In 2023, nearly 29,000 households scattered across rural Nebraska received postcards instructing them how to get their drinking water tested, free of charge, for a harmful contaminant state policymakers have been aware of for decades. 

It was the state’s largest-ever effort to test registered domestic wells, which most Nebraskans who live outside of a town use to shower, cook and drink. Unlike public water systems in cities and towns, these wells aren’t subject to regular testing and treatment. And many are pumping out water that’s high in nitrate, the state testing shows.

Some 40% of private wells tested in the past two years contained nitrate that exceeded 3 parts per million — the level that one Nebraska medical expert considers safe for children. About 15% exceeded the federal drinking water standard, the level that would trigger mandatory treatment if it were a public water well. 

Rural Nebraska’s nitrate problem doesn’t appear to be getting any better – the results of the recent testing are roughly in line with the 20-year testing average for private wells. 

And nitrate levels are also rising in roughly a third of the 444 public water systems analyzed,  according to the study, which was ordered by the Legislature at the request of Gov. Jim Pillen. Those water systems provide drinking water to untold thousands of Nebraskans living in cities and towns.

In 2022, the Flatwater Free Press spent months examining the scope and history of nitrate contamination, a byproduct of decades of nitrogen fertilizer excessively applied to corn. 

The multi-part series highlighted recent studies linking nitrate to a variety of diseases, pregnancy complications, birth defects and various cancers. Nebraska has the highest pediatric cancer rate west of Pennsylvania.

And the problem isn’t going away, health and environmental experts who reviewed the report told the Flatwater Free Press. 

“I think it's essential that we go on looking at these higher nitrate levels and understanding what it is they're doing that's adverse to human health, particularly in children, since children are so much more vulnerable,” said Eleanor Rogan a public health professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, whose team is studying the links between cancer and environmental contaminants including nitrate. 

There are positive signs. About another third of the public water systems analyzed by the state showed a significant drop in their nitrate levels. And the average nitrate level in community water system wells is dropping slightly overall. 

This trend is expected because of treatment measures taken by public water systems in order to follow the federal drinking water standard, according to the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy. 

The report also identified areas where private wells are most severely threatened by nitrate: the Platte River Valley stretching across central and east-central parts of the state, the Elkhorn River Valley in northeast Nebraska and the Republican River watershed and the Little Blue and Big Blue River basins in the southern part of the state. 

Public water systems must treat their water when nitrate levels exceed 10 parts per million, as mandated by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Drinking water with nitrate higher than that concentration can lead to “blue baby syndrome,” a sometimes fatal disease for babies. 

However, experts have long raised concerns that ingesting nitrate at much lower levels than the current federal standard may still increase the risk of developing adult and pediatric cancers. University of Nebraska Medical Center researchers found Nebraska watersheds with high nitrate levels largely coincided with those with high occurrences of pediatric brain cancer, leukemia and lymphoma. 

Bacteria in human bodies can turn nitrate, a colorless, tasteless and odorless chemical, into nitrite and then convert it to nitrosamine, a known probable carcinogen. This may more greatly impact people already more genetically predisposed to developing various forms of cancer.

Rogan believes Nebraska children shouldn’t drink water above 3 ppm, but said it’s currently all but impossible to get Nebraska water systems down to that level because of widespread nitrate contamination of groundwater. 

Tim Gragert is a former state senator from Creighton, the first Nebraska town to install a complex water treatment plant to filter out high nitrate. He sees another public health problem: A lack of awareness. 

Out of nearly 29,000 private well owners the state reached out to, only 3,478 samples were sent back.

“That's what's kind of alarming to me out here in the rural area, that the people aren't getting educated enough, if you will, on the actual severity of this nitrate problem that we have,” Gragert said in an interview.

Nitrate in Nebraska largely stems from agricultural practices. It forms when soil bacteria break down nitrogen, often from commercial fertilizers and animal waste. When fertilizer is sprayed on cornfields and not used up by the crop, the excess nitrate can leach into the soil and eventually the water supply, especially when applied excessively. The overapplication of manure on fields can do the same. 

The problem is even harder to combat because nitrate leached years or even decades ago is already in the soil, slowly making its way into the groundwater beneath it.

