TESTING THE WATERS
Researchers from Whatcom County and beyond have joined forces to decrease nitrogen pollution in the Nooksack watershed.
Story by Katie Kovac | Photos by North Joffe-Nelson
Nestled between two cornfields in the countryside of Lynden, Washington, David Hooper, a biology professor at Western Washington University huddles with other scientists around a small creek in the Nooksack watershed. One scientist leans over and mumbles something in Danish to another, while an American and Ukrainian point to a tall chrome box with pipes and tubes that sits in the water below.
“Please don’t mess with that,” said a farm planning engineer for the Whatcom Conservation District who was leading the tour. “That’s an instrument that has taken a lot of time and challenge to get to.”
The job of this $100,000 little box is to monitor water nutrients and contaminants. It collects data for multiple studies, testing the water quality in rivers and creeks across the Nooksack watershed.
Much of northwestern Whatcom County sits atop the Sumas-Blaine Aquifer, one of the state’s aquifers that is most vulnerable to pollution. Nitrogen contamination threatens drinking water quality for 18,000 to 27,000 residents who rely on their private wells. Determining the source of the contamination is tricky business, but scientists are striving to put together a plan to help reduce pollution in the aquifer.
Hooper and other researchers in the area have created the Nooksack-Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen Project. Still in its infancy, the project is part of an international initiative to minimize nitrogen pollution on a local scale. Think of the nitrogen issue as a giant puzzle with a few missing pieces. Hooper and his team are working to put the pieces together, meaning finding out where and how nitrates are getting into the water.
Whatcom County and its aquifer is a unique area for studying water quality. The water flows between farms, across state border lines, through urban communities and into Bellingham Bay. With each drop of water, there are different issues and perspectives to consider. It’s the perfect demonstration candidate for an international effort to reduce nitrogen pollution.
An aquifer is a region of porous rocks and soil that stores water below the surface, called groundwater. For over 30 years, several wells that tap into the Sumas-Blaine Aquifer have failed to meet federal drinking water standards for nitrogen. Some of this groundwater, which exceeded the nitrate-nitrogen limit of contamination, can cause health problems for the rural residents that depend on them. Infants are the most susceptible to nitrate poisoning. When drinking formula made with water high in nitrates, babies can develop methemoglobinemia, or ‘blue-baby’ syndrome. Their blood fails to carry oxygen efficiently and turns their skin blue and their blood brown. The condition can be fatal if left untreated.
A large part of the puzzle is agriculture and its effects on the environment, Hooper said.
“There’s been a lot of talk about how agricultural activities up here are having an adverse effect on the rivers,” said Hooper.
Nitrate is a vital compound that plants absorb through the soil to promote plant growth and naturally occurs in manure. Most farmers also use synthetic fertilizers, which chemically have the same nitrate nutrients as manure. The excess nutrients from the fields can end up in surface water, such as creeks, and make their way into lakes and oceans. According to a study published in 2012 by the Washington State Department of Ecology, agriculture contributes 97 percent of nitrogen contaminates to the Sumas-Blaine Aquifer.
Rural residents share the Sumas-Blaine Aquifer with a dense concentration of agriculture, and in return, risk the possibility of their private water being contaminated. One portion of the Nooksack-Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen Project is to consider farmers and their practices, but the issue can’t be solved with a simple point of a finger.
Scientists are eager to pinpoint where the pollution is coming from and how to regulate it. Collecting current data on local water quality and confirming the source of contamination involves more than science. Hooper said developing a positive relationship with the farmers and involving them with the data collection is an important part of their research process.
“Here’s the numbers we’re coming up with for farming, and here’s how we’ve come up with those. Fact-check us. Do those numbers seem accurate?” he said.
Dairy farmers in Whatcom County are not oblivious to the nitrogen issue in the aquifer that they farm on. For decades, agricultural practices and water pollution have been a hot topic for debate. In 1998, the state issued a Dairy Nutrient Management Plan requiring farmers to limit nitrogen pollution. By law, farmers must write-out a plan to demonstrate how they utilize their nutrients and prevent groundwater contamination. Later, in 2012, a law was passed saying that if the farmers failed to record their pollutants or allow them into the water, they can face fines of up to $10,000 a day.
“The national policy is that the lack of profit isn’t an excuse for polluting,” said George Boggs, executive director for the Whatcom Conservation District. Part of his job with the district is to help farmers to manage their waste.
Whatcom County is not comprised of dairy farms alone, but hosts a range of corn, grass, berry and potato fields and the Sumas-Blaine Aquifer also crosses into British Columbia, which means Canadian contaminants affect Whatcom County as well.
“They have a lot of poultry in the lower Fraser valley in British Columbia, and there’s no regulation necessarily reporting restrictions on what happens to that poultry manure,” Hooper said.
The Nooksack-Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen Project hopes to encourage a downward trend of nitrogen in some wells with detailed data collection that breaks down the sources of nitrogen pollution in the watershed whether it’s from natural processes, agriculture, or industry.
