In an analysis released today by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), In Minnesota’s Farm Country, Nitrate Pollution of Drinking Water is Getting Worse, the group's Senior Analyst of Economics Anne Weir Schechinger concludes:
Nitrate contamination of drinking water is getting worse in much of rural Minnesota, an Environmental Working Group analysis of state data found.
Between 1995 and 2018, tests detected elevated levels of the toxic chemical in the tap water supplies of 115 Minnesota community water systems.1 In that period, nitrate levels rose in almost two-thirds of those systems – 72 communities, or about 63 percent. Those water systems serve more than 218,000 Minnesotans, mostly in farming areas in the southeast, southwest and central parts of the state.
EWG’s interactive map shows where nitrate contamination rose during the study period, based on Minnesota Department of Health data obtained under the state’s public records law.
Read the rest and play with the interactive maps here.
As readers might anticipate, the agricultural-industrial complex is pushing back. At the West Central Tribune, Matthew Guerry reports in Nitrate levels on the rise in Minnesota drinking water, group says:
. . . State regulators have taken steps to address nitrate contamination and in September will begin to enforce what is called the Groundwater Protection Rule. It seeks to curb nitrate contamination by restricting fall crop fertilization in fragile parts of the state and preventing the further pollution of already contaminated areas.
In a statement, the Environmental Working Group criticized the rule for not extending the same restrictions to farms located near private wells, and for granting farmers near public wells an "unnecessarily drawn-out timeline" for adopting more environmentally friendly practices. Under the rule, producers near already contaminated public wells will volunteer to comply with best management practices suggested by local-and-state-organized advisory boards. Farms would be forced to comply only if they refuse to implement those practices or if nitrate levels in nearby wells increase.
The soonest that mandatory compliance would be enforced would be in three years' time, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
Minnesota Agricultural Water Resource Center executive director Warren Formo pushed back on the Environmental Working Group's claim that the new rule relies too heavily on volunteerism. The center is made up of 25 Minnesota agriculture producer associations.
"There are regulatory teeth in this new rule," he said.
Farmers make judicious use of water and fertilizer, Formo said, both for the sake of preventing nitrate contamination and to produce savings. . . .
Read both articles and consider your choices in you live in Minnesota. We reported about an earlier EWG report and legislative testimony this year in Environmental digest: nitrates in Minnesota drinking water; beewashing; PFAS in creeks and Check out MN water nitrate presentations Paul Torkelson didn't want shared with subcommittee .
Related posts:
- Growing chemical threat: MN Dept of Health annual drinking water report warns about nitrates
- Land of nitrate-tinted water: Adrian MN only most extreme example in state's groundwater games
- Rep. Torkelson dismisses concerns about nitrates in Minnesota's drinking water
- Paging Rep. Torkelson: City of Fairmont issues water advisory, nitrate levels unsafe for infants
- Going with the flow: fertilizer elevated nitrate levels in Fairmont's drinking water supply
- Free Press: Nitrates in Mankato's drinking water wells will cost Southern Minnesota's Key City
- Randall, MN receives national drinking water award, but some citizens still buy bottled water
Graphic: From the new EWG analysis.
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