Low technology creates clean water in Iowa; So what stopped him?

SLATER, Iowa (AP) – Nick Helland’s central Iowa farm looks like many other farms nearby on this chilly March day.

But look closely and you can see the muddy ground where a few months ago workers buried bioreactors and stream-dried buffers for low-tech systems that filter fertilizer-borne nitrates from water as they moved from Helland Field to nearby Big Creek and finally into Dess. Moines River.

Underground equipment works. The question is whether one Iowa county’s promising new approach to an old problem can finally be scaled up to tackle nitrate pollution that has threatened drinking water for years, made more than half of the state’s waterways unfit for fish or people, and fueled a boom. A dead zone 1,000 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Polk County does this by making it painless for farmers — handling all the logistics and systems arrangements — and waiving fees of $1,000 per site. Installations have exploded to 104 in the past two years, after only a few were installed in the previous eight years.

“They paid me and paid for all the installation costs,” Helland said. “Very little lift, very little time, it’s a no-brainer for me that I can install this on my farm and ensure better water quality for everyone downstream.”

The biggest challenge now is encouraging counties to initiate and fund similar efforts to reduce runoff from Iowa’s 10 million acres and deal with the state’s billion-dollar nitrogen pollution problem.

Nitrogen-based fertilizers and manures can cause excess nitrates to form in groundwater, which can be toxic to livestock and humans. High levels have caused problems for waterways in Iowa and throughout the Midwest for decades with chemical fertilizers and livestock manure sprayed on farms. Modern tractors allow farmers to evaluate their soil and only apply fertilizer as needed, but overspray is still common.

It’s easy to see why. Maize production – the king’s crop in these parts and planted on 90 million hectares nationwide – can be at least doubled with fertilizer, and farmers want to make sure their crops have enough nutrients. Adding to the problem are rapid drainage systems under many fields – known as tiles but also plastic pipes – that drain excess water into streams.

Many studies show that low-tech practices remove half or more of the nitrates from water before it reaches waterways. In bioreactors, the water passes through buried wood chips that break down more nitrates. In the enclosures, it moves through a grassy area parallel to a stream.

Too much nitrate and phosphorus in rivers and streams is good food for algae and other plant growth, which cuts off oxygen in the water and limits sunlight. Combined with industrial farming practices that have altered waterways by diverting streams and removing wetlands, this is bad news for fish that need clean water and slow currents.

It also hurts people. Nitrate-contaminated drinking water can cause blue baby syndrome, when an infant’s blood is deoxygenated. More than half of Iowa’s rivers, streams and lakes are too polluted to properly support aquatic life or fishing and swimming, according to the state.

Iowa is one of the largest contributors to nitrate flow into the Gulf, depleting thousands of square miles of the oxygen necessary for marine life, leading to a dead zone.

The pressure to reduce the dead zone led the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources to join forces with Iowa State University in 2008 to address the problem. The effort is voluntary; The Iowa Legislature has consistently rejected proposals requiring farmers to reduce runoff.

According to 2019 estimates, Iowa has not significantly reduced nitrogen runoff in the fifteen years of the program. In some ways, the problem is exacerbated as high commodity prices encourage farmers to plant more corn and soybeans. Meanwhile, Iowa’s massive hog industry has grown to 24 million hogs — about three times the number in any other state — which means more manure is spread over farmland.

In Polk County, outrage over nitrate pollution peaked in 2015, when the agency that supplies drinking water to 600,000 people in the Des Moines area was forced to pay millions of dollars in court to filter impure levels from drinking water taken from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. A judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit against three northwest Iowa counties, leaving the issue to the Legislature.

Without the prospect of a state mandate, local officials in Polk County sought to work cooperatively with agricultural groups. Part of that was studying why so few farmers install bioreactors and streamside barriers. They found an inefficient planting process that made it expensive and stressful for farmers, who had to organize contractors and then pay back.

Polk County’s solution: Hold all events to make it easier for farmers and group projects for economic scale. Even with a $1,000 incentive for farmers to get involved, they found the new process to be about 15% cheaper — less than $10,000 for a typical saturated buffer and up to $15,000 for a bioreactor.

“Our success comes from realizing we’ve been doing it wrong for six years,” said Polk County Water Resources Supervisor John Swanson.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Nigh, who has strongly opposed requiring farmers to filter sewage, welcomed the Polk County effort and encouraged it elsewhere. In March, he introduced the bioreactors and buffers at an event in Historic County, north of Des Moines, where conservation officials welcomed the new program.

“We make it easy for an owner to say yes and bring the resources,” Nigh said. “These are basically 100% paid. Either way, the work has to be done, and for willing landowners and willing producers to participate, that works better.”

But clean water advocates note that Iowa needs thousands of systems, not hundreds, and question whether volunteer efforts can reach even a small percentage of the state’s farms — let alone those in other states.

“There are a lot of people doing really good work,” said Alicia Vasto, water program director at the Iowa Environmental Protection Council. “The reality of the matter is not just about the speed and extent of fixing the problem.”

The projected cost of growth is staggering. A 2017 analysis found that the upfront costs of significantly reducing nitrogen and phosphate runoff could be as high as $4 billion. That includes more than 100,000 bioreactors to deal with runoff on two-thirds of the tile, and other solutions like cover crops.

Swanson, the Polk County official, is now working with state officials to build more wetlands, which would cost more and require more land but could filter more runoff than bioreactors and tanks. Helland wants wetlands like this on his property and wants farmers to do more, but he thinks efforts should be voluntary. Every farm is different, and if governments try to act, it may cause more problems and ultimately be ineffective.

Jerry Hill, who has farmed for 52 years, attended the historic county meeting with other farmers to plan to install a bioreactor on the river that borders his property. He liked the idea of ​​purifying the water at a lower cost.

“We have to do a better job of keeping things clean,” Hill said. “From what I’ve heard, what they’re doing now is as good as it gets.”

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