Copyright 1986, reprinted with permission by The Des Moines Register, July 29, 1986
By Larry Fruhling
Register Staff Writer
South Dakota officials said Monday they are trying to find the source of nitrates in a farm well that caused the death of a two-month-old girl – the first known infant death from nitrate poisoning in the United States in some three decades.
Darron Bush, an official of the South Dakota Department of Water and Natural Resources, said the child, Lacy Jo Geyer, died a month ago of "blue baby syndrome," a nitrate-induced illness that deprives an infant's brain of oxygen. The cause of death was established last week.
Bush said water from the Geyer family's well near De Smet in eastern South Dakota contained 152 parts per million of nitrates. Levels exceeding 45 parts per million are considered dangerous for infants.
Rising nitrate levels in groundwater are causing increasing concern in the Upper Midwest. Many authorities blame the heavy nitrogen fertilization of corn.
Common Problem
Bush said nitrate contamination of groundwater is a problem in much of eastern South Dakota, sometimes exceeding 1,000 parts per million. But, Bush said, the exact source of the nitrates in the Geyers' well was not known.
One possibility is that the nitrates came from the family's septic tank, which is within 40 feet of the water well, Bush said, adding, "That's too close but we are not absolutely certain if that was the source."
Bush said that the well water also was contaminated by bacteria, but that if the septic tank were the primary source of the nitrates he would have expected the bacterial count to have been higher than it was.
Other possible causes of the well contamination are that nitrogen fertilizers in the intensively farmed area seeped through the soil and boosted the nitrate level beyond the danger point for infants, or that spring flooding washed excessive fertilizers into the Geyers' shallow, 30-foot-deep well, Bush said.
"We're just getting into motion to determine the source," he said. "At this stage of the game anything is possible."
Bush said he was aware of just one other case of blue baby syndrome in South Dakota in recent years. That case, which was not fatal, occurred in 1981, he said. It is possible, however, that there were other cases, since there are no requirements that the illness be reported to state health authorities.
Linda Geyer, 24, the little girl's mother, said she nursed Lacy Jo for the first 11/2 months, supplementing the breast-feeding with infant formula and fruit juices mixed with water from the family's well.
Symptoms
Geyer said that the child suffered some vomiting, diarrhea and blue discoloration of the fingers, toes and around her mouth, but that the problems became much more pronounced when she stopped breast-feeding the child and switched her to formula altogether.
Geyer said blue baby syndrome was not diagnosed by her doctor. "It's such a rare sickness, that's the last thing they think of," she said.
Geyer said she and her husband, David, had taken Lacy Jo to a hospital at De Smet on June 28, and that local doctors sent them to a larger hospital at Huron. Lacy Jo stopped breathing on the way, was revived briefly at the Huron hospital, and died later that night.
The medical name for blue baby syndrome is infant methemoglobinemia. The illness usually strikes infants younger than six months whose immature digestive tracts make them particularly susceptible.
Issue: Drinking water must be free of poisonous levels of chemicals.
Have you heard of any other communities where people have become sick from drinking the water?
How likely is the contamination of drinking water in your community with poisonous chemicals?
How would you make sure that the people drinking water in your community do not get sick?
The U.S. Congress responded to the discovery of poisonous levels of chemicals in drinking water by instructing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to:
Ohio has adopted standards essentially identical to federal rules. Because much of Ohio's land is in agriculture, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency does require more frequent monitoring for nitrate than federal rules require.