Some 1,700 U.S. communities have worrisomely high levels of nitrate in their water supplies, and two-thirds of those communities, serving more than 3 million people, have no treatment system to remove it, said an Environmental Working Group report released today. Removing nitrate from tap water is expensive, said the report, which recommends stronger controls on farmers, coupled with federal funding to aid conservation, to prevent contamination of water supplies.
“Acting now to implement effective farm conservation practices could head off the need for huge capital expenditures down the line,” said the EWG, a frequent advocate of land stewardship. It estimated that a small town, with fewer than 500 residents, would have to spend — and probably raise its water bills by — at least $90 per person annually to cover the cost of equipment to remove nitrate, often the runoff of nitrogen fertilizer on farmland. The combined cost for water treatment for the 1,155 communities without nitrate removal equipment could range from $102 million to $765 million a year for basic equipment, it estimated.
The EWG report looked at communities with 5 parts per million or more of nitrate in their water supplies. The federal limit is 10 parts per million. The green group said research suggests that the risk of some types of cancer increases when nitrate levels reach 5 ppm. Half of the communities cited in the report as having 5 ppm or more of nitrate in their water are in California, Texas, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma.
For decades, the government has relied on voluntary efforts by farmers and landowners to control erosion and protect water quality, usually through cost-share or land-idling payments. “But so-called volunteer approaches, like making tax-funded payments to farmers who change where and how they farm, have not worked,” said the EWG. “Without aggressive, targeted, and enforceable protection efforts, America’s nitrate problem will get worse, and more Americans will be at risk of drinking contaminated water.”