Analysis shows Hispanic communities are disproportionately exposed More than 5.6 million Americans are potentially exposed to nitrate in drinking water at levels that could cause health problems, according to a new study.
In this first analysis of its kind, researchers found that water systems with higher nitrate levels also tend to serve communities with higher proportions of Hispanic residents.
"Because at the end of the day, everyone should have access to clean and safe drinking water regardless of your race or where you live."
Nitrate is a drinking water contaminant that can originate from multiple sources including fertilizers, sewage treatment systems, and animal manure.
Using information obtained from state agencies and online databases, Schaider and her colleagues at Silent Spring Institute and Environmental Working Group (EWG) compiled nitrate data for 39,466 public water systems serving more than 70 percent of the U.S. population.
That level is set in order to protect infants from a potentially fatal condition known as "blue baby syndrome," a decrease in the ability of blood to carry oxygen around the body.
"Nitrate is also a good marker for the presence of other contaminants in drinking water," says Schaider.
They also looked at agricultural data including the percent of land used for growing crops and the amount of livestock, since agriculture is a major source of nitrate pollution.
In other words, despite the fact that a large percentage of farmworkers are Hispanic, living in an area with lots of farms is not the only underlying factor, suggesting that other influences are contributing to higher exposures as well.
Living close to other sources of nitrate pollution such as a sewage treatment plant is one potential risk factor, she says.

The first nationwide investigation of potential socioeconomic disparities in nitrate concentrations in US drinking water is reported in the open access journal Environmental Health.
The majority of average nitrate concentrations were below 1 mg/L, the level at which nitrate occurs naturally in aquatic systems.
Dr Laurel Schaider, lead author of the study said: "We hypothesized that Hispanic Americans might have higher nitrate in their drinking water because many US farmworkers are Hispanic, and agriculture is a major source of nitrate pollution.
These results suggest that there may be additional reasons why Hispanic residents in the US have higher nitrate in their drinking water."
The authors suggest that previous evidence of possible health effects associated with nitrate concentrations of 5 mg/L and above in drinking water raises concerns for the 5.6 million Americans served by public water supplies with average nitrate concentrations above this level.
Research article: Environmental justice and drinking water quality: are there socioeconomic disparities in nitrate levels in U.S. drinking water?
Schaider et al. Environmental Health 2019 DOI: 10.1186/s12940-018-0442-6 For an embargoed copy of the research article please contact Anne Korn at BMC.
Environmental Health is a public health journal serving the public health community and scientists working on matters of public health interest and importance pertaining to the environment.
A pioneer of open access publishing, BMC has an evolving portfolio of high quality peer-reviewed journals including broad interest titles such as BMC Biology and BMC Medicine, specialist journals such as Malaria Journal and Microbiome, and the BMC series.
by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

The authors found that 99% of community water systems (CWSs) in the United States do not exceed the maximum contaminant level for nitrate specified by the Environmental Protection Agency (10 milligrams per liter).
Hispanic residents more often lived in areas serviced by CWSs that had average nitrate concentrations of 5 mg/L or above.
Dr. Laurel Schaider, lead author of the study said: "We hypothesized that Hispanic Americans might have higher nitrate in their drinking water because many US farmworkers are Hispanic, and agriculture is a major source of nitrate pollution.
However, we saw these associations even after we adjusted our statistical model to take into account agricultural land use.
These results suggest that there may be additional reasons why Hispanic residents in the US have higher nitrate in their drinking water."
Dr. Schaider added: "Our findings suggest that programs intended to help low-income and small public water supplies may not be adequately assisting communities with higher proportions of Hispanic residents, who are more likely to live in areas with high nitrate and thus may be at greater risk of the associated harmful health effects."
Systems relying on groundwater had higher nitrate concentrations compared to systems relying on surface water and were more likely to have high levels of nitrate.
In order to gain a better understanding of nitrate exposure and whether it may be associated with specific demographic factors, the authors compiled nitrate data on 616,591 samples collected from 39,466 CWSs across the United States between 2010 and 2014.
The authors suggest that previous evidence of possible health effects associated with nitrate concentrations of 5 mg/L and above in drinking water raises concerns for the 5.6 million Americans served by public water supplies with average nitrate concentrations above this level.
More information: Laurel A. Schaider et al, Environmental justice and drinking water quality: are there socioeconomic disparities in nitrate levels in U.S. drinking water?, Environmental Health (2019).

