A proposed 3,450-cow dairy in mid-Michigan is sparking fierce debate over clean water, antibiotic resistance and manure digesters. Supporters say it means jobs and renewable energy. Critics warn local rivers are already overwhelmed with dangerous contaminants associated with large livestock operations. The big question: how many animals can one watershed support?
TNL’s Editor-in-Chief Carey Gillam traveled to Iowa to hear directly from the people living through an ongoing water crisis. In conversations with residents, farmers, politicians and scientists, a troubling picture emerged: dangerously high levels of nitrates and pesticides are contaminating drinking water across the state. Many fear this pollution is fueling Iowa’s unusually high — and still rising — cancer rates.
By Shannon Kelleher
A federal judge this week said that a group of Maryland residents could proceed with a class action lawsuit against Perdue Farms that alleges the company’s soybean plant improperly discharged harmful chemicals that contaminated their well water, but dismissed claims seeking to link the contamination to residents’ existing medical ailments.
Hundreds of Iowans gathered at Drake University in early August to confront a growing water quality crisis linked to the state’s powerful agricultural industry. Community leaders, scientists and farmers warned of dangerously high levels of nitrates, pesticides and livestock waste contaminating the state’s drinking water.
By Shannon Kelleher
Almost 100 million people in the US may be exposed to unregulated industrial chemicals in their drinking water, with communities of color especially at risk, according to a new analysis of federal monitoring data for water systems across the country.
By Lydia Larsen
Tim Repas was tired of hauling dirt to landfills. As an environmental consultant in Canada’s oil fields, where the soil is often laden with health-harming petroleum hydrocarbon chemicals, Repas felt he spent too much time moving contaminated soil around and not enough time trying to eliminate the dangers posed by the compounds.
By Shannon Kelleher
Proposed revisions to a national drinking water regulation designed to reduce exposure to lead in US drinking water are drawing applause from many sectors, but also criticism as industry groups worry about how to meet the stricter standard and environmental and health advocates fear the proposed requirements don’t go far enough.
By Shannon Kelleher
The majority of private wells providing water for 450 Wisconsin homes tested positive for harmful chemicals, though mostly at low levels, according to a new study.
BERNE, Minn. – It was a hot afternoon in mid-July and 60-year-old Brian Bennerotte was making a pilgrimage of sorts, navigating a shotgun-straight, gravel road south of Minneapolis on a journey through a landscape stitched with crop and livestock farms as far as the eye can see.