A quiet drinking water crisis is going unaddressed in Iowa

[Just AnotherPerson]

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See more at the link https://thinkprogress.org/iowa-well-...-92521c00516b/

Excerpt:

Private wells used for drinking water in Iowa face widespread contamination due to agricultural practices, according to a new report out Wednesday, highlighting the latest in a series of major drinking water issues unfolding across the country.

Authored by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Iowa Environmental Council, the report finds that agriculture, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and the leading industry in Iowa, is also endangering water sources for nearly 300,000 Iowans who rely on private wells. Rural areas in particular are bearing the brunt of the contamination, impacting communities that could play a key role in the 2020 election. Moreover, polling shows that clean water has emerged as a top environmental concern for Americans across the country, including in the Midwest.

But while Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler has argued water issues are the world’s leading environmental crisis — outranking climate change — clean water advocates say the agency has done little to address the problem. This month, the EPA halted a study probing the health impacts of the ion nitrate, which is often produced as fertilizer and is one of the substances contaminating private wells in Iowa.

“EPA only regulates drinking water provided by public water systems,” said Anne Weir Schechinger, a senior economics analyst with EWG and the study’s primary author. She told ThinkProgress that both public and private water contamination is “a national issue” but that private wells in particular have emerged as a major health problem, one without any real governmental oversight, from either state or the federal agencies.

[FindersKeepers]

There's virtually nothing the EPA can do to regulate existing private wells, because, well -- they're private.

[Just AnotherPerson]

There's virtually nothing the EPA can do to regulate existing private wells, because, well -- they're private.

So they can't regulate the practices by others who are the ones contaminating them. The private well owners are not contaminating their own wells. For instance many people who live near frack sites have their well water contaminated at no fault of their own. Also many people who live near farm areas have wells contaminated with dangerous levels of nitrates. The private well owner did not contaminate their own well. You regulate whom ever is dong the contaminating of those wells. If you contaminate your own land you by proxy contaminate others as well. What ever you do will make it to the water table at some point. Asking for polluters and contaminators to be regulated, is not too much to ask for when it comes to clean drinking water.

[FindersKeepers]

So they can't regulate the practices by others who are the ones contaminating them. The private well owners are not contaminating their own wells. For instance many people who live near frack sites have their well water contaminated at no fault of their own. Also many people who live near farm areas have wells contaminated with dangerous levels of nitrates. The private well owner did not contaminate their own well. You regulate whom ever is dong the contaminating of those wells. If you contaminate your own land you by proxy contaminate others as well. What ever you do will make it to the water table at some point. Asking for polluters and contaminators to be regulated, is not too much to ask for when it comes to clean drinking water.

They can - and do - regulate various types of dumping, etc., which can leech into the equus beds but it's taken decades of fertilizer and pesticide use by farmers to pollute the wells to the degree they are today. There's no reliable evidence that fracking contaminates private wells. It probably doesn't.

That said -- what are they to do with a well that's already polluted?

Buy every rural dweller an RO unit? That's what we use, and they're not cheap but they remove carcinogens and other impurities from water.

I'm just saying, they cannot -- and should not -- attempt to regulate private wells.

[Just AnotherPerson]

They can - and do - regulate various types of dumping, etc., which can leech into the equus beds but it's taken decades of fertilizer and pesticide use by farmers to pollute the wells to the degree they are today. There's no reliable evidence that fracking contaminates private wells. It probably doesn't.

That said -- what are they to do with a well that's already polluted?

Buy every rural dweller an RO unit? That's what we use, and they're not cheap but they remove carcinogens and other impurities from water.

I'm just saying, they cannot -- and should not -- attempt to regulate private wells.

There is 100% proof that fracking contaminates wells. People who live near frack sites have lived for generations with clean water, a fracking company moves in and starts fracking and suddenly there is fracking chemicals in their water. The company blames it on the well owner. But that is a big joke. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that your well was clean, a fracking company started fracking with such and such chemicals, and now your well has those chemicals in it. That is an insult to peoples intelligence is what that is.

It is easy to just say it does not contaminate and move on with your life, since it means nothing to you, and does not effect you. But the people who live there and suddenly their property is valueless because they no longer have clean water. And you would think that would be the main concern but who cares about value when you are sickened to the point of death. You suddenly come down with cancer or deadly neurological diseases, not long after they started fracking.

There have been a few cases where the fracking company will admit that they killed a persons well and they will provide water to that family for life. This is real stuff.

[Dr. Who]

There's virtually nothing the EPA can do to regulate existing private wells, because, well -- they're private.

It's not the private wells that require regulation, it's those who are contaminating the water table AKA the commons. People generally regard mutually shared spaces as the commons but don't think about the underground streams and acquifers as part of the commons, but they are. This is the tragedy of the commons. While the contaminators are profiting, their neighbors are consuming their chemical runoff and sickening in the process.

[Dr. Who]

There is 100% proof that fracking contaminates wells. People who live near frack sites have lived for generations with clean water, a fracking company moves in and starts fracking and suddenly there is fracking chemicals in their water. The company blames it on the well owner. But that is a big joke. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that your well was clean, a fracking company started fracking with such and such chemicals, and now your well has those chemicals in it. That is an insult to peoples intelligence is what that is.

It is easy to just say it does not contaminate and move on with your life, since it means nothing to you, and does not effect you. But the people who live there and suddenly their property is valueless because they no longer have clean water. And you would think that would be the main concern but who cares about value when you are sickened to the point of death. You suddenly come down with cancer or deadly neurological diseases, not long after they started fracking.

