Water gets dirty. We can see that. We bathe in it, wash our clothes in it, pour our wastes into it. But what used to be obvious has now become an invisible danger.

Looked at one way, this is good news. Nearly 30 years after the passage of federal clean water standards put the onus on factories to clean the nation's waterways, we are no longer faced with the spectre of burning rivers.

But our expectations are higher. A recent federal study found that 20,000 bodies of water in the United States remain polluted, though overt sources of contamination have been reduced considerably. So environmental officials throughout the country are gearing up to monitor limits on the amount of "invisible" pollutants that enter our streams and lakes.

And this time, the onus for dirty water is likely to fall largely on farmers.

The contaminants to be monitored more closely are technically known as "nonpoint source" pollution. The counterpart, "point source" pollution, got its name because observers can literally point to a source, such as an industrial pipe dumping waste into a river. The nonpoint source, or unseen pollution, occurs through less obvious means, such as farm field runoff carried by precipitation to rivers, lakes and groundwater.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has hired two consultants to research and analyze six of this state's watersheds in an effort to determine the level of these so-called invisible discharges and the safety of the state's water supply. Watersheds are those areas where water, including storm runoff, drains into a river or lake. Over the next 15 years, the agency plans to examine 338 of them. During that time, it will devise plans to reduce pollution in all of those watersheds.

In Illinois' urban areas, the culprits behind invisible source contaminants include parking lots with oil, gas and asphalt tainted runoff. Elsewhere, contaminants include runoff from

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A common chemical in fertilizer is nitrogen, which encourages plant growth. When nitrogen and its derivatives — nitrates and nitrites — drain into a body of water, the plants consume all of the oxygen, killing fish and other aquatic life. Further, when it enters drinking water, it poses a dan-ger to infants because it blocks oxygen from being circulated through the body, causing “blue baby,” a potential-ly life-threatening condition. Though the syndrome is rare in Illinois, it is monitored by water regulators. The source of pollution may be invisible, but nitrate and phosphate runoff can be visible in the water in the form of excessive algae, plant growth that can turn the water dark green.

The Illinois Farm Bureau argues there’s a voluntary approach in place that is already working to cut agricultural pollution, particularly in the case of erosion. “We’ve reduced soil erosion by 30 percent,” says Nancy Erickson, the bureau’s director of natural and environmental resources. “We’re concerned there will be a one-size-fits-all mandatory approach. That’s not going to work for agriculture. The weather, for example, doesn’t cooperate.”

Nonetheless, according to state environmental officials, voluntary efforts have not eliminated the problem. And environmentalists are pushing to enhance regulations.

Even some farmers agree. “A voluntary system for the average farmer won’t be able to cut it,” says Jane Johnson, a family farmer in Gilson since 1947. “If you don’t have to do it, some won’t even do it for their own safety.”

Meanwhile, the state hired Harza Engineering Co. of Chicago and CH2MHILL of St. Louis to analyze pollutants and their sources on the initial six watersheds. Harza will study the Kaskaskia River in Clinton and Marion counties, the Cache River in Union County, the Big Muddy River in Franklin County and Rayse Creek in Jefferson County. CH2MHILL will analyze the East Branch of the DuPage River, and Salt Creek in DuPage and Cook counties.

The research and analysis will take about 18 months and will include public hearings, says Gary Eicken, head of the watershed management planning unit at Illinois’ Bureau of Water. The bureau is searching for firms to study another 13 watersheds.

Even when plans have been written for all 338 watersheds, the state will need assistance from the federal government and other states, says Eicken. Illinois’ two largest watersheds, for instance, are Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. Finding and clean-ing the hidden discharges in those two bodies of water will be a massive job.

Further, the problems will vary in the state’s numerous watersheds. For example, central Illinois’ Lake Decatur, which draws on water from five coun-ties, has already been closely moni-tored for nitrites. “Of all the water bodies polluted by nitrogen, Lake Decatur has had the biggest impact on humans because it is used for drinking water,’’ says Robert Moore, executive director of the Prairie Rivers Network, a 30-year-old statewide water quality watchdog group.

It’s too early to determine the final cost of the project, says Eicken. For now, the two firms conducting the six surveys will be paid about $800,000. And the state’s water bureau continues to sort the next batch of watersheds to study. But this emphasis on invisible sources of pollution indicates how far the nation has come in its struggle for clean water. The fight against water pollution originated in the 1972 federal Clean Water Act. The tenor of those times was expressed by Randy Newman in his song “Burn On,” a sarcastic tribute to the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. It had become so clogged with debris and spillover from oil tankers that it caught fire. Public demand forced regulators to focus on these egregious sources of discharge that could be seen with the naked eye. The 1972 act set tougher limits on discharge levels, forcing polluters to clean up their emissions or face fines or other penalties. States also required permits for those discharging waste into a watershed.

Since then, activists and regulators have declared victory in this part of the battle. And in Illinois, a combination of the act’s reforms and changes in farm tilling practices has improved the Illinois River, according to Derek Winstanley, chief of the Illinois State Water Survey. He’s finishing a study of the Illinois River that goes back to presettlement days, and he’s found that nitrate levels in the river are back to the levels they were in the 1800s, prior to massive use of fertilizers by farmers.

The possibility of federal standards for nitrogen in drinking water looms despite these improvements. But Winstanley cautions against rushing to add regulations. He notes that the river was never as pristine as some believe. Once it had a high nitrogen content due to buffalo waste and the sediment from burning prairie grass. In that context, the 15-year life of the state analysis seems short. A long-term view may be necessary when the enemy is an invisible one.

Editor’s choice
Fresh Water
by E.C. Pielou
The University of Chicago Press 1998

Want to know how water moves from vapor to land to sea to vapor again? As a natural history of fresh water, this book provides a technical grounding for readers interested in the water crisis.

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