we end up in a space where we're well over that … threshold, we're really going to start worrying about our pregnant women and our children under the age of six months," said Juliann Van Liew, public health director for Polk County. Van Liew warned that drinking water with too-high levels of nitrate could potentially cause birth defects and a condition when an infant's blood doesn't have enough oxygen, commonly known as blue baby syndrome. Tami Madsen, executive director of Central Iowa Water Works, said it is not unusual to see an increase given Iowa's "nitrate seasons," but noted this year has been unusually high. Still, she deferred on an explanation of what is driving the higher rates. "Unfortunately, this is a first, and this is not history that anyone should be proud of," Madsen said of the ban on lawn watering. She urged cooperation. "If we continue on the path we're on today, where people are still choosing to water their lawn over producing water that meets safe drinking water standards, we'll be back here to talk to you all about a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act," Madsen said. Officials made clear the water currently meets regulations and is safe to drink. But while the water utility works to treat the water to reduce nitrate pollutants to a safe level, Des Moines metro residents' demand is higher than the amount they are able to treat. The utility said it has been treating water for 55 days, at a cost of between $14,000 and $16,000 a day. In the past, the high cost to Des Moines and the rest of Polk County has led officials to go to farmers directly, to the statehouse and to court in a tug-of-war with the state's dominant agricultural industry. The officials have long complained that nitrates and phosphorus from farm fertilizers pour off fields, concerned about rivers so polluted that even the utility's sophisticated and costly equipment could fall short in purifying. In 2015, the utility took the issue to court to ask for the millions of dollars it was being forced to spend to filter unsafe levels from drinking water taken from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. A judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit against three northwest Iowa counties, ruling the issue was one for the Legislature to address. The state's Republican leaders at the time lauded the ruling, saying the lawsuit wasn't necessary to improve water quality because farmers and government subdivisions already are taking steps to ensure water quality. The nitrate issue goes back decades and involves a huge watershed area in agriculture-heavy Iowa, said Chris Jones, a retired University of Iowa research engineer trained as an analytical chemist whose research focused on water quality in agricultural landscapes. He also previously worked at Des Moines Water Works. The root cause of the nitrate problem is runoff from fertilizer and manure from agricultural operations, and June 1 is roughly the peak in Iowa, he said. Two new treatment plants have helped, but Jones suggested the long-term situation needs changes in agriculture. "Although the idea that lawn watering is an aesthetic and maybe not needed," he said, "the fact that they're telling people not to use water in this way is a real red flag about the situation with water quality."
The Independent
12-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Near-record nitrate levels in Des Moines, Iowa-area rivers threaten drinking water
Local officials warned more than half a million Iowans in the state's capital city and suburbs on Thursday that near-record level of pollutants in its rivers could make drinking water dangerous if immediate steps are not taken to reduce demand. But the officials declined to explain what they believe has caused the surge in nitrate levels, which has historically been tied to runoff from farmland draining into Des Moines-area rivers. The water utility, Central Iowa Water Works, issued a first-ever ban on lawn watering for the region after seeing the highest levels of nitrates in the river water since 2013. Federal regulations require a maximum nitrate level of 10 milligrams per liter. The current level being provided to 600,000 customers is 9, local officials said. 'If we end up in a space where we're well over that … threshold, we're really going to start worrying about our pregnant women and our children under the age of six months,' said Juliann Van Liew, public health director for Polk County. Van Liew warned that could drinking water with too-high levels of nitrate could potentially cause birth defects and a condition when an infant's blood doesn't have enough oxygen, commonly known as blue baby syndrome. Tami Madsen, executive director of Central Iowa Water Works, said it is not unusual to see an increase given Iowa's 'nitrate seasons' but noted this year has been unusually high. Still, she deferred on an explanation of what is driving the higher rates. 'Unfortunately, this is a first and this is not history that anyone should be proud of,' Madsen said of the ban on lawn watering. She urged cooperation. 'If we continue on the path we're on today, where people are still choosing to water their lawn over producing water that meets safe drinking water standards, we'll be back here to talk to you all about a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act,' Madsen said. Officials made clear the water currently meets regulations and is safe to drink. But while the water utility works to treat the water to reduce nitrate pollutants to a safe level, Des Moines metro residents' demand is higher than the amount they are able to treat. The utility said it has been treating water for 55 days, at a cost of between $14,000 and $16,000 a day. In the past, the high cost to Des Moines and the rest of Polk County has led officials to go to farmers directly, to the statehouse and to court in a tug-of-war with the state's dominant agricultural industry. The officials have long complained that nitrates and phosphorous from farm fertilizers pour off fields, leaving rivers so polluted that even the utility's sophisticated and costly equipment can't keep up with purifying. In 2015, the utility took the issue to court to ask for the millions of dollars it was being forced to spend to filter unsafe levels from drinking water taken from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. A judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit against three northwest Iowa counties, ruling the issue was one for the Legislature to address. The state's Republican leaders at the time lauded the ruling, saying the lawsuit wasn't necessary to improve water quality because farmers and government subdivisions already are taking steps to ensure water quality.
