One topic that has stirred conversation in Iowa has been about the nitrite lawsuit from the Des Moines Water Works.

High levels of nitrites were found from samples taken by the utility company in which Sac, Calhoun and Buena Vista counties were named.  Watersheds in those counties feed into the Raccoon River which flows through Des Moines.

Greene County farmer John Muir says there are so many factors that can lead to high nitrite levels and no evidence has been proven whether or not farmers are the point of source for them.  State Senator Jerry Behn is a farmer from Boone and argues that it’s difficult to know which nitrites are naturally made and which from the farming community.

“I think it’s important to note that if there’s an occasional spike (in the nitrite level) that could be totally natural in it’s occurrence and it may not have anything to do with any activities that man has made or that anyone made upstream.”

State Representative Chip Baltimore says Des Moines Water Works has a machine that can take out the nitrites that they say is unusable, but due to the high cost of getting rid of the nitrites, they just put them back into the Raccoon River.

Even though Greene County isn’t a part of the lawsuit, the Raccoon River flows through it, so Muir feels it necessary to be a part of the discussion.

“It’s a long ways from Storm Lake to Des Moines and there’s a lot of water that comes off surface (and) comes out of cities; to take those districts and pinpoint them as their targets, it’s like, we’re all in this together.  Why should we have to sit off to the side and hold our breath?”

Muir believes that Des Moines Water Works should have discussed it with those county officials instead of assigning blame and pushing for a lawsuit.

Senator Behn sits on the natural resources committee in the Senate and says they will be having experts discuss the nitrogen cycle.  He wants to make sure he knows how nitrogen works to have a better understanding of the issue.