Central Iowa residents and Central Iowa Water Works employees are working to keep the region’s water adequate for human health. Through much of June, they barely succeeded, maintaining nitrate levels slightly below the federal limit of 10 parts per million. Numbers have continued to tick down in recent days.
Is that really the standard to which we’re resigned? Running hugely expensive nitrate-removal equipment for weeks and limiting water use so that drinking water stays a little bit cleaner than a federal standard many argue is too lenient?
Iowa has high levels of nitrates in its drinking water because of manure and chemicals that escapes agriculture operations throughout the state and gets into streams and rivers. Nobody is offering a credible alternative explanation. (Blaming the weather is a non-starter — our current situation, a period of rainfall following a period of moderate drought, is about as routine as it gets.)…