Minnesota Department of Health starts nitrates discussions in Stewartville (2024)

STEWARTVILLE, Minn. — Well testing, mitigation and quick solutions.

Those were among the main messages Wednesday night during a Minnesota Department of Health public meeting to discuss the ongoing issue of nitrates in the groundwater of Southeast Minnesota.

Three out of four Minnesotans get their drinking water from groundwater — subsurface aquifers — said Tannie Eshenaur, manager for the MDH Water Policy Center. That ratio is even larger in Southeast Minnesota.

And Minnesota is working to make sure that groundwater is healthy, focusing on nitrate contamination. According to the state and the U.S. EPA, safe drinking water has a nitrate level of less than 10 milligrams per liter, or 10 parts per million.

While municipal water systems are generally compliant with state standards, the problem occurs with private wells that supply drinking water mainly in rural areas.

Wednesday's meeting — with about 25 or so people in attendance — is part of the state's Phase I response to the EPA's mandate to reduce nitrates in groundwater in the eight-county karst region.

In response to an April 2023 petition to the EPA from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and 10 other stakeholders, the EPA sent inspectors to a pair of farms in Southeast Minnesota on Nov. 2, 2023. The next day, the EPA ordered Minnesota to develop a plan to fix the nitrate problem in the region.

Educating the public and providing alternate water for vulnerable populations — pregnant women and infants under the age of 1 year — are the main focus of Phase I.

Phase II includes public health intervention, including testing and cataloging wells in the region with high nitrate levels, plus providing safe drinking water solutions such as reverse-osmosis systems. Phase III, which will be primarily carried out by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, looks to find longterm solutions to reduce nitrate input into the groundwater system.

Nitrates, Eshenaur said, are just one of several concerns with water safety. Others include contamination from coliform bacteria — Eshenaur called bacteria an "acute concern" — arsenic, which is in about 12% of wells at levels above the public drinking water standard, lead and manganese.

Eshenaur said one of the focuses is to get rural landowners to have their private wells tested for nitrates, which is considered a leading indicator for bacteria and for pesticide residue in the well water.

State Rep. Duane Quam, R-Byron, asked Eshenaur why the state did not simply test for all the possible contaminates at once.

"The thing about nitrate is it's what we call an indicator," Eshenaur said. "So when there's nitrate in your well, we know that there's a pathway from the surface down to that drinking water aquifer. If nitrate is getting in there, then it's likely that there are bacteria or other pathogens in that well. And as the nitrate level increases in the well, it's more likely that pesticides, if they're being used nearby, could be in the well."

However, testing for nitrates costs about $30-$50 per test. Testing for the other concerns excluding pesticides costs about $150 per test. And if you are testing for pesticides, that test will run $200 or more.

Right now, Eshenaur said, the state wants to test first for nitrates and then, if there's a nitrate problem, possibly look toward testing for other contaminates.

Quam also questioned some data brought by Eshenaur that showed the state recorded 146 cases and 14 deaths due to "blue baby syndrome" — methemoglobinemia, a condition that causes a lack of oxygen in the bloodstream in infants. The data came from records in 1947 through 1949.

"It might be useful to have something that's newer than 75 years ago," said Quam.

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Eshenaur noted that methemoglobinemia is not an illness that must be reported to MDH, so the state does not have any current figures.

The MDH website references an independent study that says from 2000 to 2016, only 10 cases of methemoglobinemia were reported in Minnesota, and no deaths were attributed to the condition.

She added that education about blue baby syndrome has helped reduce its prevalence to near zero.

Eshenaur said there are a few very common sources of nitrates such as septic systems and fertilizer — either commercial fertilizer or manure — that contribute to high nitrates in groundwater. But it is fertilizer that draws the most attention, especially in rural areas.

Nitrates can leech through the soil and into the groundwater in a process that can be slow if nothing artificially speeds up the process. One problem, she said, is that there are too many wells in use that were either constructed before 1974 when the state implemented well construction standards, or wells that were built after 1974 that are in need of maintenance.

Old or poorly maintained wells can create a pathway for nitrates to quickly enter the groundwater, thus contaminating drinking water for multiple users in an area.

Skip Langer, soil conservation manager with the Olmsted Soil & Water Conservation District, said that in addition to fixing wells, the state needs to do more to work with farmers to reduce nitrate inputs into the system.

Olmsted County, he said, is already working with farmers to implement cover crops, crop rotation practices and better grazing practices as part of its Groundwater Protection Soil Health Initiative.

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

While these programs are voluntary, Langer said, they are popular enough that the SWCD can't handle all the applications it gets from farmers in a given year.

"I don't think people like to be regulated, necessarily. Conservation has always been voluntary," Langer said. "People come to us with concerns and we address those concerns, meet with producers on their farms, assess problems, and then help come up with best management practices to address the issues."

Langer said an additional $15 million from the Legislature and the Clean Water Fund will help SWCDs across the state, that increase is only good for two years and then reduces to $12 million, making it hard to add staff to help more farmers.

Quam said he was glad to attend because he wants to have the correct information before making any policy and funding decisions going forward.

"I don't want to have a knee-jerk reaction that will delay real solutions," Quam said. "A knee-jerk reaction would be spending money that has little to no impact."

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin