Here's Why Iowans Say They Volunteer to Test Lakes, Rivers for Nitrates

Decorah Vikings win, City Council votes, New Referenda on the ballot — we're the one telling Decorah's story. Donate now. On a Wednesday in April, after heavy rainfall, Paul Carlson of Ankeny drove to the end of a road under the Saylorville Dam and parked alongside Rock Creek. It was his sixth time this year at that location, with a goal of testing the nitrate levels in the water. Before walking over to the creek's bank, he grabbed from his car a bucket with a rope attached, a jar, and a nitrate level testing kit, similar in size to a pill bottle. Once on the bank of the creek, he cast out his bucket and rinsed it a few times with creek water. Carlson said this is to prevent any possible contamination from other tests. He then poured that water into a jar and dunked a nitrate testing strip into it. He waited the recommended 30 seconds and watched a patch on the strip turn from white to a shade of pink. He matched that color as best he could to a range of colors and their corresponding nitrate readings on the outside of the testing kit bottle. Carlson read the test as matching a light shade of pink next to the number "5," meaning the water he tested had a nitrate level of 5 parts per million. "0" is the low end and "50" the high end for the test kits. The Environmental Protection Agency classifies 10 parts per million as the threshold for unsafe drinking water. Once he had his test results, Carlson entered that data into the Clean Water Hub, run by the Izaak Walton League of America. Iowans all across the state are volunteering to go out to rivers and lakes near their homes to test for nitrates, which are associated with various health risks. Nitrates in excess of 10 parts per million in drinking water can cause methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome, which is a life-threatening condition that reduces the amount of oxygen that can be carried in the blood. While city water utilities treat drinking water for nitrates, heavy loads of the compound in source waters have led to extraordinary measures in central Iowa. Last June, Central Iowa Water Works issued its first-ever lawn watering ban on June 12. That was because high nitrate concentrations in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers made it difficult for facilities to remove enough nitrates to comply with federal drinking water standards while meeting high water demand. Paul Carlson tests Rock Creek for nitrates near the Saylorville Dam. (Video by Zach Sommers for Iowa Capital Dispatch) Carlson's testing on April 15 was in line with his previous Rock Creek tests earlier this year. A look at the Clean Water database shows his data entries. After last October, he picked up testing again at Rock Creek in March and tested 7 ppm. His highest this season is 12 ppm, recorded on April 21. Nitrate Watch participants enter their data for each testing location into the Clean Water Hub. Paul Carlson recorded 12 ppm at Rock Creek on April 21. (Graphic courtesy of Nitrate Watch) Iowa has more than 70,000 miles of rivers. The Des Moines River flows for more than 500 of those miles. It begins in southwestern Minnesota before traversing more than a dozen of Iowa's 99 counties and finally joining the Mississippi River in Keokuk County, in the state's southern-most corner. Rock Creek is just one of the Des Moines River's many feeder waterways. Carlson is a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and one of many citizen water testers in Iowa taking part this year in the Izaak Walton League of America's Nitrate Watch Program. ICCI joined the program a few years ago as a way to help test nitrate levels in Iowa's waterways. IWLA sees its testing as something done in tandem with the state-run Iowa Water Quality Information System. The system is a network of sensors that tests for nitrate and pH levels, water levels, and stream flow rates, among other tracked qualities. The system is at risk of losing funding come this summer, which IWLA views as "irreplaceable." A new study by the Environmental Working Group found that one-fifth of Americans relied on drinking water systems with elevated and potentially dangerous levels of nitrate between 2021 and 2023, Stateline reported. Carlson joined the Nitrate Watch program because he said he's "always been interested in care of creation." He sees his role as a water tester as a way to raise awareness, and he knows his testing cannot replace the state-run sensors. He likens what he does to a player in baseball's Single-A league, while the IWQIS sensors are the Major Leagues. Still, he views testing Iowa's small waterways, like Rock Creek, as necessary to determine where pollutants may be entering upstream and said nitrates in them "still impacts people, especially out in the rural area." The day Carlson tested Rock Creek's water, it was muddy. He said the water is usually crystal clear and "looks so beautiful and perfect." "Then I test it, and it climbs up to 10 … It's like you can't trust the look, the appearance, because it's hidden poison. It's poison that you can't see," Carlson said. Volunteer seeks to bolster scarce data A day after Carlson went out to test Rock Creek, Ryan Kunkle of Indianola did the same at three separate locations in Warren County, plus his tap water at home. Kunkle said he's new to the area, so he relied on finding sites to test by using data points already listed on the Clean Water Hub. He noticed, however, that the three sites only had one data point each. His goal is to test nitrate levels at each site every two weeks to better provide data that can lend itself to trends over time. His first stop on the sunny Thursday was Middle River, another tributary of the Des Moines River, which runs along Summerset State Park just south of Indianola. He walked along a path and descended the river's bank under a bridge until he could crouch down to fill his Mason jar with the Middle River's water. Ryan Kunkle