DES MOINES, IOWA (December 9, 2025) — Today, Food and Water Watch unveiled an Iowa Blueprint for Clean Water, with twenty comprehensive policy solutions to clean up widespread toxic nitrate contamination in drinking water, linked to industrial agriculture and rising cancer rates. Iowa has the nation’s highest waterway nitrate concentrations; the second-highest cancer rate; and is one of only two states with rising cancer rates.
Food and Water Watch is in discussion with Iowa lawmakers to introduce legislation that furthers three key goals outlined in the blueprint:
- Mandate best management practices at animal and row crop operations, including by passing a moratorium on new factory farms in vulnerable groundwater areas and by prohibiting all land application of manure on snow-covered or frozen ground;
- Increase transparency, including by permanently funding statewide water-quality monitoring through Iowa State University’s Iowa Water Quality Information System;
- Hold corporate polluters accountable, including by passing the Clean Water for Iowa Act (SF 183) to require water pollution monitoring at more than 4,000 factory farms currently operating in the state without oversight.
Food and Water Watch Senior Iowa Organizer Michaelyn Mankel issued the following statement:
“Common-sense policies are all that stand between Iowans and clean, healthy water. Our blueprint outlines the legislative solutions needed to clean up nitrate pollution in Iowa. All that remains is lawmakers’ will to get it done.
“The tide is shifting on clean water in Iowa. For too long, industrial agriculture has run rampant, leaving a legacy of dirty water and rising cancer rates. In every corner of the state, Iowans are rising up. It’s time state lawmakers stopped carrying water for industrial polluters — and started cleaning the water for everyone. This issue must be center stage next legislative session.”
The blueprint release comes on the heels of mounting calls for legislative action on Iowa's water crisis. Last month, a packed room joined Food and Water Watch, Progress Iowa, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the Harkin Institute for a Water Quality Solutions Town Hall in Des Moines. Groups plan to make the issue, long neglected by Iowa lawmakers, a priority next legislative session.
Background
Iowa drinking water is routinely contaminated with toxic nitrates in excess of the federal safety limit of 10mg/L. Drinking nitrate-contaminated water is linked to a host of negative health outcomes including birth defects and cancers; new evidence suggests that nitrate exposure may be toxic even at lower levels. Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the nation and is one of only two states with rising cancer rates.
Industrial agriculture is a major source of nitrates and other contaminants. Food and Water Watch analysis finds that Iowa is home to more factory farms producing more waste than any other state — 109 billion pounds annually, more than 25 times the sewage produced by the state’s human population. Iowa farmers also spread more toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizer than any other state.
This summer, nitrate levels in the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers, Central Iowa’s urban drinking-water supplies, reached near-record highs, forcing Des Moines Water Works to run its nitrate-removal system for 112 days. The recent Central Iowa Water Resource Assessment (CISWRA) report commissioned by Polk County, found that 80% of the rivers’ nitrates stem from industrial agriculture, including factory farms.
Northeast Iowa’s sensitive driftless area has experienced decades of factory farm nitrate exposure above 10mg/L; thirteen groups have petitioned EPA for emergency action.
While the problem worsens, federal agencies are turning their back on Iowa. The EPA rescinded its impaired waters designation for the state’s major urban drinking water sources, including segments of the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon, and South Skunk rivers, despite finding that each was acutely contaminated with toxic nitrate levels in excess of federal limits.
