Minnesota Looks to Clean Up Water Starting Sept 1st

Our lifeblood, known as water, is to human beings like oil is to a car. If it's dirty, it can affect the engine, or in this case, the body. And that can lead to all kinds of health issues. Minnesota is looking to slow down the contamination of one particular chemical in our groundwater supply.

Chemicals in our water supply have been an ongoing issue for decades. There are some chemicals that few would argue against them not being in our water at all. There are other chemicals that some argue are fine in certain amounts, like chloride, fluoride and nitrate. All are still topics of debate and nitrate is a big one.

In this case, we're talking about nitrate and it's something that the State of Minnesota is aiming to clean it up a little starting September 1st.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is reminding farmers and landowners that beginning September 1, 2020, the application of nitrogen fertilizer in the fall and on frozen soil will be restricted in areas vulnerable to groundwater contamination.  - Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Different areas of the state will determine nitrate usage.

One thing is for certain, Minnesota's water supply needs some fixing or cleaning.

More than 40 percent of Minnesota’s waters are considered impaired or polluted.1 Excess phosphorus and nitrates from agricultural activities that wash off roads have the potential to pollute lakes, rivers, and streams because they don’t go through the natural filtration process. - MinnesotaGo.org