As reported by local Oregon news station KGW8, Pat Suter, a resident of Umatilla County, has well water that tests at 37 parts per million for nitrates, four times what the EPA considers dangerous. Suter’s previous wife died of cancer, and he noted that she drank coffee brewed using the well water daily. He said he’s also lost a total of 16 dogs to cancer over the years.
Unfortunately, Suter is not alone. At least 40% of wells tested in Eastern Oregon had unsafe nitrate levels, and there is a strong correlation between drinking water high in nitrates and developing cancer, thyroid problems, blue baby syndrome, and other adverse health conditions.
The problem is that there are massive factory farms in Eastern Oregon, like ThreeMile Canyon, which alone houses 70,000 cows and uses 39,000 acres of crops to feed them. Since the cows drink water full of nitrates, and these factory farms spray cow waste on their crops, the nitrates seep into the groundwater supply.
These factory farms are also notoriously bad at managing animal waste, often creating “lagoons” that leak waste into the groundwater supply.
If you live in a rural county, your water is most likely just as contaminated. Oregon is not even in the top 15 for the number of factory farms. Other states, especially those in the middle United States, have far more. If people in Oregon are getting sick and dying from nitrates in their well water, it is happening all over the United States.
We need mandatory pollution reductions to prevent new sources of pollution, including factory farms, from being built in groundwater management areas. In Oregon, a bill currently in the legislature will impose a moratorium on building more factory farms or expanding existing ones. This will give legislators and residents a chance to create a plan to make drinking water safer.
That plan may include eliminating large factory farms and instead concentrating on small and midsize farms which are better at managing waste and taking care of animals as well.
Check your local water reports to see how contaminated your drinking water is. If you have a well, have it tested at least annually. There’s no reason to suffer from thyroid issues or cancer just by drinking water.
Certainly, you can protect yourself by getting a multistage water filtration system. But it’s also not OK for the water that comes from our taps to be deadly.
