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TREADING WATER
Unfocused and underfunded, clean water goal falters

Stephen Mally/The Gazette

The Mississippi River is shown in November as it flows through Davenport. A government task force said in 2008 it would cut nitrate and phosphorus pollution washing into the river 45 percent by 2015.
Not only has that not happened, but a “dead zone” at the mouth of the river is three times as large as it was supposed to be by this time.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK By Erin Jordan, The Gazette WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

LOUISIANA
Pollution in the Mississippi River
adds to shrimpers’ troubles.
MINNESOTA
Unusual among states, law
forces conservation on farmers.
INDIANA
Leader in cover crops sets
higher goal to make a difference.
WISCONSIN
Nutrient runoff mars scenic
Green Bay with algal blooms.
Pages 8A to 10A
A
merica’s Midwest faces worsening trouble with undrinkable well UNSAFE DRINKING WATER
water, recreational lakes choked with toxic algae and water treat- The Midwest has some of
the nation’s highest levels of
ment plants requiring budget-busting upgrades to remove pollu- nitrate in groundwater because
tion washing from farm fields and industries. of fertilizer applied to farmland.
The more pollutants there are,
A government task force said in 2008 it would cut nitrate and phosphorus the more expensive it is to treat
pollution 45 percent by 2015 — both to help the Gulf of Mexico, where the municipal water — which you
nutrients have created a sprawling dead zone in which wildlife cannot sur- pay for. Moreover, millions of
Midwesterners rely on private
vive — and to protect the health and safety of Midwest waters. wells, most never tested.
Now 10 years later, the dead zone re- square miles. Nitrate has been linked to
mains a problem, the 45 percent goal has The group established the 45 percent re- health problems like “blue baby
been shoved back 20 years and, although duction in nitrate and phosphorus running syndrome” for pregnant women
and young children.
millions have been spent in nearly every into the Mississippi because that’s what
state along the Mississippi River, it’s not scientists think is needed to shrink the dead
clear any progress is being made, a four- zone. LOST RECREATION
month investigation by The Gazette found. The task force’s 2008 Action Plan, a Toxin-producing algal blooms
“Their goals for reduction in the dead 64-page document that doesn’t describe or high levels of bacteria caused
zone at the Gulf are not being met — not enforcement options, asked each of the 12 more than 1,400 closures or
even close,” said Kris Sigford, a retired central U.S. states to develop their own swim warnings at public beaches
water quality program director for the Min- plans for reducing nutrients. The states are last summer in the 12 states in
nesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Mis- the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force.
“In many cases, we’re going the wrong souri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee,
way.” Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. DYING FISH
The Gulf’s oxygen-deprived dead The Gazette reviewed all 12 state strate- The hypoxia task force states
zone, called that because fish and other gies, talked with dozens of state agency together had more than 200
organisms must swim away or die, has an leaders and found the following: reported fish kills in 2017, with
average size over the past five summers of l The Gulf Hypoxia Task Force said every most determined to be caused
5,772 square miles. That’s three times larger by contaminants washing into
than the task force’s goal of about 1,900 ;; TREADING WATER, PAGE 6A waterways.

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VOL. 136 NO. 327
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© 2018 The Gazette
• DEAR ABBY���������������������������������� 12L • LIVING�������������������������������������������� 1L • RIVER LEVELS����������������������������� 12B • WEATHER������������������������������������ 12B

Sunday
For surgery in Cedar Rapids,
Nora Royer, MD, FACS
General and Trauma
© 2018 The Gazette

the
h surgery hospital.
h i l.
6A The Gazette ● Sunday, December 2, 2018

TREADING WATER
;; FROM PAGE 1A
state should complete a strat-
egy by 2013. But only four did.
Kentucky and Tennessee still
have only drafts.
l Only five states estab-
lished baseline numbers for
nitrate or phosphorus loads
in surface water, making it
impossible in the other seven
to know if improvements are
being accomplished.
l Five states haven’t updat-
ed their strategies after initial
publication, contrary to advice
from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
l Only one state — Min-
nesota — requires farmers to
implement conservation strat-
egies to reduce runoff.
l All 12 states now require
water monitoring at some
facilities, usually large mu-
nicipal wastewater treatment
plants.
l All the states monitor wa-
ter quality at public beaches
to some degree, leading to
more than 1,400 closures or
advisories for high levels of
bacteria or toxins from algae
this past summer. More than
200 fish kills were reported in
the states in 2017, with many
caused by contaminants wash-
ing into waterways.
Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette
HOW STATES ARE FARING Water flows through the water treatment process at the Mankato Water Treatment Plant in Minnesota.
It’s impossible to make ap-
ples-to-apples comparisons be-
tween the states on how they
are living up to their goals
because the federal govern-
ment, which created the Gulf
Hypoxia Task Force, let each
chart its own path.
Without real pressure from
the EPA, few of the states
have consistent funding, some
aren’t documenting what steps
they’re taking and there’s lit-
tle urgency, despite the clock
ticking on an interim deadline
of seeing a 20 percent reduc-
tion in nitrate and phosphorus
by 2025.
Here’s a breakdown:
MINNESOTA
The 2,300-mile Mississippi Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette
River starts as a small stream A close-up of the interior of the ultra membrane filtration system at the Mankato
at Minnesota’s Lake Itasca. Water Treatment Plant shows how even the finest impurities are filtered out.
The Land of 10,000 Lakes, with
a $15 billion tourism industry,
has reason to worry about its
water quality, especially with
nitrates becoming a growing
problem in southern Minne-
sota.
Mankato, with just under
40,000 people, will spend about
$2 million next year digging
another well into the Mount
Simon aquifer. The city blends
aquifer water with draws
from the Blue Earth River and
the Minnesota River, both of
which flow into the Missis-
sippi River.
The federal nitrate limit for
safe drinking water is 10 mil-
ligrams per liter. Rivers and
Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette
streams running through ag-
ricultural areas often surpass Curt Zingula holds a stalk of big blue stem in September at his farm in rural Mankato, Minn., will spend about $2 million next year digging another well for
that in the spring, when melt- Marion. The prairie grass grows in a saturated buffer, which Zingula recently drinking water after seeing its nitrate levels increase sharply. One step in treat-
ing snow and rain wash fertil- installed, along with a tile flow regulator to help reduce the nitrate levels that ing drinking water for the city of nearly 40,000 involves putting it through a tank,
izer from the fields. run off his farmland. as seen Oct. 4.
In the early 2000s, nitrate
levels in the rivers supplying the 12 states to legally impose dischargers, such as tific modeling. But some water share isn’t from weather.
Mankato’s drinking water best management practices on scientists say it tells only half
wastewater treatment plants The Iowa Legislature ear-
started to climb, officials said. farmers. A 2015 law requires the story.
and factories, since 2011, lier this year passed a bill
The Blue Earth River aver- farmers to create perennial The estimates don’t account
according to its 2013 Nutrient providing $282 million over
aged 10.1 milligrams per liter vegetation buffers between Reduction Strategy. for other agricultural prac- 12 years toward nutrient re-
in 2015 and 12.2 mg/l in 2016 their crops and lakes, rivers tices, such as an increased
This emphasis on slash- duction goals, with $4 million
— up from 4.9 mg/l in 2011, ac- and drainage ditches. A 2017 use of underground drainage
ing phosphorus has helped in available in the first year.
cording to data from the plant. amendment allows alterna- tiling in Iowa, Minnesota, Il-
Wisconsin, where a long-term Critics say it’s barely enough
The Minnesota River rose to tives with equivalent water linois, Indiana and Ohio, that
trends database created by to make a dent in the multibil-
9.3 mg/l in 2016, an increase quality benefits. may be working against the
the state shows phosphorus in lion dollar problem.
from 3 mg/l in 2011. goals.
decline since the 1960s. But the
A consultant told city offi- WISCONSIN “I think that’s a valid criti- ILLINOIS
database shows nitrate rising
cials in 2017 that drilling a new Wisconsin focused its strat- cism,” said Nancy Stoner, who
— a troubling trend Wiscon- Illinois, one of only two
well was one of the least ex- egy on phosphorus, mainly served as acting assistant
sin’s strategy doesn’t address. states reporting nutrient re-
pensive options for safe drink- because that is what’s causing administrator for the EPA’s duction results compared with
ing water, with other plans algal blooms on Green Bay. IOWA Office of Water from 2011 to baseline numbers, said nitrate
ranging from $3.4 million to “In freshwater systems like Iowa in 2017 reported it had 2014 and wrote a 2011 memo loads fell 10 percent during
$23 million. Green Bay, it’s the phosphorus reduced annual nitrate loss by widely used as guidance by the the 2011-2015 period from 1980-
“Hopefully, the nitrate that’s the primary driver,” 1,375 tons in 2016 through the states. “We need to account 1996. Because the measure-
levels won’t get totally out said Kevin Fermanich, a 302,000 acres of cover crops for land that is newly tiled, ments were taken in average
of hand, and we’ll be able to professor of geoscience and planted with state or federal newly cropped and newly de- precipitation years, officials
handle it with just the new environmental science at the subsidies. These same acres veloped.” are pretty sure the decline
well,” said Mark Winson, the University of Wisconsin-Green cut phosphorus going into wa- University of Iowa research- isn’t due to low water flows
city’s public utilities director. Bay. terways by 104 tons, the state ers reported last spring Iowa’s from 2011 to 2015.
“The first well will probably Wisconsin, which reported said. nitrate discharge is dispropor- Preliminary estimates of
take us through the next five a phosphorus baseline of This type of estimate, made tionate to the amount of water 2014 to 2018 show even more
to six years.” about 4,750 tons in 1995, has by several other task force flowing into bordering rivers,
Minnesota is the first of put limits on phosphorus states also, uses credible scien- signaling the increased nitrate ;;CONTINUES ON PAGE 7A
© 2018 The Gazette

“Hopefully, the nitrate levels won’t get totally out of hand, and we’ll be able to handle it with just
the new well. The first well will probably take us through the next five to six years.”
Mark Winson, public utilities director in Blue Earth, Minn.
 Sunday, December 2, 2018 ● The Gazette 7A

TREADING WATER
;; FROM PAGE 6A
progress — a decrease of
16 percent from baseline, ac-
cording to Greg McIsaac, a
University of Illinois emeritus
professor who continues to
track nutrient loading for the
state.
But it’s not all good news
for Illinois. Average annual
phosphorus loads were up 17
percent between the baseline
and 2011 to 2015.
MISSOURI
Missouri has not established
baseline numbers nor numeric
limits for water pollution.
“Missouri is focused on
finding out what the effective-
ness is of the practices before
having numeric goals,” said
Kurt Beckman, the Missouri
Department of Natural Re-
source’s agricultural liaison.
Missouri is one of the few
task force states with regular
funding for nutrient reduc-
tion efforts. A one-tenth of
1 percent sales tax, in place
since 1984, funneled $635 mil-
lion from 1986 to 2014 to help
Missouri farmers implement
conservation practices.
The program provides 75
percent of the cost of conser-
vation strategies, including
expensive projects like biore-
actors — big mulch pits that
filter water from underground
drainage tile — estimated to
cut nitrates by half.
OHIO
Ohio is the farthest task
force state from the Missis-
sippi River. But since the Ohio
River is the largest tributary,
what happens in Ohio is im-
portant to the Gulf.
The primary water qual-
ity focus in Ohio is Lake Erie,
which has had large algal
blooms for eight of the last 10
summers, according to the
National Weather Service. In
2014, microcystins from the al-
gae contaminated the drinking
water of 400,000 residents in
and around Toledo.
Ohio Republican Gov. John
Kasich, who again may run for
president in 2020, has signed
a host of bills to monitor and
regulate fertilizer application
to improve water quality. In
July, he issued an executive
order declaring eight water-
sheds in distress, but it was
stalled after the Ohio Farm
Bureau and some Ohio Repub-
licans complained.
While Ohio doesn’t have
historical baseline numbers
for nitrate and phosphorus,
officials did compute five-year
averages of nutrient loading
in the Ohio River from 2013
to 2017. Compared with those
numbers, Ohio has seen “no
clear decrease in loading yet,”
a 2018 Nutrient Mass Balance
Study found.
INDIANA
Indiana hasn’t set a base-
line, instead equating conser-
vation practices with nitrate
and phosphorus losses, said
Jordan Seger, deputy director
of the Indiana State Depart-
ment of Agriculture.
The 2008 Action Plan rec-
ommends states create water
quality trading programs
that allow nitrate and phos-
phorus-generating facilities
to purchase credits to pay
for agricultural conservation
practices. So far, Indiana, Ken- in cases where required by the cultural Research and Exten-
tucky and Ohio are the only
task force states to do this.
The Ohio River Basin Wa-
ter Quality Trading Project,
which the three states formed changes without costing a lot. that water quickly drains into rector for the Gulf Restoration
in 2012, is the largest such pro-
gram in terms of geographic
area and number of credits
available for purchase, said
Jessica Fox, senior technical
executive at the Electric Pow- division of water resources at participating in edge-of-field
er Research Institute, which
runs the program.
KENTUCKY
Kentucky requires agricul- raise money for upgrades.”
tural facilities to complete an
by the slow pace of the Gulf
Hypoxia Task Force and the
state-led efforts to reduce
nitrate and phosphorus.
The Mississippi River
Collaborative in 2012 sued the
EPA in federal court, alleging
the agency was letting states
get away with doing nothing.
The groups want the EPA
to put the entire basin on a
pollution diet that sets limits
for pollutants and requires
dischargers, both industrial
and agricultural, to reduce the
flow.
The EPA had used this
regulatory approach on the
East Coast’s Chesapeake Bay
in 2010.
“The Chesapeake Bay is
being cleaned up,” said Stoner,
the former EPA official now
president of the Potomac
Riverkeeper Network. “It’s
not a perfect process, but it’s
a very successful process for
making nutrient reduction.
The same thing could be done
in the Mississippi River.”
