Water quality falling, treatment costs rising

Iowa's policy to address national water pollution — the nutrient reduction strategy — continues to fail, despite the public relations investment of its many industrial agriculture advocates and many Iowa policy makers.

September 2014 set another record for Des Moines Water Works and our 500,000 water customers. This is the first September, since at least 1974, in which Des Moines Water Works recorded an average nitrate concentration in the Raccoon River above the Environmental Protection Agency's drinking water standard of 10 mg/l.

What does the new September record portend for the coming months? Does it signal the beginning of a record-setting fall and winter for nitrate concentrations? No one can say because of the many complex variables at work, but we can say the new September record is part of an ominous trend and should trigger a serious reassessment of voluntary environmental protection measures for industrial agriculture.

In 2013, Des Moines Water Works suffered record nitrate concentrations in both the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, costing ratepayers nearly an additional $1 million in treatment costs, as well as putting the safety of tap water to consumers at risk. At that time, many leaders of corporate agriculture and state government blamed the weather for the problem. According to them, unusual conditions of drought followed by rain were the culprits.

What will be the explanation this time from the advocates for the nutrient reduction strategy? Weather and other natural conditions are not causing the ever-increasing level of pollutants in our drinking water. Abusive land use, unregulated artificial drainage systems and intensive nutrient applications by industrial agriculture are the root causes that continue unchecked.

At Des Moines Water Works, we have the responsibility for treating source water from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers so our customers have safe, abundant and affordable drinking water, but the task is increasingly difficult and costly. The intensive corn-soybean cropping system that occupies much of our watersheds "requires" massive amounts of fertilizer applications and agricultural tile drainage to maximize yields. Application of unlimited manure from growing animal feeding operations and commercial fertilizer and the ease in transporting these pollutants to our rivers through drainage systems has significantly, and increasingly, degraded water quality.

Until industrial agriculture is no longer exempt from regulations needed to protect water quality, we will continue to see water quality degrade and our consumers will continue to pay.

— William G. Stowe, Des Moines Water Works general manager, Des Moines