There have been a few cases where the fracking company will admit that they killed a persons well and they will provide water to that family for life. This is real stuff.

Fracking bastiges! I despise what these corporate entities get away with in the name of the almighty dollar. People (old and young), animals, even plants, all being legally poisoned. It's disgusting.

[Just AnotherPerson]

Fracking bastiges! I despise what these corporate entities get away with in the name of the almighty dollar. People (old and young), animals, even plants, all being legally poisoned. It's disgusting.

It is a true crime. If I personally go and put poison in someone's water I will go to prison for murder or attempted murder. Likewise if I go to a stream and dump some toxic chemicals, and am caught I will also go to prison. It would be an ecological crime. But these people can destroy the environment and kill the wild animal and plant life and the human residents and nothing happens to them. I mean there are not words enough to say how awful that is.

It gets your blood boiling like the people are just helpless against corporate crimes. We have to submit and take it. I just find it to be unimaginable. The only reason this is happening is not enough people are standing up and demanding an end to it.

Everyone is so caught up in their own lives that they do not care what happens to others unless it is on their own doorstep affecting them or their loved ones, then they will choose to care and not ignore it. So many peoples lives have been sacrificed to corporate greed. I wonder when enough will be enough?

Here is my list on how corporations are destroying the earth. If you only watch a few vids or even just scan the list it is enough to see what the problems are. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...hYEuDPMsV9oF_7 I spent several days compiling these vids. I wanted to represent the real truth of the state of things. It was a lot of work, but I think I chose the videos well.

[Dr. Who]

It is a true crime. If I personally go and put poison in someone's water I will go to prison for murder or attempted murder. Likewise if I go to a stream and dump some toxic chemicals, and am caught I will also go to prison. It would be an ecological crime. But these people can destroy the environment and kill the wild animal and plant life and the human residents and nothing happens to them. I mean there are not words enough to say how awful that is.

It gets your blood boiling like the people are just helpless against corporate crimes. We have to submit and take it. I just find it to be unimaginable. The only reason this is happening is not enough people are standing up and demanding an end to it.

Everyone is so caught up in their own lives that they do not care what happens to others unless it is on their own doorstep affecting them or their loved ones, then they will choose to care and not ignore it. So many peoples lives have been sacrificed to corporate greed. I wonder when enough will be enough?

Here is my list on how corporations are destroying the earth. If you only watch a few vids or even just scan the list it is enough to see what the problems are. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...hYEuDPMsV9oF_7 I spent several days compiling these vids. I wanted to represent the real truth of the state of things. It was a lot of work, but I think I chose the videos well.

I didn't watch all of them but my reaction to what I did see can be summed up in one word: psychopathy. We have one planet and depend on the water, land and air to exist, yet for some reason we are willing to destroy her, our mother, our only source of life, for money. It's the equivalent of selling your birth mother into slavery and allowing her to be beaten, raped and have appendages amputated and then still demand that she take care of you. The destruction of Appalachia is nothing short of disgusting as is the appalling disregard for the poor people whose drinking water is literally flammable, yet the forces of that destruction are free to destroy what they didn't make and should have no right (natural or otherwise) to take from others. Some elements of humanity are a destructive virus on the planet - an existential risk to all life and like any other existential threat must be stopped at all costs.

[Just AnotherPerson]

I didn't watch all of them but my reaction to what I did see can be summed up in one word: psychopathy. We have one planet and depend on the water, land and air to exist, yet for some reason we are willing to destroy her, our mother, our only source of life, for money. It's the equivalent of selling your birth mother into slavery and allowing her to be beaten, raped and have appendages amputated and then still demand that she take care of you. The destruction of Appalachia is nothing short of disgusting as is the appalling disregard for the poor people whose drinking water is literally flammable, yet the forces of that destruction are free to destroy what they didn't make and should have no right (natural or otherwise) to take from others. Some elements of humanity are a destructive virus on the planet - an existential risk to all life and like any other existential threat must be stopped at all costs.

Exactly what you said resonates in my very soul. People do not understand the seriousness of it. For everything that exists in the world, it has to have its causes in order to have the effect. Conditions must be right in order for anything to exist animate or inanimate.

If I want to bake a loaf of bread I cannot use mud and hay. Bread will never come into being if I use the wrong ingredients. Likewise, life like ours human animals and plant, we all exist because the conditions for life like ours on this planet are exactly like they are. If we remove those ingredients for life those basic conditions, then this planet will no longer support life like ours.

All living beings need clean water, and clean air in order to live. We need proper food and sunlight. If we remove those conditions then we remove the conditions that give us our life.

For a time some life forms would be able to exist, for a time people could survive before it got too bad. But they would have to live in a sickly way. They would have to live with cancer, and toxicity. We are seeing this already. Cancer is rampant, and children all around the world are dying from air pollution even here in America.

Another kind of life will thrive for a time, and that is disease and insects. We are seeing this as well. But after a time we as living beings will cease to be because conditions will no longer support life like ours.

As it is water scarcity is becoming a reality, and that is just what we are experiencing from our rabid consumption. But when you tie in the practices by the corporate giants you can easily see that water scarcity is becoming exponential. When we use up all of the local water supplies in order to mine or frack or sell, we deplete the source. We turn that piece of earth into a desolate waste land.

What we are doing is unconscionable. We are eating up this earth and carving her away. By proxy we are killing our own children. Our children and children's children will not have a planet to live on that is conducive to life.