(Radio Iowa) – A study finds Iowa communities with high levels of nitrates in the drinking water tend to be low-income communities. The Environmental Working Group report found 85-percent of the towns with the highest nitrate pollution were lower income. Nitrate largely stems from farm practices like the overuse of fertilizer and manure. Study author Anne Schechinger says the pollutant is linked to higher rates of cancer and birth defects, even at levels well below the current federal standard.

“We know, since this nitrate in drinking water problem is getting worse, that voluntary conservation is not enough to fix this problem,” Schechinger says. “We really need farmers that are required to stop pollution from going off their farm fields.” Nitrate removal is very expensive, and while some larger water systems may be able to afford treatment, Schechinger says many smaller, rural systems cannot.

“We think we have safe drinking water and that it’s regulated by the federal government so it should be totally okay to drink and not have any health impacts that come from what we’re consuming,” she says, “but it’s just devastating that people have to experience things like cancer just from drinking water every day.” Schechinger says the state needs mandatory conservation practices to limit nitrates from reaching water supplies.

(By Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio)