T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Nitrates are not something Marshalltown residents need to worry about. For the last 15 years, tests conducted on the water have been clean of detectable nitrates.

A new Environmental Working Group (EWG) study found communities in Iowa that have elevated nitrate levels tend to have households with lower incomes.

The nitrate level for Marshalltown is undetectable. Marshalltown Water Works General Manager Shelli Lovell said there is no problem with nitrates in this utility.

“You can’t ever say there is zero, but the lab tests can only go down so far,” she said.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources last collected water from Marshalltown to test for nitrates in January, and the results were less than the indicator. Lovell said nitrate level tests on Marshalltown Water Works have been undetectable for the last 15 years.

Nitrates are chemicals found in manure and fertilizers. The water runoff from fields can get into water sources and contaminate them. The federal legal limit for nitrates in drinking water is 10 milligrams per liter. If the level is higher than that, there is a risk of blue baby syndrome, birth defects, colorectal cancer and thyroid disease.

Blue baby syndrome is a condition in which an infant has consumed too many nitrates and is then has a lack of oxygen in his or her blood.

The only contaminants greater than EWG guidelines detected in Marshalltown water, according to the EWG Tap Water Database, were chromium and chlorite.

Lovell said up until a year and a half ago, the city would add sodium chlorite to the water because it controlled ammonia.

“But we stopped that,” she said. “We probably have a little bit of chlorite, but that’s taken out of context.”

Water in Marshalltown is a source of pride for residents, and Lovell can attest to that.

“We have competed in water taste competitions and won awards three times,” she said. “At the minimum, we meet state and federal regulations. We do better. We exceed that so we have good tasting water.”

Lovell said the town is fortunate enough to have a good water source, but the treatments done to and put into the water reduce the natural hardness and improve the tasting quality.

“We have a knowledgeable and committed group of operators,” she said. “We get the water as good as you can make it.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.