IOWA CITY, IA — Many of the rural private drinking water wells in Iowa that were sampled in a recent study have the same contamination problems found 20 years ago, a November 16 story in The Iowa Independent said.

Long-standing and emerging contamination problems in the state’s rural wells are the subject of a new study led by the University of Iowa Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, the article said.

The study, Iowa Statewide Rural Water Well Survey Phase 2, followed up on the results of a similar study conducted in 1988 and 1989; it concluded that many of the problems of 20 years ago remain today. It also pinpointed new contamination worries, such as the presence of arsenic in nearly half of all wells sampled.

From May 2006 to December 2008, investigators sampled 473 wells in 89 Iowa counties for bacteria, nutrients, metals, common-use herbicides and insecticides, and herbicide degradates.

Detections of nitrate and bacteria were expected despite efforts to address such contamination, but the presence of arsenic was potentially worrisome, according to Peter Weyer, Ph.D., the study’s lead investigator and associate director for the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination.

“Nearly half the wells sampled had some level of arsenic, and 8 percent of those had a level that could be considered a health concern,” Weyer said.

The study did report some good news: Levels of the commonly used agricultural pesticide atrazine appear to be decreasing, the story said.

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