“This should be a much higher priority,” said Waseka, who has followed the state’s proposed plan since her well problem.
They point out that the state’s long-awaited nitrogen fertilizer management rule will place farmers’ yields above groundwater protection — and continue to put drinking water at risk.
Every year, farmers plant 16 million acres with corn and soybeans that demand close to 800,000 tons of fertilizer, and state officials acknowledge that some of it is still going to leach into water even if farmers follow the Agriculture Department’s new rules and all the best guidance to prevent it.
Bruce Montgomery, the scientist who helped develop his department’s new strategy, said the proposed rule seeks to address the problem by generating a shared responsibility for water quality, through the creation of local agricultural committees that will educate farmers on best ways to reduce the impact of nitrogen.
Homeowners can choose whether to do something about elevated nitrate levels in their own wells.
Waseka said the nitrates in her well “are not of our making.” Her septic system is new, and she doesn’t use fertilizer on her 65 acres.
But those economics mean “we are growing a system that is not sustainable environmentally,” said Gyles Randall, a retired soil scientist at the University of Minnesota who analyzed the new rules for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, which has questioned its effectiveness.
Pressing farmers to use less nitrogen and apply it at the right time, as the new strategy proposes, will help, he said.
Some even said that in high nitrate areas, they might be forced out of business.