Matthew Kirk has an unpleasant task: breaking the news to families about fertilizer chemicals in their drinking water.
The Kansas State University geology professor and his collaborators check for nitrogen pollution in the private wells that so many rural households depend on.
“Most of the well owners that I’ve talked to,” Kirk said, “this isn’t something that’s really on their radar.”
Researchers aim to test about 150 private wells in south-central Kansas in Barton, Stafford, Pawnee, Edwards, Rice, Pratt and Kiowa counties.
Students and scientists from K-State and Barton and Dodge City community colleges have teamed up to test about 90 so far.
Of those, half contain more nitrate than federal regulators allow in public water systems.
“Of those that didn’t,” Kirk said, “a lot of them were pretty darn close.”
One well contained more than five times as much nitrate as the federal government tolerates in public water supplies. That household has started treating the water before drinking it.
Drinking too much of these nitrogen compounds is dangerous for babies, and scientists are investigating suspected links to serious health conditions in children and adults, such as cancer.
Public water sources have to comply with federal standards, so utilities treat water to reduce nitrate levels when necessary.
But the same rules don’t apply to private wells, and people often don’t know what their groundwater contains.
Meanwhile, decade by decade, chemicals accumulate.
In 2016, K-State researchers checked water quality in south-central Kansas wells that had also undergone testing 40 years earlier.
“We’re seeing nitrate increases that are massive,” Kirk said, adding that they are “among the biggest” when compared to long-term data from a similar national study.
The stakes for human health