Wells have been around for over 8,000 years.
Water wells are constructed to Minnesota Department of Health’s extensive code and provide a safe and affordable drinking water source.
Their reasoning is because they want to protect the city aquifer from a new well contaminating it.
Out of 118,000 wells drilled in the last 10 years in Minnesota, not one has been documented to have caused contamination to any aquifer.
This is coming from the MDH, DNR and MPCA.
Also, according to MDH, there are over 73,000 wells in various cities in Minnesota, and there has not been one documented case of contamination due to these wells.
Minnesota has been a riparian rights state for over 100 years.
There are also the cost savings to irrigating your lawn.
An average household to irrigate their lawn costs roughly $600-$700 a year on city water.
Pumping the same amount of water out of a private well will cost about $48 yearly in power.

The 220 Benton County residents who rely on the Plymouth Water District for drinking water have a big problem.
In the spring, when irrigation systems activate near the community’s well, nitrate levels rise, like clockwork.
This year, they’re on track to exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s 10-parts-per-million standard for drinking water by June, making 2017 the third summer Plymouth has had to turn to bottled water.
In 2016, the Washington state Department of Health issued a “Do Not Drink” order from June to October for the tiny unincorporated community across the Columbia River from Umatilla.
The district spends about $27,000 per summer on bottled water.
Plymouth draws its drinking water from a deep well drilled in 1922 near a railroad track.
The district has secured a low-interest loan from the state health department but even that brings a significant rate hike.
Delgado theorizes the casing has failed due to age and vibration.
In theory, irrigation water from a nearby farm is seeping in through the cracked casing.
It would go into service in November 2018, meaning Plymouth faces at least two more summers of buying bottled water for its customers.

Iowa Farmers Won a Water Pollution Lawsuit, But at What Cost?.
That leaves Des Moines Water Works, the utility that filed the lawsuit, and farmers in almost exactly the same place they were before they went to court: The utility faces bigger bills to remove farming-related chemicals from the Raccoon River, its source of drinking water, and the farmers still aren’t required to reduce pollution from their farms.
“The court’s ruling noted that this policy issue is left up to the Iowa legislature to resolve, but it didn’t happen this year, so we’re disappointed in that,” says Laura Sarcone, a spokeswoman for the Des Moines Water Works.
In Iowa, 92 percent of them are found in rivers and lakes and came from agriculture and other unregulated sources.
Meanwhile, the two Republican-controlled chambers of the legislature couldn’t agree on how to improve water quality, even though it was a top priority for outgoing Gov.
Kim Reynolds, who will succeed Branstad, said water quality “will continue to be a priority of mine” in next year’s legislative session.
The soybean association and the Des Moines Water Works do agree on at least one thing: the need for more data on water quality to be collected and published.
The utility, of course, is keeping close tabs on the level of nitrates in the Raccoon River.
Heavy rains have diluted the nitrates, and Des Moines only used its nitrate-removal system 65 days last year.
In May 2016, the level of nitrogen in the Gulf of Mexico was 12 percent higher than the average over the previous 25 years.

REPORT: Nearly One in Four Americans’ Drinking Water Comes from Untested or Contaminated Systems.
“America is facing a nationwide drinking water crisis that goes well beyond lead contamination,” said Erik Olson, Health Program Director at NRDC and a report co-author.
We take it for granted that when we turn on our kitchen tap, the water will be safe and healthy, but we have a long way to go before that is reality across our country.” “Threats on Tap: Widespread Violations Highlight Need for Investment in Water Infrastructure and Protections” found nearly 80,000 violations impacting drinking water systems in every state, but under-reporting and lax enforcement could mean the number of violations is much higher.
Trump’s Cuts to EPA’s Budget Would Make it Worse for Rural America President Trump’s proposed budget for the EPA would make our failing drinking water system worse.
NRDC’s report shows that even at its current level of funding, the EPA and states are doing an inadequate job of monitoring, testing, and enforcing safe drinking water laws.
The Trump budget also proposes to eliminate all $498 million dollars in funding for rural drinking water and wastewater systems from the Department of Agriculture.
Small systems have the highest percentage of water violations, and it’s largely due to financial and technical capacity issues that will only get worse when the EPA cuts drinking water programs,” said Mae Wu, Senior Attorney with NRDC’s Health program.
Beyond regulated contaminants, which are the focus of this report, many more unregulated contaminants are also found in drinking water.
The EPA has not set a single standard for a new drinking water contaminant since the law was amended in 1996 to change the way new contaminants are regulated.
Safeguarding our Tap Water Investing and improving infrastructure and enforcing the drinking water laws are solutions that will make a difference.

