Dear Iowa voters: Sorry, but your rivers will remain impaired for a while. You asked for it! Best, Retiring Guy

 

Top headline:  Des Moines Register, 11/5/2024

Bottom headline:  Des Moines Register, 11/14/2024

Iowa utilities treat raw water to meet federal drinking water standards and ensure it's safe for drinking, but nitrate removal is costly. Only a fraction of rural homeowners who rely on wells for drinking water regularly test them for nitrates.  

The EPA criticized the Iowa DNR’s statistical approach to calculating nitrogen levels in rivers used for drinking water — a concern the federal agency noted in its public comments on the state’s preliminary impaired waters list. 

That approach “can work for some pollutants, but not for ones that are known to be toxic, acutely toxic, like nitrate and nitrite in water,” said David Cwiertny, director of the University of Iowa’s Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination. "EPA is saying Iowa should not be using that approach for drinking water sources, because any exceedance is a risk.”

Hope Iowans enjoy cheap Trump groceries while their rivers choke to death on contaminants and their well water become undrinkable.

#trumpresults