Des Moines Register
03/24/06
Rivers in Iowa among the nation's most highly polluted
PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Look at a map of the nation's water-pollution hot spots, and a state in the middle
stands out.
Iowa.
It's no secret the state has water-quality problems. But a new analysis by The
Des Moines Register shows the state ranks among the nation's highest in fecal
bacteria, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. And those aren't the only problems.
Those pollutants leave the state's rivers with fewer fish, worse stink and more
health-threatening organisms than they would have without the contaminants
flowing in. Iowans must pay more to clean the water headed for their taps and
the sewage headed for their rivers. Fewer people canoe or fish than might if the
waters were more appealing.
The state has enacted new rules to clamp down on sewage pollution, while the
Iowa Department of Natural Resources looks for ways to cut the runoff pollution
that is an even bigger problem. The rules will force improvements at some
sewage-treatment plants. In some towns, monthly bills could go up as much as
$40.
The debate over Iowa's failure to comply with the 1972 Clean Water Act
prompted a key question: Are Iowa's waters worse off than those in other states?
It's a complicated question that defies an easy answer. States often don't test
their water the same way, and environmental conditions vary with geology and
other factors.
By many measures, though, the answer is yes. Research spanning decades
shows that Iowa has some of the nation's most serious water-quality challenges.
Some of the statistics show Iowa's waters are even more troubled than those in
bordering states that also are major grain producers.
In the Corn Belt, Iowa ranks at the top in fertilizer pollution. Iowa streams'
concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus - fertilizer ingredients that speed the
natural death of rivers and lakes - are among the highest in the world, according
to an Iowa State University study.
Des Moines installed one of the largest nitrate-removal plants in the world. For
good reason: The health-threatening compounds caused, in part, by crop
fertilizers register in some Iowa streams at levels 50 percent higher than in the
rest of the Corn Belt, and 18 times the U.S. median.
In some tributaries of the Raccoon River, the main water source for 300,000
people, nitrates are found at levels several times the drinking-water limit.
"Something has to change," said L.D. McMullen, general manager of Des Moines
Water Works.
Look at a U.S. Geological Survey map of the origins of the nitrogen that causes a
summertime "dead zone" in Louisiana's lucrative shrimping grounds, and there
are two states that clearly are the biggest sources. Iowa and its corn-growing
sister, Illinois, account for up to 35 percent of the nitrogen washing down the
Mississippi River watershed, which covers 41 percent of the lower 48 states.
The fertilizer feeds huge algae blooms in the Gulf. When the algae die, the
decomposition leaves deep water without oxygen, killing plants and fish that don't
move on to better waters.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is pushing for change. The state
plans to set new sewage limits with the new rules. The department also is looking
for ways to cut the runoff that accounts for 90 percent of the pollution in streams.
Runoff, especially with fertilizer, leaves Iowa's waters green, fighting for oxygen
and with fewer fish than they would contain naturally. That could cripple a fishing
industry that accounts for $336 million in spending a year, which already is far
lower than in many other states.
Many farmers use less fertilizer than they used to, and Iowa leads the nation in
the installation of grassy buffer strips. Yet farmers each year lay miles of new
drainage pipes. That turns their fields into the equivalent of sink drains that flush
pollutants toward streams before they can be soaked up by wetlands or buffer
strips.
Swim in phosphorus
The U.S. Geological Survey in the late 1990s discovered that the average
phosphorus level in some Iowa streams was triple the U.S. average and 14
percent higher than average levels in the other corn-growing states.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on pollution in small streams in
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska from 1999 to 2001 showed that those in
Iowa posted the top 53 of 675 nitrate readings and the top 44 nitrogen readings.
Nebraska fared worse on phosphorus, with five of the top 10 readings; Iowa had
two.
Nitrogen and phosphorus feed algae blooms that suck oxygen from lakes and
rivers.
Other runoff ingredients are big issues, too, studies show.
Pesticides are found in groundwater across the state, as is the case in many
agricultural areas. The levels are below federal health standards, although
scientists don't really know what happens when we drink small amounts of
several pesticides - a common occurrence in Iowa.
Iowa's waters are cloudier than many others, hampering fish populations and
encouraging the growth of pathogens that could make people sick.
