Background Information from the MN Department of Health
Nitrate occurs naturally and at safe and healthy levels in some foods (e.g. spinach and carrots) and comes from natural processes, like plant decay. Nitrate is in many fertilizers used on yards, golf courses, and crops. Other sources of nitrate include discharge from sewage systems and animal wastes.
Natural processes can cause low levels of nitrate in drinking water—usually less than 3 mg/L. The health concern is with levels of nitrate over 10/mg/L. High levels of nitrate in water can be from runoff or leakage from fertilized soil, wastewater, landfills, animal feedlots, septic systems, or urban drainage.
Community Public Water system Requirements
Public water systems are required to regularly test for nitrate and make sure levels meet the EPA standard.
Chatfield has 2 wells. The nitrate level in one of wells is 1.9 mg/L and is tested annually. The nitrate level in the other well is 4.6 mg/L. This well is tested 5 times a year. The level of nitrate detected in our system is routinely made available in the water quality report (also known as a Consumer Confidence Report) which is available on the website (Public Works / Water Department / Water Reports).
Chatfield is very active with our Well head protection program working with Minnesota Dept. of Ag, MN Dept. of Health, U of M extension program (Forever Green Program), Olmsted and Fillmore County Soil and Water Conservation, and MN Rural Water Association.
Other activities that have been accomplished to protect the community water supply include; sealing 28 unused wells in our Drinking Water Supply Management Area (DWSMA) and planting 25 acres of cropland in Kernza or Winter Camelina to help reduce nitrate leaching.
The City of Chatfield has earned awards for the efforts to protect our public water system. The Minnesota Rural Water Association and Minnesota Department of Health presented the Source Water Protection award to Chatfield for recognizing the importance and value of source water protection, and for showing long term commitment, initiative, leadership and participation in activities which resulted in protection or improvement of source water. The University of Minnesota’s Local Government Innovation Award was earned for partnering with the Forever Green Initiative, Mn Rural Water Association, a private farmer, and General Mills to develop a model to protect the water supply from nitrate contamination.
Councilor Novotny is a great source of information about the Forever Green program and has been featured in a couple news stories on this topic;
· “Tackling the ‘big brown spot’: Keeping fields in living cover could be a path to reducing nitrate” is featuring these efforts and is available on the mprnews.org website and
· “Meet Paul Novotny, Continuous Living Cover farmer, steward & community leader” on umn.edu
We are proud of our Public Works Staff and Elected Officials for their commitment to the safety of our drinking water.
Additional information is also available from the Minnesota Department of Health www.health.state.mn.us—Nitrate in Drinking Water .
