Debate over Plastics Continues

Plastic refuse, long a scourge of waterways, including the Big Sioux River, continues to be a major problem. Not only is plastics litter and garbage unsightly and unsafe for wildlife, but the process of producing plastics also contributes mightily to pollution issues. In the U.S., per capita plastic waste rose from sixty pounds per year in 1980 to 218 pounds per year in 2018 - a 263% total increase. Meanwhile, the rate of recycling plastics has dropped from 8.7% in 2018 to less than 6% in 2021. Experts indicate that to protect the environment it is more important to reduce plastics use and production than to recycle plastics.

Rescue Training at Falls Park

On a warm summer afternoon, members of Sioux Falls Fire Rescue practiced water-based rescue techniques at Falls Park, in Sioux Falls. According to Sioux Falls fire chief Matt McAreavey, there has been only one rescue event in the water at the park during 2022. During 2021, there was not a single rescue event. Nine people have drowned at the park, in the Big Sioux River, since 1982. The most recent drowning occurred in 2018. Increased public awareness, including warning signs in the park and near the river informing park visitors about the dangers of surging flows and slippery rocks, are paying dividends, it seems.

Worrisome Nitrate Levels in Rock River

The Rock River is the Big Sioux River’s largest tributary. Source of the Rock is near its namesake, a prominent outcrop of quartzite in Blue Mounds State Park, close to Luverne, Minnesota, and the river flows 144 miles through southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa before emptying into the Big Sioux 15 miles east of Beresford, South Dakota. Draining an intensively farmed watershed, the Rock is scrutinized by scientists studying nitrates levels. It is, according to Iowa researchers, one of the most nitrates-polluted rivers in Iowa. The primary sources of nitrates in the river are farm fertilizers and livestock manure. The federally recommended standard for safe drinking water is below 10 milligrams of nitrates per liter (mg/L), a standard established in 1962. On the Rock River, during WY (Water Year) 2019 (Oct 1, 2019, to Sept 30, 2020), the federal nitrates standard was exceeded during 252 days. According to the Environmental Working Group, it would be prudent to modernize the safe nitrates standard to 5 mg/L. If this more stringent standard were applied to the Rock River, nitrate levels would exceed that standard on every day of WY 2020 but three. Extensive use of drain tiles beneath grain fields has worsened nitrate levels in the river. Nitrates are serious, problematic pollutants. In addition to nitrates accumulating and creating biological “dead zones” at the mouths of rivers carrying elevated levels of farm runoff, nitrate consumption by humans has been linked to colorectal cancer, thyroid diseases, birth defects, and metheoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome). Drinking water supplies and water users downstream on the lower Big Sioux, Missouri and Mississippi rivers are impacted by unregulated nitrates pollution flowing from the Rock River and countless other streams and rivers.

Grassland Conservation Act Introduced in US Senate

Federal legislation to restore and conserve grasslands has been recently introduced by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. This important proposal can help protect water quality in the Big Sioux River by helping balance and improve land use in the Big Sioux watershed. Prior to European settlement, nearly all the watershed was grassy prairie, and the river flowed deep with clean water. Today, more than half the watershed is intensively farmed for grains and the river channel is clogged with sediment caused by soil erosion and water quality is compromised by agricultural chemicals, waste and runoff, reflecting the direct connection regarding how land is used and its impacts to rivers and streams. Nearly 75 percent of grasslands in the US have been lost, with roughly 1.5 million acres being developed or converted to grain-growing cropland every year. According to the World Wildlife Federation’s Plowprint Report, approximately 2.6 million acres of grasslands on the U.S. and Canadian Great Plains were plowed to accommodate row-crop production in 2019 alone. Tall grass prairie ecosystems have been especially impacted, with about 99 percent of the nation’s native tall grass prairie destroyed by farming and urban development. Senator Wyden’s proposal is modeled after efforts to protect wetlands and would complement the existing Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).