Water officials want Des Moines metro property owners to rethink their lawn watering plans now to help avoid a second consecutive summer ban amid the area’s ongoing nitrate crisis.
Why it matters: Many irrigation systems are serviced in early spring, setting automatic watering schedules that are often unnecessary or excessive for the rest of the lawn season.
- It becomes harder to temper demand once the schedules are in place, Central Iowa Water Works executive director Tami Madsen tells Axios.
Driving the news: Nitrate levels of the untreated water collected from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, the two main sources of the metro’s water, have for weeks hovered at or above a federal nitrate maximum level of 10 mg/L.
- It’s unusual for nitrate removal facilities to run in the winter, but this year’s started on Jan. 6 to ensure safe drinking water.
State of play: Nitrates are tasteless, naturally occurring compounds that can become harmful to human health when levels in drinking water are too high.
- Fertilizer and animal waste runoff have contributed to the problem, and the metro has been dealing with high levels for decades.
- Periods of warm weather in recent months likely contributed to higher nitrate levels.
Stunning stat: Nitrate removal can cost the metro up to $16,000 a day.
The latest: High nitrate levels reached early in the year have foreshadowed continued high levels throughout the year, John Lawrence, an emeritus professor at Iowa State University, tells KCCI…