Short of putting the Missis-
sippi River basin or the Gulf
Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette
on a pollution diet, the EPA
Curt Zingula removes plastic dams in September from a flow regulator in a field near a saturated buffer at his farm in could step up enforcement of
rural Marion. By removing a series of plastic dams within the drain, he is able to regulate the flow of field runoff into a discharger permits or force
nearby creek. states to set numeric limits for
lakes and rivers.
Regulating the Mississippi
game, with officials claiming
River watershed, which drains
Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone the state is the “leader in the
development and implemen- 40 percent of the continental
An annually recurring area of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico was measured this year at its tation of nutrient reduction United States, would be a
much bigger challenge than
fourth-smallest size since 1985, but the five-year average of its fluctuation in scope still is three times strategies” in its 2012 draft
larger than the goal that was set for 2015. the Chesapeake Bay. Such
strategy.
But that document never a project would be “unprec-
Texas Louisiana has been adopted, and there edented and complex” as well
are no reports since on what as “highly resource and time
state officials are doing to intensive,” argued President
clean up the river that shares Barack Obama’s EPA in a 2011
the state’s name. response to environmental
“At this time, MS (Missis- groups.
sippi) does not publish annual The EPA under President
updates to the strategies,” Donald Trump has been even
Natalie Segrest, who works for more disinterested, leaving
MILLIGRAMS OF OXYGEN PER LITER the Mississippi Department of two of seven federal seats on
Environmental Quality, said the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force
Greater than 5 4 to 5 3 to 4 2 to 3 Less than 2 in an email. vacant.
State officials meet once “Looking at the full suite of
Source: Louisiana State University Gazette graphic
or twice a year to talk about data available, EPA is pleased
progress within three geo- with the progress being made
graphic regions: delta, coastal by the Hypoxia Task Force,”
Agricultural Water Quality pal wastewater facilities in a and upland, Segrest said. The an agency spokeswoman said
Plan that includes which best 2015-16 pilot project showed state has seven years of data in an email Wednesday after
management practices will be the ability to reduce nitrate from the delta region and now declining a Nov. 12 Gazette re-
used to protect waters. or phosphorus levels just by is beginning to analyze it, Seg- quest for an interview.
But farmers don’t have to using existing equipment dif- rest said. When asked what the EPA
turn in their plans. And a state ferently. Mississippi doesn’t have could do to make sure the
survey showed only about 25 Some Tennessee officials baselines, but officials esti- states reach nutrient reduc-
percent of farmers actually had don’t see a need to update the mate conservation projects tion goals, she said:
implemented their plans, said state’s 2015 draft strategy. from 2007 to 2014 cut phos- “We are facilitating
Pete Goodmann, Kentucky Di- “When you look at the phorus by 217,873 pounds per dialogues with states across
vision of Water director. models, Tennessee (is) about year and nitrogen by 506,406 the country to determine the
“Now, to get cost-share, you 5 percent of the problem,” pounds per year. feasibility of approaches to
have to show you have an ag said Forbes Walker, a profes- reducing excess nutrients
water quality plan,” Good- sor and environmental soil
LOUISIANA that complement existing
mann said. But “we have to The state has not computed
specialist at the University regulatory programs, such
figure out ways to incentivize a statewide baseline for nitrate
of Tennessee. “You guys (in as using market-based
it that isn’t just tied to money. and phosphorus, officials said,
Iowa) grow 13 or 14 million mechanisms.”
Maybe some pressure from but the U.S. Geological Survey
acres of corn. You still do the Environmental groups
the Walmarts of the world to has at least six monitoring
tillage thing. Mostly your initially won their case in U.S.
say ‘This milk comes from a sites in Louisiana, including
landscape is tile drained so District Court, but an appeals
certified farm.’ ” on the Mississippi River-
anytime you put fertilizer on court sent it back down,
Goodmann is talking about Atchafalaya Delta, where the
soil, it comes out in the tile where Judge Jay Zainey in the
a program like Minnesota’s river pours into the Gulf. That
water. Compared with Iowa, Eastern District of Louisiana
voluntary water quality certi- monitoring site shows a
we’re really in good shape.” sided with the EPA on Dec. 15,
fication, which offers farmers 1980-96 baseline of a little over 2016.
who implement conservation ARKANSAS 1 million tons of nitrate per “Presumably, there is a
practices incentives like rec- Arkansas plans to update year and about 150,000 tons of point in time at which the
its 2014 nutrient reduction
ognition and priority for tech- phosphorus per year. agency will have abused its
strategy in the next few years.
nical and financial assistance The five-year average phos- great discretion by refusing
from the state. The revision should include phorus load has been climb- to concede that the current
Kentucky has not computedbaseline numbers, said Ryan ing since the baseline period, approach — albeit the one of
baseline numbers and has justBenefield, deputy director of while the nitrate load has been first choice under the (Clean
the state Natural Resources
started putting nutrient limits pretty flat. Water Act) — is simply not
Commission.
on some discharging facilities, The Gulf Restoration Net- going to work,” he wrote.
Goodmann said. Arkansas is the largest work, Sierra Club and other “But for now, Plaintiffs have
producer of rice in the United environmental groups have not demonstrated that EPA’s
TENNESSEE States, harvesting 1.1 million been pushing the Louisiana assessment was arbitrary,
Another state skipping dis- acres in 2017, according to the Department of Environmental capricious, or contrary to
charger permit limits except University of Arkansas Agri- Quality for years to step up law.”
protection of water bodies by Sigford, the retired Min-
federal government, Tennes- sion. Rice production requires putting them on an impaired nesota environmental group
see instead is identifying mu- extensive irrigation, with waters list and accelerating leader, fears it will take a
nicipal wastewater treatment traditional methods calling for improvement plans. public health emergency like
plants that can make small flooding rice paddies. Much of Matt Rota, senior policy di- the lead-tainted water in Flint,
Mich., or an economic blow
“We think the first step the groundwater supply, tak- Network, said Louisiana has like the tourism-killing algal
should be optimization be- ing fertilizer with it. progressed in requiring water blooms in Florida, for Midwest
cause some plants have seen But rice farmers are using monitoring by all large dis- officials to push for changes.
really good results,” said Jen- new practices to reduce the chargers, but officials need to “To me, I think you need
nifer Dodd, director of the amount of water used and set discharge limits and estab- terrible local problems to get
lish numeric limits for nitrate
action,” she said. “The out-
the Tennessee Department of water monitoring to see what and phosphorus.
standing question at this point
Environment and Conserva- strategies might reduce nutri- is: How long do we have to
tion. “If it doesn’t work, we ent runoff. EPA SAYS IT’S ‘PLEASED’
wait?”
may have to go to tax base and Environmental groups up
MISSISSIPPI and down the Mississippi l Comments: (319) 339-3157;
Ten of 15 Tennessee munici- Mississippi talks a good River have been maddened erin.jordan@thegazette.com

ABOUT THIS STORY

© 2018 The Gazette

Erin Jordan of The Gazette is researching
and reporting on the progress — or lack of
progress — in reducing the flow of nitrate
and phosphorus into the Mississippi River
and other lakes and rivers during a nine-
month O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service
Journalism at Marquette University in
Milwaukee, Wis.
Over four months, Jordan worked with
Marquette students Meaghan Kaupe, Mark
Lisowski and John Steppe to travel to
both ends of the Mississippi River, review
more than 1,000 pages of state nutrient
reduction strategies and interview dozens
of officials in the 12 states that have
committed to trying to reduce nutrients.
Marquette University and administrators
of the program played no role in the
reporting, editing or presentation of this
project.