Farming activity contaminates water despite best practices.
CASCO, Wis. – Lynda Cochart did not realize her water was contaminated with coliform bacteria until she contracted MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant skin infection.
Cochart lives between two dairy farms with over 1,000 cows each.
None of the bacteria Borchardt found came from human feces, she said, so the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus most likely came from cow manure.
Many farmworkers who live in these communities still have to pay for the contaminated water coming from the faucet, as well as buying bottled water to drink.
“They contaminate our water, and we, the poor, are paying for water as if we were rich.
But we are paying the price of contaminated water.” The News21 analysis shows that the drinking water of millions of Americans living in or near farming communities across the country is contaminated by dangerous amounts of nitrates and coliform bacteria from fertilizer and manure widely used in agriculture.
A 2012 University of California, Davis, study attributed high nitrate levels in the San Joaquin Valley groundwater to crop and animal agriculture activities based on an analysis of land use and the amount of nitrogen entering the water.
Farmers’ heavy use of fertilizers and manure on their crops account for most of the nitrate found in the studied area.
An Iowa Geological Survey researcher found in 2004 that row crops, such as corn, cotton and soybeans, contributed the most to high nitrate levels in Iowa’s rivers.