What’s Eating Iowa?

…and what’s in its water?

“The nitrate here is usually between 20 and 25 milligram per liter.”

Q: And wouldn’t the University of Iowa College of Public Health say they’d like to see that about five?

“So any so for human consumption it must be below 10. We now know that drinking water should probably be below three gram per liter nitrate. But we can see here in the uplands it’s intensively farmed and so we have a lot of nutrient inputs into the stream.”

Q: And by nutrients you mean what?

“Nitrogen and phosphorus.”

Q: And that comes from where?

“That comes from fertilization of corn and soybeans.”