Petition submitted to EPA for drinking water

The Iowa Environmental Council has submitted a Safe Drinking Water Act petition to the EPA. A cry for help for well owners in NE Iowa drinking unsafe water.

In 1988 the Driftless counties in NE Iowa were just beginning to feel the effects of industrialized agriculture's voracious appetite to feed emerging ethanol and CAFO industries. Corn-bean and continuous corn-cropping practices exploded. But in 1988 DNR and other Iowa scientists were not yet muzzled. That’s when the study "Ground-Water Contamination and Land Management in the Karst Area of Northeastern Iowa" was published. The first paragraph of the abstract states:

“A statistical analysis of existing northeast Iowa water-quality data showed that systematic nonpoint contamination of ground-water quality was occurring in regional carbonate aquifers … Agricultural practices were judged to be the source of the contaminants.”

Let no one pretend nitrate contamination of Iowa's karst aquifers was unknown, the cause was unknown, the solutions to the problem were unknown. Statements to the contrary by government and industry spokesmen are mendacious. There are dozens of completely on-point Iowa specific research papers dealing with this issue, most published before the academic noose tightened and funding for this topic became taboo.

Nitrate causes cancer, according to multiple studies. Will the recent revelation that Iowa is second in the nation in cancers and the only state where the cancer rate is increasing be a wake-up call to the public? As much as we reject government intrusion, is it time for EPA to use their big stick?

Steve Veysey

Ames