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DES MOINES, Iowa — <\/span>Iowa is facing a budget deficit, high costs and economic strain from trade disputes that have squeezed farmers.<\/p>\n But problems that have simmered for decades \u2014 water quality and cancer rates \u2014 have been forced to the forefront of state politics this year. They are the focus of debate questions, roundtable events and campaign advertisements for candidates from both parties, up and down the ballot.<\/p>\n The issue has historically been politically taboo to avoid pointing fingers at the powerful agricultural industry in Iowa, one of the country\u2019s top producers of corn, soybeans and hogs. Chemical fertilizers and animal waste contain nitrates and phosphorus that can get washed with rain or snowmelt<\/a> into the state\u2019s web of rivers. <\/p>\n The problem has long caused tension<\/a> between Iowa\u2019s more liberal urban centers, which rely on rivers and lakes for drinking water, and mostly conservative stewards of its rich farmland. Farmers are increasingly participating in practices to prevent runoff, although critics say the lack of regulation forces downstream Iowans to pay for the pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n The spotlight has grown \u2014 and the political calculus has shifted \u2014 after back-to-back years of restrictions on water use<\/a> in the Des Moines area coupled with a burgeoning \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement<\/a> in Iowa’s small town and rural communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iowa has the second highest rate of newly diagnosed cancers in the country. Specific diagnoses, like prostate, breast and lung cancer, are increasing in Iowa faster than in the U.S. overall. It’s affecting urban and rural parts of the state.<\/p>\n New state-funded research at the University of Iowa shows most \u2014 but not all \u2014 of Iowa\u2019s above-normal rates for five cancers can be explained by demographic and behavioral factors, such as smoking and binge drinking. Researchers next assess environmental factors, including nitrate levels.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real issue is the water and the nitrates,\u201d said Democrat Josh Turek, who is running for U.S. Senate, as he talked with cancer patients last week. \u201cEvery Iowan deserves when they turn on the tap to ensure that their water is clean and not giving them cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n Some studies have found a link between nitrates in drinking water and certain diseases, but it remains an area of debate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not currently classify nitrates as a cancer risk. The agency initiated a plan to review that assessment in 2017, but it’s been stalled, revived and stalled again under different White House administrations. <\/p>\n The Republican congresswoman running against Turek, Ashley Hinson, recently gathered farmers, researchers and local officials to discuss Iowa\u2019s water problems. She said there is an ongoing need for investments in infrastructure, water quality monitoring and conservation programs but also said that Iowans can feel safe because tap water meets federal regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know that we have some challenges here in Iowa,” she said. \u201cI don’t think water quality is a partisan issue.”<\/p>\n It\u2019s been more than a decade since the Des Moines area\u2019s water utility, fed up with paying roughly $16,000 per day to remove nitrates from water, sued counties further upstream to get them to help cover the cost. The complaint was ultimately dismissed<\/a>, and Iowa\u2019s Republican leaders celebrated the ruling.<\/p>\n Last year, Central Iowa Water Works issued its first-ever ban on lawn watering to reduce demand on its nitrate removal facilities, and state politicians rejected any suggestion of a \u201cblame game\u201d that would implicate farmers. Iowa had been investing nearly $100 million annually in its nutrient reduction strategy in recent years. <\/p>\n In May, though, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and lawmakers committed an additional $320 million for water infrastructure, conservation initiative incentives and other projects, including millions to Central Iowa Water Works to update equipment.<\/p>\n \u201cWater quality isn’t a farm issue. It isn’t a city issue, and it isn’t a political issue,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cBut it absolutely is non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, criticism of slow progress has continued, including from candidates running to replace Reynolds.<\/p>\n Republican Zach Lahn<\/a> and Democrat Rob Sand<\/a> both emphasize that the state needs to better prioritize the water problem, though neither have called for mandating farming conservation practices that reduce runoff.<\/p>\n Lahn, who was endorsed early in his primary<\/a> by political committee MAHA Action, has diverged from many of his Republican peers in directly linking polluted water and agrochemicals to Iowa\u2019s cancer crisis. <\/p>\n At Lahn’s agriculture-focused town hall in northeast Iowa in August, one attendee raised the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now the farmers, I would say, are really getting blamed for the high cancer rate in Iowa,\u201d she said. \u201cEven our daughter calls from Des Moines and says: \u2018Should we be drinking this water?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Lahn said he knows certain agrochemicals are important \u201ctools in the tool chest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not here to ban products,” he said, “but we do have to address the water quality issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal regulations say drinking water is safe with a maximum nitrate level of 10 milligrams per liter. That threshold was set to prevent what\u2019s known as blue baby syndrome, a condition when an infant\u2019s blood doesn\u2019t have enough oxygen, but more scientific studies are now analyzing the relationship between nitrate-laden water below that threshold and certain cancers. <\/p>\n Lahn said he tested the nitrate levels from his well water and creek in rural east-central Iowa, finding both well above the federal limit. <\/p>\n Central Iowa Water Works ran its nitrate removal treatment for a record 193 days straight earlier this year, and the treated water’s nitrate levels hovered around eight to nine milligrams per liter in the heart of summer.<\/p>\n