Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Steve Veysey

To the Editor:

The Iowa Environmental Council has submitted a Safe Drinking Water Act petition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A cry for help for well owners in NE Iowa drinking unsafe water.

In 1988 the Driftless counties in NE Iowa were just beginning to feel the effects of industrialized agriculture’s voracious appetite to feed emerging ethanol and CAFO industries. Corn-bean and continuous-corn cropping practices exploded.  But in 1988 Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and other Iowa scientists were not yet muzzled. That’s when the study “Ground-Water Contamination and Land Management in the Karst Area of Northeastern Iowa” was published. The first paragraph of the abstract states:

“A statistical analysis of existing northeast Iowa water-quality data showed that systematic nonpoint contamination of ground-water quality was occurring in regional carbonate aquifers… Agricultural practices were judged to be the source of the contaminants.”

Let no one pretend that nitrate contamination of Iowa’s karst aquifers was unknown, the cause was unknown, the solutions to the problem were unknown.  Statements to the contrary by government and industry spokesmen are mendacious. There are dozens of completely on-point Iowa specific research papers dealing with this issue, most published before the academic noose tightened and funding for this topic became taboo.

Nitrate causes cancer. Will the recent revelation that Iowa is second in the nation in cancers and the only state where the cancer rate is increasing be a wakeup call to the public? As much as we reject government intrusion, is it time for the EPA to use their big stick? Do nothing and people die.

Steve Veysey
Protecting Outstanding Iowa Waters
Dorchester