There are 9 beach advisories for the week of 6/20

9 Beaches with an E. coli Advisory:
Backbone Beach (Dundee, Delaware County, IA)* 
Beed’s Lake Beach (Hampton, Franklin County, IA)* 
Black Hawk Beach (Lake View, Sac County, IA)*
Bobwhite State Park (Allerton, Wayne County, IA)*
Emerson Bay Beach (West Okoboji Lake, Milford, Dickinson County, IA)* 
Lewis and Clark Beach (Blue Lake, Onawa, Monona County, IA)* 
Lower Pine Lake Beach (Eldora, Hardin County, IA)* 
Nine Eagles Beach (Davis City, Decatur County, IA)* 
North Twin Lake West Beach (Rockwell City, Calhoun County, IA)* 

0 Beaches with a Microcystin Advisory

8 City and County Beaches exceed the state’s advisory threshold for E. coli.*
(City and County beaches do not report levels of algal toxins) 
View the map on our website to see where.

Note: Monitoring has been suspended at Lake Keomah due to renovation activities.

*Data from the Iowa DNR State Park Beach Monitoring Program
**Data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District

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What is Nitrate and Where Does it Come From? 

Nitrates are naturally occurring chemicals found in soil, water, and air. They contain nitrogen and oxygen, which are required by plants and animals for growth and development. Nitrates are negatively charged particles (ions), so they bond to other substances in the environment and dissolve easily in water. Nitrates are also found in fertilizers, livestock waste, and septic systems. Unfortunately, nitrate compounds are overabundant in Iowa’s environment due to the extensive use of fertilizer and spreading of animal manure. Iowans are directly exposed to nitrate pollution in drinking water supplies when nitrate dissolves in water in high concentrations and runs off the land into Iowa’s streams and seeps into the groundwater. The source of nitrate exposure is important when considering human health, whether the nitrate originates from food, polluted drinking water, chemical products, or trace amounts in dust particles, because ingesting too many nitrates can be harmful for human health. 

Federal Nitrate Standards and Human Health 

Elevated nitrate levels in Iowa’s water have been a source of concern for decades, particularly for the health of the most vulnerable Iowans. The federal nitrate drinking water standard of 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L) was established in 1962 to prevent methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome, a life-threatening condition that decreases the blood’s ability to carry vital oxygen through the body. The Safe Drinking Water Act, enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, keeps water utilities accountable to this standard. While blue baby syndrome is now rare, an increasing number of scientific studies are making connections between long-term, low-level nitrate concentrations in drinking water and other health issues, including birth defects, cancers, and thyroid disease. 

When nitrate is ingested, it is reduced within the body to nitrite, which is considered unsafe at much lower levels than nitrate. Nitrite is further reduced in the body to N-nitroso compounds, which are widely considered to cause cancer and contribute to a variety of health problems.