Decades of industrialized farming, pressure from chemical manufacturers and federal farm policy have left many producers relying heavily on pesticides.
But the consolidation of the sector makes it increasingly hard for organizers to push for drinking water regulation. According to experts, local actions need to be paired with more federal regulation to properly address the drinking water nitrate pollution.
The latest findings from a study of drinking water wells and their surroundings finds manure from cows that is stored or spread on farm fields poses the highest risk for certain contaminants.
Iowa is home to two rivers, the Cedar and Iowa rivers, voted as some of America’s most endangered rivers by the American Rivers organization. Over 180,000 people in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area depend upon the Cedar and Iowa rivers for drinking water, according to the organization’s Most Enda
The dead zone may seem like an abstract concept in Iowa, a state more than 800 miles to the north of the Gulf, but for fishermen in Louisiana the destruction is very real. Harmful algal blooms — the explosion of algae due to nitrogen and other pollutants — occur every year all along the coast of the
