Imagine going down to the river that goes by your house and not seeing a single living thing in it. This is what life could be like if water quality gets to bad. In Racoon River, runoff from neighboring farms is contaminating the river. People are doing many different things about this. In this essay we will be looking at what people are doing about the water quality of Racoon river and how it will affect the river. Currently, the water quality is not very good. This is mostly contributed to runoff from farms that are neighboring the river. Most of the farms use fertilizer on their crops. This fertilizer contains lots of nitrogen. When it rains, the water carries some of the nitrogen into the river. This would not be a huge problem if those …show more content…
Some farmers, like Jim Fredrick, are attempting to prevent nitrogen from going into the river. They are doing this by letting grass and other wild plants grow up 10-15 feet in front of the river instead of planting crops as close as they can to act as a natural barrier that will trap some of the nitrates. They are also using less fertilizer on their crops. However, not all farmers see it as a problem, well not their problem at least. Dennis Degner states, “Didn’t your mom tell you not to suck icicles off the roof? Drill a well”. He claims that the only reason nitrates in the water would be a problem is that people can't drink it but he thinks that Des Moines should just not get their water from the river, and then the problem would be solved. This is part of the reason Des Moines is suing the farmers, to get them to change their ways. However, Jim Fredericks says that the lawsuit was “like a stab in the back” to him and the farmers who have been doing something because now instead of focusing on stopping the nitrates from going into the water, they have to worry about the …show more content…
According to Chris Jones in the Article “Striving for the perfect lawn could be hurting Iowa” he talks about how about 15 percent of the nitrates in the water comes from urban areas. Although this may seem like a small number, it is still has an effect. According to Mike Klenn, “40 to 60 percent of nitrogen applied to lawns through fertilizer winds up in surface and groundwater”. So while farms are having the biggest effect, urban areas are also contributing to nitrates in Racoon river. However, the problem is not getting people to do something about this, it's getting people informed about what they are doing and how it affects the environment. People like Darren Fife has created an organization called “no spray neighbor” which promotes not using herbicides and other products on your lawn. They do this by putting up signs in people's lawns who don't care about having the greenest