Pescadero High School’s water has again exceeded the maximum contaminant level for nitrates, forcing the district to revise the corrective action plan for improving water quality it planned to send this month to the State Water Resources Control Board.
Those included treating the water or connecting to County Service Area 11 and using bottled water in its kitchen for cooking and food preparation.
But last week, test results showed that nitrate levels had again exceeded the maximum contaminant level.
The results mean La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District Superintendent Amy Wooliever will “have to revise the revised revised” plan to reflect the high nitrate levels before submitting it to the state, she said at Thursday evening’s school board meeting.
But the new test results and revised plan won’t result in substantially different day-to-day operations for the school, Wooliever said.
The school had been using an elaborate system of pipes, tubes and bottled water in its kitchen to wash dishes to avoid using its well water.
Before the new tests, the corrective action plan listed replacing bottled water in the kitchen with a nitrate removal system.
The school has no plans to cease using bottled drinking water throughout the school, which it has done for around 15 years.
The plan also proposes constructing a new well on the southwest corner of the high school property, to replace the current faulty well that had been at the site before the high school was constructed.
In January, the district governing board gave the green light for staff to begin pursuing state funding for the new well, which could serve both the school and a new fire station that has been proposed for the site as well.

Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector.
The International Conference will take place in Bucharest, Romania, between 10 and 11 of May 2017 at the Radisson Blu Hotel, and will include also a two-day technical field visit at project sites and in the Danube Delta and its surroundings, between 12 and 13 May 2017 (for the registered participants) focusing on nutrients reduction investments implemented in Romania as well as on eutrophication in Danube Delta.
The Conference will also offer the opportunity to exchange ideas, best practices, as well as to create links among those working at “grassroots” level, decision makers and donors for the reduction of nutrients pollution across the world.
Nutrients pollution control is a very important topic regarding water quality.
Sustainable agriculture practices, the use of manure and other nutrients as an important resource for soil enrichment have to comply with long-term environmental goals regarding water quality.
The Nitrates Directive is the main tool at EU level for water pollution control from agricultural sources in all European countries.
Implementing efficient and sustainable agriculture practices for farmers, combined with strict control procedures for water pollution with nutrients can achieve this goal.
The key topics of the Conference are: Agricultural practices, water pollution and global nutrients control actions, Development of sustainable communities and challenges of nutrients management, Nitrates pollution control – smart solutions for environment and agriculture, Specific issues regarding nutrients pollution on the Danube River and the Black Sea in the framework of Nitrate Directive, The EU Nitrates Directive – implementation and monitoring provisions.
Contact information n/a Event type Conference File link http://iwlearn.net/events/blue-waters-and-green-agriculture-romanian-challenges-and-perspectives-in-nutrient-pollution-control Source iwlearn.net Geographical coverage Romania, Address n/a Organizer
Target audience International Period [10/05/2017 – 11/05/2017] Status Confirmed Working language(s)

Kelsey Kremer/The Register Des Moines Water Works will not appeal a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the utility’s lawsuit against 10 northern Iowa drainage districts over high nitrate levels in the Raccoon River. The Water Works Board of Trustees unanimously made the decision Tuesday, ending a more-than-two-year legal battle. “Central Iowa will continue to be burdened with expensive, serious and escalating water pollution problems,” Water Works CEO Bill Stowe said in a news release. “The lawsuit was an attempt to protect our ratepayers, whose public health and quality of life continue to be impacted by unregulated industrial agriculture.” Des Moines Water Works filed a federal lawsuit in March 2015, claiming drainage districts in Sac, Buena Vista and Calhoun counties were funneling high levels of nitrates into the Raccoon River, a source of drinking water for 500,000 central Iowa residents. The board agreed to spend $1.35 million to pursue the lawsuit. “The board views these resources would be better spent finding other avenues to pursue environmental protection rather than legal action, like trying to affect public policy through lobbying,” Stowe said. The lawsuit contended that drainage tiles used to make farmland more productive were short-circuiting natural conditions that otherwise keep nitrates from entering streams and rivers. The utility sought damages and penalties for the costs it incurred removing nitrates from central Iowa drinking water. Water Works said it spent $1.2 million to operate its nitrate removal equipment in 2015. It also sought to have…