Nebraska Nitrate Problem - Water

[Coyote]

Our Dirty Water
Nebraska’s nitrate problem is growing worse. It’s likely harming our kids.

Nitrogen fertilizer powers the corn’s growth. It also converts to nitrate as it seeps into the soil – right into the Herringers’ water and the drinking water of many Nebraskans. This problem costs serious taxpayer money: Cities and small towns have spent untold millions of dollars treating the water they supply to their residents, struggling and sometimes failing to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water standard of 10 parts per million.

Nebraska has the seventh-highest pediatric cancer rate in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has the highest pediatric cancer rate of any state west of Pennsylvania. High nitrate levels are closely linked to colorectal cancer, according to a leading expert at the National Cancer Institute. They are connected to thyroid disease. They’re associated with neural tube defects, a birth defect of the brain or spine that often kills young children who have it.

[ita]

Our Dirty Water
Nebraska’s nitrate problem is growing worse. It’s likely harming our kids.

Nitrogen fertilizer powers the corn’s growth. It also converts to nitrate as it seeps into the soil – right into the Herringers’ water and the drinking water of many Nebraskans. This problem costs serious taxpayer money: Cities and small towns have spent untold millions of dollars treating the water they supply to their residents, struggling and sometimes failing to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water standard of 10 parts per million.

Nebraska has the seventh-highest pediatric cancer rate in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has the highest pediatric cancer rate of any state west of Pennsylvania. High nitrate levels are closely linked to colorectal cancer, according to a leading expert at the National Cancer Institute. They are connected to thyroid disease. They’re associated with neural tube defects, a birth defect of the brain or spine that often kills young children who have it.

I don't think this article is relevant to this thread, but nonetheless, a very good article bringing to light an issue that I knew little about. Very informative and good read. The state needs to take charge, but hopefully, 'big government' arguments don't get in the way of solving this issue.

[ricko]

I’m glad we have investigative reporting from news outlets like this. Purely anecdotal, but I’ve had relatives in Sarpy County as far back as the 1980’s who would warn me not to drink the tap water while visiting because they suspected that the spike in childhood cancers locally had something to do with the local water quality. Maybe they were right.

[bigredmed1]

Nitrates, herbicides, and uranium are all in the drinking water around the state.

Uranium is seen in the NE part, herbicides in Central Neb, and nitrates are generalized.

[ChadJK]

Most people with well water can tell you as I believe a well water test is required when purchasing a property where the drinking water is well water.

[bigredmed1]

Most people with well water can tell you as I believe a well water test is required when purchasing a property where the drinking water is well water.

Required and the state will test it for you. Good accuracy (UNMC's cancer public health researchers use it).

[Coyote]

No Nitrate Police: State and Local Regulators Can’t, or Won’t,
Stop Our Drinking Water from Getting Worse

The farmer was growing impatient. He folded his arms. Shook his head angrily. He and dozens of other central Nebraska farmers had gathered for mandatory training in Columbus a few weeks before Christmas last year. In response to stubbornly high nitrate levels, the Lower Loup Natural Resources District had designated a slice of the region a “Phase 3 area.” That designation led to a few new requirements – like this training to help farmers manage their nitrogen fertilizer use and reduce nitrate leaching. The farmer didn’t like this. He told NRD leaders that he had been drinking water containing nitrate at 40 parts per million – quadruple the safe drinking water standard – all his adult life. He was fine, he told them.

[Louie]

You missed what the farmer said directly after that:

“I’m gonna go pollute the water,” he told the NRD’s assistant manager, Tylr Naprstek, right before he left, Naprstek recalled."

Charming.

[ita]

Here's the original article source (without paywall) from the Flatwater Free Press. More good reporting from this outfit.

No nitrate police: State and local regulators can’t, or won’t, stop our drinking water from getting worse

[ita]

You missed what the farmer said directly after that:

“I’m gonna go pollute the water,” he told the NRD’s assistant manager, Tylr Naprstek, right before he left, Naprstek recalled."

Charming.

I feel bad for these parts of rural Nebraska. The NRD boards are elected locally, so there is very little incentive and supposedly not tools to regulate fertilizer runoff and corresponding nitrate increases. Here's an example of the type of leadership woes in the Upper Big Blue NRD taken from the article:

At the September board meeting, staff brought in a new University of Nebraska Medical Center study that shows geographic correlation between areas with high pediatric cancer and birth defect rates and areas with high nitrate levels, Rich recalled. The researchers used the NRD’s own data.

The water committee’s chairman John Miller said, “There are some things in there that I personally am not sure are valid.” Miller then quickly ended the discussion on high nitrate and cancer.

[Louie]

You missed what the farmer said directly after that:

“I’m gonna go pollute the water,” he told the NRD’s assistant manager, Tylr Naprstek, right before he left, Naprstek recalled."

Charming.

I feel bad for these parts of rural Nebraska. The NRD boards are elected locally, so there is very little incentive and supposedly not tools to regulate fertilizer runoff and corresponding nitrate increases. Here's an example of the type of leadership woes in the Upper Big Blue NRD taken from the article:

At the September board meeting, staff brought in a new University of Nebraska Medical Center study that shows geographic correlation between areas with high pediatric cancer and birth defect rates and areas with high nitrate levels, Rich recalled. The researchers used the NRD’s own data.

The water committee’s chairman John Miller said, “There are some things in there that I personally am not sure are valid.” Miller then quickly ended the discussion on high nitrate and cancer.

As long as the farmers can use nitrate to increase yields, they will do anything to avoid new regulations...

[ita]

You missed what the farmer said directly after that:

“I’m gonna go pollute the water,” he told the NRD’s assistant manager, Tylr Naprstek, right before he left, Naprstek recalled."

Charming.

I feel bad for these parts of rural Nebraska. The NRD boards are elected locally, so there is very little incentive and supposedly not tools to regulate fertilizer runoff and corresponding nitrate increases. Here's an example of the type of leadership woes in the Upper Big Blue NRD taken from the article:

At the September board meeting, staff brought in a new University of Nebraska Medical Center study that shows geographic correlation between areas with high pediatric cancer and birth defect rates and areas with high nitrate levels, Rich recalled. The researchers used the NRD’s own data.

The water committee’s chairman John Miller said, “There are some things in there that I personally am not sure are valid.” Miller then quickly ended the discussion on high nitrate and cancer.

As long as the farmers can use nitrate to increase yields, they will do anything to avoid new regulations...

Someone in the article suggests free market will help. If farmers knew what is in their soil, they might be persuaded to use less because if they are over fertilizing. I would hope that would be the case, but then they have to pay for frequent testing and consider time spent to do it across acres of soil. Anyway, I don't know if you can regulate fertilizer use out of farming at this point, but give the relevant authorities the powers and tools to regulate. However, you then run into the problem that boards with authority to enforce regulations are locals, likely farmers participating in the same type of practices creating fertilizer leakage into water supplies. The state's regulatory department, NDEE, seems to be understaffed, underpowers, or have turned a blind eye when it comes to manure runoff. It's a vicious loop.