Fecal bacterial levels run many times the level considered safe for human
contact in some rivers. That means waders, swimmers, fishing enthusiasts,
kayakers, boaters, tubers and rafters all are at a bit more risk of getting diarrhea,
a skin infection or worse by getting the water in their mouths or in open wounds.
A volunteer's view
Kristie Reck spent a glorious day last year letting her kids splash in the Rocklyn
Park creek in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale. While she was there, she
pulled water samples as a volunteer in a statewide network.
Fortunately, she had her kids use antibacterial wipes to clean their hands, so the
children weren't at risk of intestinal illness or infections that can come from
organisms in the water.
Later, Reck got the test results. The water was carrying fecal bacteria levels that
were more than 50 times what is considered safe for human contact.
She has also noticed that Walnut Creek, near her home in suburban Des Moines,
smells foul after rains.
Reck said she's seen and smelled worse, including waters polluted by Superfund
sites near Washington, D.C. But she's seen better, including the rivers of South
Dakota, which has sold its streams and lakes as destinations for tourists.
"In Iowa, water is seen more as a resource to be used up and used as dump for
agriculture," said Reck, 37, a native Iowan who lived in several other states. "The
attitude in South Dakota is the waters are beautiful and accessible and you can
see through the water, and there is no odor."
Rocklyn and Walnut creeks are among many that Iowa environmental authorities
target for cleanup.
A fisherman's view
Ryan Maas, a fly fisherman from Iowa City, likes to fish and swim in the
Wisconsin River upstream from the Mississippi River. He's noticed that the water
is clearer than in many Iowa streams, and more protected by buffer strips and
other soil-conservation practices.
"When we canoe the Wisconsin, we get out and swim, we fish. It's more inviting
to do that in that sort of water body that's clean, clear, than in some of the Iowa
streams where you have significant erosion going on, where you have runoff,
where you have fertilizers, pesticides and bacteria."
Bacteria, pathogens
Bacteria levels in streams vary widely with rainfall and land use. However, Iowa
data show the state's rivers routinely carry high levels of fecal bacteria. That
means it is likely organisms that can make people sick are there, too.
For example, the Raccoon River - popular with canoeists and kayakers and a
chief source of Des Moines-area drinking water - routinely has higher readings in
summer than New Orleans did after Hurricane Katrina hit. More bacteria means
higher costs for treatment, and at least a small chance that fun-seekers will get
sick.
Since 1997, the average levels of fecal bacteria in the Raccoon River have been
double to seven times the standard for human contact. The Des Moines Water
Works reported in April 2005 that the Raccoon River at Fleur Drive, near the
water-treatment plant, had never met the swimming standard in eight years of
testing. Fewer Iowans swim in rivers than in lakes, but tubing, kayaking,
canoeing, wading and fishing also expose recreationalists to pathogens.
The streams that feed the Raccoon also carry bacteria at levels that suggest
health risks, according to state and federal standards.
One stretch of Brushy Creek near Dedham on April 12 carried bacteria
concentrations 4,765 times the swimming standard. Last year, Walnut Creek and
the North, Middle and South Raccoon branches had fecal bacteria averages that
ranged from under the swimming limit to 866 times the safe level.
Water treatment kills the bacteria before the water reaches taps. But for people
who fish, swim, wade, canoe or kayak, those levels mean at least a small risk of
illness. For those with suppressed immune systems, the risk can be far greater.
That same stretch posted its lowest reading on July 7 - and still was five times
the limit.
Tributaries of the Raccoon River near Pomeroy last year recorded fecal bacteria
levels 10 times the level considered safe for humans to touch.
The level of bacteria in other states varies. Louisville, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio,
get drinking water from the Ohio River. Bacteria levels were 39 times the
swimming limit at Cincinnati, and as much as 27 times the limit at Louisville.
The streams running into Blue Marsh Lake in Berks County, Pa., met the
swimming limit in the fall of 2001 - when bacteria levels begin to drop off as water
cools - but ran five times the limit after rainfalls, a U.S. Geological Survey study
found. A late-1990s study of Indian Creek in agricultural North Carolina found
levels of up to 54 times the contact limit. Cow Castle Creek, S.C., posted
readings 40 times the contact limit.