194 



Paqe 3 



Dr. C.R.Hdllberg of the Iowa Department of Natural Rei^ources 

 gave 08 a nummary of the Rural Well Water Survey that was conducted 

 on 732 wella. 18-9X of these wells were above the HAL of 10 ppm of 

 nitrates. His evaluation of this <Sata was that Iowa farmers are 

 applying way too much nitrogen. Ken Chocquette, Iowa Department of 

 Public Health, then spoke to us on wnll construction. He pointed out 

 that In some areas of Iowa over 70\ of the wells have coliform 

 contamination which means water is flowing directly from the surface 

 of the ground into the well. His analysis was that over 90\ of the 

 well water quality problems could be solved by proper well 

 construction . 



Des Moines, lowa^ takes their drinking water from the Raccoon and 

 Des Moines Rivers. Some springs, the water plant manager must issue 

 a nitrate alert because the nitrate level in the river la above the 

 HAL of 10 ppm. L -D.McMullen, Director of the Des Moines Water Works, 

 told us about his Job and the importance of clean safe water. He 

 went on to say he was installing a nitrate filter unit at a cost of 2 

 million dollars that would in reality do no one any good but make 

 everyone feel better. Throughout our process the continual 

 perception seemed to point toward nitrogen application as a problem. 

 Tom DeLuca, a researcher for the Leopold Center for sustainable 

 Agriculture at Iowa State University, showed us data of nitrate 

 levels in 194S and 1991 in the Des Moines River, while the use of 

 nitrogen fertilizer has increased 100 fold from 1945 to 1991, the 

 level of nitrates in the Des Moines River in years with Hke flow 

 rates was unchanged. 



