Well hell, continued

Watch what you drink in the Yakima Valley. Groundwater contaminated with nitrates and bacteria, which is pumped by private well owners for drinking, is turning the lower valley into “the toilet bowl” of Washington, as one resident puts it.

Dirty drinking water is a “widespread and long-standing” problem in the valley, according to the Yakima Herald. So the EPA’s announcement this week that it finally plans to crack down on area polluters and enforce clean water laws was welcome news. The agency will start sampling well water and inspecting dairies and feedlots, which have long been eyed as potential culprits behind the pollution.

The Yakima Valley isn’t alone in its well-water woes. According to a piece from the New York Times’ excellent series, “Toxic Waters”:

Agricultural runoff is the single largest source of water pollution in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the E.P.A. An estimated 19.5 million Americans fall ill each year from waterborne parasites, viruses or bacteria, including those stemming from human and animal waste, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.

… In California, up to 15 percent of wells in agricultural areas exceed a federal contaminant threshold, according to studies. Major waterways like the Chesapeake Bay have been seriously damaged by agricultural pollution, according to government reports.

In Arkansas and Maryland, residents have accused chicken farm owners of polluting drinking water. In 2005, Oklahoma’s attorney general sued 13 poultry companies, claiming they had damaged one of the state’s most important watersheds.

For more on problematic wells in the Yakima Basin, see my recent story, "Death by a thousand wells," which covers controversy in Kittitas County over the impact of unregulated domestic wells.