More than 80 organisations led by the Union of Concerned Scientists have written to the heads of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, urging emergency action against widespread nitrate contamination of drinking water and waterways that the groups blame on industrial agriculture.
In a letter sent to the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, and the HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the coalition argues that nitrate pollution poses a serious risk to public health, particularly for pregnant women and newborns, and calls on the agencies to use their public health emergency authorities to identify and eliminate sources of the pollution and to fund efforts to bring nitrate levels down in finished drinking water.
"Nitrate in drinking water is a serious public health problem linked to cancer and other health impacts, and we know agricultural practices like excessive fertilizer use and poor manure management are largely responsible," said Dr Stacy Woods, a co-author of the letter and research director for the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The federal government must act now to curb nitrate pollution and safeguard our communities, because no one should face health risks from preventable pollution in their tap water."
Rural communities bear the brunt of the pollution, the letter says, with intensive farming the primary source of elevated levels in groundwater. But runoff travels downstream into towns and cities, and one in five Americans now drinks water with elevated nitrate levels, according to a recent report cited by the groups. The coalition argues that nitrate exposure is harmful at concentrations well below the current federal safety threshold, and links contaminated water to an increased risk of colorectal, ovarian, bladder and other cancers, as well as premature childbirth and central nervous system birth conditions, including spina bifida.
Iowa is identified as being at the forefront of the crisis, with both public water systems and tens of thousands of private wells posing substantial risks. The signatories note that the EPA has yet to respond to a 2024 petition calling for emergency action in the state under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and want the agency to act on it, prohibit the expansion of intensive agricultural operations in contaminated areas, and investigate what they describe as state regulatory failures.
The appeal comes against the backdrop of a recent UCS report finding that as much as half of the nitrogen fertiliser applied by US corn and soybean farmers is unnecessary, because crops cannot absorb the excess. The over-application, the report says, costs farmers billions of dollars, kills fish and disrupts fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, and produces heat-trapping emissions equivalent to as many as 14m petrol-powered cars each year.
