(Radio Iowa) – The C-E-O of the Des Moines Water Works says the utility may spend close to two million dollars this year to remove nitrates from their water sources. Ted Corrigan says there are solutions to reducing nitrates in Iowa’s rivers, and more farms are adding practices and infrastructure that can make a difference. “I have never met a producer or a farmer who says, ‘You know, hey, I don’t care about water quality,’” Corrigan says.

But Corrigan says he has met many farmers who don’t know what to do or feel like their margins are too thin to make changes.  “The state of Iowa is probably the only entity that can make a dent in this problem, and asking individual landowners or farmers to do it on their own, voluntarily, isn’t going to get that kind of change that we need to see,” he says.

Corrigan is retiring this week after 35 years with Des Moines Water Works that included the flooding of the plant in 1993, the pandemic and the most recent issues with nitrate removal. He made his comments on the IPR program “River to River.”