UCS send EPA and HSS warning about nitrates in drinking water

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and over 80 other organizations sent a letter to the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take emergency actions to protect drinking water and waterways from industrial agriculture’s widespread nitrate contamination.

Dr. Stacy Woods, a co-author of the letter and the research director for the Food and Environment Program at UCS, said “Nitrate in drinking water is a serious public health problem linked to cancer and other health impacts, and we know agricultural practices like excessive fertilizer use and poor manure management are largely responsible.”

The letter explains how nitrate exposure is harmful at far lower levels than the current federal safety threshold. Even people drinking from regulated water systems can be exposed to dangerous levels of the chemical linked to increased risk of colorectal, ovarian, bladder and other cancers, premature childbirth, and central nervous system birth conditions in children such as spina bifida.

Rural communities are especially affected by nitrate pollution because intensive agricultural practices are the primary sources of elevated nitrate levels in groundwater, according to the letter. Evidence shows Iowa at the forefront of the crisis, with both public water systems and tens of thousands of private wells posing substantial dangers to state residents due to highly elevated nitrate levels.

However, the crisis is not geographically limited to rural areas, as farm runoff makes its way to downstream communities and large urban areas. One in 5 Americans drink water with elevated levels of nitrates, according to a recent report.

The letter requests that the EPA and HHS exercise public health emergency authorities “to identify and eliminate sources of nitrate pollution affecting drinking water and provide funds to communities to reduce nitrate levels in finished drinking water.”

To date, the EPA has not responded to a 2024 petition calling for emergency action in Iowa under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The letter calls on the EPA to act on the pending petition, prohibit the expansion of intensive agricultural practices in contaminated areas, and investigate state regulatory failures.