collects water from the Middle River in Warren County to test for nitrates. (Video by Zach Sommers for Iowa Capital Dispatch) Kunkle did the same as Carlson, rinsing his jar with the river's water to help prevent any possible contamination. Instead of testing along the river's edge, Kunkle preferred to test his water at home. He said during a Zoom call with ICCI and IWLA, one tip he heard was to test water while it was at least 60 degrees. Kunkle said that's to allow for a more accurate test. The time he takes gathering water from his other locations will allow the Middle River water to come to temperature. Kunkle views his involvement in the program as doing his part to fill a gap in water testing. Not only are there fewer Nitrate Watch data points in Warren County, he explained, but there are also no IWQIS sensors in the county. Testing is about creating public awareness, Kunkle explained, raising the same points as Carlson. He added the data serves "as a complement to what governmentally supported sensors are supposed to be doing." It was on the Middle River bridge a few weeks ago that Kunkle said he experienced creating public awareness firsthand. A woman stopped to ask what he was doing. They got to talking, and he said she may have gotten interested in the Nitrate Watch Program. Over at Kunkle's second testing site, Lake Ahquabi, south of Indianola, he laid part of the blame for Iowa's water crisis on agriculture in the state. "Our water has been gradually getting poisoned by a set of policies that have allowed an increasingly monopolistic agricultural system to do whatever is necessary to intensify crop production, regardless of negative environmental externalities," he said. At Lake Ahquabi, a recreational lake in Warren County, Ryan Kunkle collects water for nitrate testing. (Video by Zach Sommers for Iowa Capital Dispatch) "So if more and more people become aware of what the problem is … it presents potentially a basis for further organization." Kunkle's final field test was the South River, which he accessed just off Highway 65 south of Indianola. He again descended the bank and collected his sample. Ryan Kunkle's final field testing site is the South River running under Highway 65 south of Indianola. (Video by Zach Sommers for Iowa Capital Dispatch) Once back at home, he tested all three, plus his tap water, using the testing strips provided by IWLA. Kunkle, however, also used the Deltares app to more accurately capture the readings. After reading his results by eye, like Carlson, he also laid the strips down on a small card provided by Deltares. He opened the Deltares app, snapped a picture, and the app recorded the readings for him. Kunkle then shared both his eyesight and Deltares readings in the Clean Water Hub database. Ryan Kunkle uses the Deltares app to more accurately record his nitrate levels from the water he collected. (Video by Zach Sommers for Iowa Capital Dispatch) Kunkle's highest nitrate readings for the day came from Middle River at 4.8 ppm, which is in line with his previous testing at that site for the year. His lowest reading for the day came from Lake Ahquabi at 0 ppm. His tap water tested higher than that at 0.8 ppm. Montgomery Creek sees highest levelsThe following day, Barb Thompson of Boone County tested two waterways that either run through her property or near it: the Montgomery and Prairie creeks. Both creeks flow into the Ioway Creek, which in turn flows into the South Skunk River. Like Carlson, she cast a bucket with a rope attached over two bridges to collect her water samples. She poured that into a couple of jars for testing back at her house. Barb Thompson collects water samples from the Montgomery and Prairie Creeks to test for nitrate levels. Video by Zach Sommers for Iowa Capital Dispatch) Of all the waterways tested between Carlson, Kunkle, and Thompson over the three days, Thompson's nitrate readings were the highest. At Montgomery Creek, she recorded 25 ppm, about five times higher than the same time last year. Her highest recording on the creek so far was 30 ppm during last June. Barb Thompson has regularly found her test results at Montgomery Creek to be far higher than the EPA's 10 ppm limit for safe drinking water. (Graphic courtesy of Nitrate Watch) Her readings from Prairie Creek, which runs through her backyard, fared little better, measuring 20 ppm on that Friday. She measured 30 ppm for that location last June also. Barb Thompson's findings at Prairie Creek have also shown to regularly be above 10 ppm, especially during summer months. (Graphic courtesy of Nitrate Watch) Thompson said she decided to test her water after learning about the program because she's long been curious what impact a hog confinement is having on the waterways around her. She said a new one was built by a man living in Alabama in 2011, about a mile away from where she lives. The confinement sits in between both creeks. Since testing, she's been more hesitant to let her grandchildren play in the creek in her backyard. They still play in it, but only if the creek is running low and while wearing rubber boots. Thompson said they're not dunking their heads in the water and are sure to rinse off immediately afterward. It's a far cry from her visit to the cabin her family has in Minnesota, she said, where they can basically drink the lake water up there. Thompson explained her hopes with the Nitrate Watch program are to "get people's attention on how serious it is." Now that she was a year's worth of data from her creeks, she plans to "go to our county supervisors and say, 'Here's what we have and it's a concern. And what are we going to do about increasing buffers?'" Thompson was referring to buffer strips, permanent vegetation that are planted to help digest or slow down pollutants. Thompson said she's not sure how the Boone County supervisors will respond. Your inbox, upgraded! Subscribe for free and enjoy handpicked stories, helpful advice, and local insights delivered weekly.