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The Safe Drinking Water Act turned 50 years old this week. Since it became law, we've learned more about nitrate pollution in drinking water, which can increase the risk of cancer and other serious diseases. Increased use of nitrogen-based fertilizer in farming contributes to this public health problem. The state of Iowa, one of the nation's biggest farm runoff polluters, is investing in a new solution, but critics say it won't have much impact. Emily Haavik from APM Reports has more.
EMILY HAAVIK: The federal government regulates big water-polluters like factories, but it leaves the handling of farm runoff to individual states. In Iowa, the country's top corn producer, powerful agriculture groups like the Farm Bureau, have worked to take regulation off the table. Instead, the state tries to persuade farmers to address pollution voluntarily. One tool embraced by both industry and politicians is the saturated buffer. It doesn't threaten crop production or require changes on fields. During an appearance on the TV show "Iowa Press," the state's agriculture secretary Mike Naig touted its value.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "IOWA PRESS")
MIKE NAIG: Saturated buffers, holding more of that water on the landscape, slowing it down and denitrifying it.
HAAVIK: That should mean less polluted water flowing off Iowa farms.
LEE TESDELL: My water goes down to - you know, through southeast Iowa and then into the Mississippi.
HAAVIK: Lee Tesdell's farm is north of Des Moines, Iowa's state capital. He points out where a saturated buffer sits near a stream bank at the edge of his field. It's a combination of a control box, a perforated pipe and grassy land that allows water to drain out slowly. The soil breaks down the nitrates. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, or IDALS, pays to install saturated buffers, which costs about $8,000 each. The state's big push is called batch and build. It started in 2021. Iowa doesn't test most of the devices to make sure they're working, but Tesdell says testing is important.
TESDELL: We probably owe the taxpayer some results, you know? Are they really getting their money's worth?
HAAVIK: The program is a win-win for politicians who face pressure to clean up the water, but it's not as effective as advertised.
LAURA KROUSE: It's not that I'm opposed to saturated buffers.
HAAVIK: Laura Krouse is a farmer and soil and water commissioner in Linn County, Iowa.
KROUSE: I'm opposed to using them as a tool to make IDALS look like they're doing something far more than they actually are to improve water quality.
HAAVIK: IDALS declined multiple requests for interviews. In a statement, it said saturated buffers are proven to work and are just one of many tools it uses to address water quality. Jeff Lutz is a federal engineer who designs saturated buffers. The push for installations, Lutz says, comes down from state leaders to his supervisors.
JEFF LUTZ: Those who are an influence say, get them done. Do them out here, even though some of the treatment levels will vary.
HAAVIK: APM Reports found records for more than half of the saturated buffers installed under the state's big push. Nearly 90% would have fallen short of a federal standard intended to ensure quality, but the government lowered the standard twice. That allowed saturated buffers to be built in places where they are less effective. Here's Jeff Lutz again.
LUTZ: Part of the push on this has been, do stuff.
HAAVIK: Lutz's boss is the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS. That's the federal agency that set the standard. Officials there declined interview requests but disputed parts of Lutz's account in a statement. They also said they updated the standard to increase flexibility. Neither the federal or state government have taken significant action to regulate fertilizer. And when we asked officials in Iowa about it, they said...
MARY BETH STEVENSON: I don't want to say too much.
CHAD GILLIS: Yeah, I can't comment on it.
JOHN SWANSON: I can't answer that question.
HAAVIK: That's Mary Beth Stevenson, Chad Gillis and John Swanson, environmental officials in Cedar Rapids, Waverly and Des Moines, Iowa. John Norris, the administrator for Iowa's largest county, says it's fear of political backlash from the ag industry that keeps people silent. He dealt with agricultural issues in the Obama administration. He believes regulation is the long-term solution, not tools like saturated buffers that sit at the edge of the field.
JOHN NORRIS: There's no sacrifice involved. There's no change in practice involved. It doesn't address the core source of the problem.
HAAVIK: But he says until or unless the government takes more decisive action to keep farm runoff from entering waterways, saturated buffers are one of the few options local officials have. For NPR News, I'm Emily Haavik. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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