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Comment by DavidPeiffer | Hacker News Reader

While not the focus of this article, I'm curious how much of a reduction in fertilizer use we'll see in Iowa and the ramifications for water quality. Overapplication and lack of buffers has lead to incredibly high levels of nitrates making it into the rivers. Because of this, Des Moines is starting on a new $30M well because every year the algae and nitrate levels become too high for safe consumption. It's gone to the Iowa Supreme Court, but no remedy has been required of the communities upstream.

The most of the last two summers the local lake has had an advisory to not swim or do water sports because of the algae. Another article interviewed a water quality professor who basically said "There's no other comparable city that has this issue. Not being able to use the river as the full water supply because of nitrate levels is unheard of."

https://www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/2021-04-22/des-moin...

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Nitrate levels in Iowa were sometimes dangerously high when white settlers first arrived in the early 1800s. (I have no doubt before then too, but I don't have information on what the native tribes or fur trappers dealt with). Nitrates are a natural process in soil, that is what makes Iowa so great for corn farming. Yes farmers are adding more, but even without farmers there would be a problem.

Farmers actually care about this - any nitrate that runs off is nitrate that they paid for and didn't use (or nitrate that they have to pay to replace). That doesn't mean they know how to solve the problem

The problem is agricultural practices that lead to increased runoff, not the amount of nitrogen naturally occurring in the soil or the amount applied.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/20...

"Nitrate levels in Iowa's major rivers have increased more than threefold since the 1950s, but have stabilized — and even slightly declined — in recent decades, according to an in-depth review of available research."

I guess the Toledo (the Ohio one) Water Crisis was lost on them.

Could happen to any city on the Great Lakes.

> Lake Erie, which is a source of drinking water for the Toledo water system may have been impacted by a harmful algal bloom (HAB). These organisms are capable of producing a number of toxins that may pose a risk to human and animal health. HABs occur when excess nitrogen and phosphorus are present in lakes and streams. Such nutrients can come from runoff of over-fertilized fields and lawns, from malfunctioning septic systems and from livestock pens.

https://neiwpcc.org/information-center/neiwpcc-reprint-serie...

> It took a serendipitous slug of toxins and the loss of drinking water for a half-million residents to bring home what scientists and government officials in this part of the country have been saying for years: Lake Erie is in trouble, and getting worse by the year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/us/lifting-ban-toledo-say...

This has become a huge issue all over the country where there is a lot of farm land next to lakes & rivers. Another big issue is salt from water softeners & products dumped on roads & driveways to remove ice in the winter.

I'm curious if there exists any companies working on some type of large water supply cleaning method as I don't see people slowing down or reducing any of the above.

Making mostly-clean water into clean water with reverse osmosis is pretty viable.

It's far cheaper than the reverse osmosis of seawater done in many parts of the world.

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