Description: Special topic news website on nitrate contamination in Nebraska's drinking water.
It’s a problem that is quietly costing the state and federal government millions of dollars and changing the way rural residents get water and how much they pay. Health researchers believe nitrate contamination in drinking water could be one cause of Nebraska’s higher than average pediatric cancer rate. Nebraska has the seventh-highest pediatric cancer rate in the country and the highest in the Midwest.
This series of stories explores the history of this decades-old problem, how it is impacting Nebraskans and what’s being done about it — from a corn and soybean field in McLean to a daycare in Edgar to a water treatment plant in Creighton.
“I think one way to describe this is it’s a very slow train wreck,” said Dan Snow, a professor and director of laboratory services at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Water Sciences Laboratory. “People are finally aware that there is a train coming, and now we need to figure out what to do about it.”