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Nitrate pollution is "Water contamination caused by the presence of excessive amounts of nitrates washed out from inorganic fertilizers."
The Sierra Club has the sordid details:
- Groundwater is frequently contaminated by factory farm pollution, generally in the form of nitrates. Nitrate pollution, which can cause serious human health problems, seeps out of manure lagoons and into community sources of drinking water.
- Increased levels of nitrates in groundwater may be the result of lagoon seepage, lagoon spills or leaks, or the over—or misapplication of manure onto the land. Manure contains nitrogen, which changes into nitrates in the soil. After that step, the nitrates may move through the soil and accumulate in water supplies.
This led to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exercising its rarely used emergency powers under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. On June 7, 2001, EPA Region 6 compelled "five hog operations in Kingfisher and Major Counties in Oklahoma to provide area residents with safe drinking water. In March and May 2001, EPA sampled drinking-water supply wells and found nitrate concentrations as high as 15.7 mg/l, where the acceptable level is 10 mg/l. Nitrates from the hog operations also contaminated the aquifer, which serves as an underground source of drinking water for four nearby households."
This was five full years, for example, after the Centers for Disease Control established a link between "spontaneous abortions and high nitrate levels in Indiana drinking water wells located close to feedlots."
Just one of the 101 reasons to go veggie...
