"More than 80 health and environmental groups are calling on federal agencies to use emergency powers to protect Americans from a “public health emergency” driven by industrial farming practices that are dangerously polluting drinking water.
The letter, sent by 83 groups to Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin, comes amid growing evidence of widespread nitrate pollution of US drinking water supplies, especially in prominent farm states such as Iowa.
Agricultural fertilizers and manure from large-scale livestock operations are key sources for nitrates, though they also can occur at low levels in the environment naturally. Nitrate exposure can cause dangerously low oxygen levels in babies’ blood, causing what’s known as “blue baby syndrome” and they’ve been linked to some cancers. The EPA has set a threshold of 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L) for nitrates in drinking water.
The groups say federal standards are woefully inadequate to protect human health from nitrates, and that the agencies need to take “immediate action” to clean up drinking water and stem what many are calling a growing public health crisis."
