The most recent statewide study of Iowa’s private wells, the Iowa Statewide Rural Well Water Survey Phase 2, found that nearly half of wells had detectible levels of nitrogen, bacteria or arsenic.
Testing on private wells through the Iowa’s Grants to Counties program is recorded in a Private Well Tracking System database maintained by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The database, in use since 2003, also includes information about things like well depth, age, location and constructio
Many Iowans may not know what is in their water because their wells’ water quality is unregulated. Moreover, many well owners IowaWatch spoke with during an investigation this past year in counties across southwest Iowa said they largely were unconcerned about their wells, even though tests revealed
A consumer information booklet produced by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources lists potential contaminants that include nitrate, bacteria, sulfur, fluoride, arsenic, lead and radionuclides, which are carcinogenic radioactive elements that occur as uranium and thorium isotopes decay.
This might be hard to believe but the stuff we flush can affect our drinking water. This IowaWatch Connection podcast expands on a story we first reported in August.
Caffeine and a drug used to regulate blood sugar levels for people with Type 2 diabetes wash down the drain every day to become some of the most common unregulated contaminants in Iowa’s public drinking water, an IowaWatch investigation revealed.
The Fund for Investigative Journalism has awarded IowaWatch’s Lauren Mills a $5,000 grant to support a journalism project in which she will examine Iowa’s water quality. This marks the third time the organization has given an IowaWatch reporter a grant and the second time it has given one to Mills,
Researchers, students and agriculture industry leaders from around the world came to central Illinois this week to attend a conference focused on one of the most basic human needs — water.
IowaWatch assistant editor and data analyst Lauren Mills and Iowa City Press-Citizen reporter Stephen Gruber-Miller were guests on the Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, "Your Town" segment of Jay Capron's morning show on KXIC radio, AM 800, in Iowa City.
That paint-like scum that covers some Iowa lakes every summer isn’t just gross and smelly. People, pets, and livestock coming into contact with or ingesting toxins produced by the algae are at risk to symptoms including skin rashes, gastrointestinal issues and, in high doses, liver failure.