Elevated nitrate concentrations have been reported since the 1930s in watersheds like the Upper Elkhorn and Central Platte River basins. 

“You can see where it's all eastern Nebraska with your red dots (showing hot spots of nitrate), and then down through southeast Nebraska ... it kind of shows you where the crops are growing, and more specifically, corn is grown,” said Gragert. 

Rogan, the public health expert, said she’s especially concerned about the Elkhorn River Valley’s nitrate levels in northeast Nebraska. That part of the state continues to be a hotspot for pediatric cancers and birth defects, she said. 

The state study happened because it’s a step toward Pillen’s goal of reducing overapplication of nitrate fertilizers, said Laura Strimple, the governor’s spokesperson, in an email statement. 

Another goal: Preserve Nebraska’s drinking water and the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest source of groundwater. The aquifer is a “pot of gold” for Nebraskans, Pillen said in his State of State address in January. 

“Ensuring that Nebraskans have access to quality drinking water is a key priority for Governor Pillen,” Strimple added. 

Pillen’s proposed merger of the state Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environment and Energy would help, Strimple said, acting as a “one-stop shop” for water quantity and water quality concerns.

Having a good deal of nitrate in your drinking water source is an expensive problem. 

Public water systems, including those in small towns like Creighton, have spent millions to get their nitrate levels down. They have drilled new wells, blended water with a nearby water system, installed large treatment plants and even, in places like Prosser, a town of less than 100 residents, provided bottled water. 

Boiling the water doesn’t reduce nitrate levels. In fact, it drives up the concentration and makes the water more dangerous to consume. A regular filter, such as a Brita, doesn’t take out the chemical either.

Households whose private wells contain nitrate levels above 10 ppm are eligible for a state rebate of up to $1,000 to install a reverse osmosis purification system. Those more advanced purifiers cost up to a few thousand dollars and require regular maintenance including replacing filters.

The state allocated $500,000 annually for the program from July 2024 through July 2027. The fund will increase to $1 million annually thereafter. 

In the Lower Loup NRD, reverse osmosis systems reduced nitrate in drinking water by 81%, data provided by the district shows. However, reverse osmosis systems used by families often only store a few gallons of purified water. Residents often still use untreated water for showering, as the Flatwater Free Press previously reported. 

“While RO does temporarily provide better drinking water, it only addresses the symptom of high nitrates and does nothing to fix the problem,” said Tylr Naprstek, Lower Loup NRD’s assistant manager, in an email.

Some farmers have adopted conservation practices that can greatly reduce nitrate leaching, such as introducing cover crops to absorb excess nitrogen and using precision farming technologies.  

Best management practices in the Central Platte NRD seem to have decreased nitrate in the region, said Amanda Woita, a spokesperson for the NDEE.

But these practices remain voluntary in many parts of the state. And natural resources districts have little to no authority to police how people farm, NRD leaders previously told Flatwater. 

The Nitrogen Reduction Incentive Act, introduced by Sen. Teresa Ibach, a Republican who represents eight southwest Nebraska counties, including the cities of Lexington and Imperial, became law in 2024. It paved the way for the state to provide funding for producers who adopt farming practices that reduce nitrogen leaching. 

But farmers in the Upper Elkhorn NRD, where pediatric cancer rates remain high and nitrate in water systems continues to get worse, barely used the program. The landowners in the district who participated in the program own just 900 acres total.The district approved all applications, at a total state cost of roughly $12,000 paid to the farmers who applied. That’s less than a quarter of the state money available to farmers in that area.

Leaving it up to farmers to voluntarily adopt better management practices isn’t enough, said Gragert, a former soil conservationist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service prior to assuming public office.

The state regulatory agencies are letting Nebraskans down, he said. 

Brian Bruckner, manager of the Lower Elkhorn NRD, doesn’t see any quick fix on the horizon. It could take as long as a half century for the benefits of any control measures to materialize, he wrote in an email.

In his district, 25% of private wells tested exceeded the federal nitrate standard.

The money the state has spent has done little to ease northeast Nebraska’s nitrate problem, Gragert said. And if the current trend continues, Nebraskans may not be able to simply dig new wells, he said.

“Good luck finding good water to mix with the bad water.”

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.