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BONDURANT, Iowa – Amid the election-year debates, political advertisements and polls, one simple Iowa yard sign sums ups a core issue seen driving voter sentiment. It reads simply: “Fix the damn water.”
The concerns about persistent water pollution in this key US farm state have been growing for years, as have unrest over rising rates of cancer. But the Nov. 3 midterm elections mark what health and environmental advocates say could be a turning point as many voters are expected to take their concerns with them to the ballot box.
Soon, the chemicals will start falling from the sky over the Red Hill area of Boulder County, Colorado.
The wildland is known for its biodiversity, home to hundreds of important species and a concentration of rare environmental resources. It is a key habitat for beloved herds of elk and bighorn sheep, with farms and ranchland lying at its base.
But any day now hundreds of acres of Red Hill are set to become the target for drone spraying of a chemical herbicide that comes with a host of concerns.
California regulators said Friday they intend to designate the widely used weed killer atrazine as a known carcinogen, a move that contrasts with the opinion of federal regulators.
The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said it will list atrazine as “known to the state to cause cancer under a provision of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986” referred to as Proposition 65.
OEHHA said it was giving people the opportunity to comment on the plan until Nov. 9.