YORK, Neb. (AP) — A York-based natural resources district is studying another way to control fertilizer contamination of drinking water.
The Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District is notifying its 56,000 residents about a March 1 public hearing on a containment proposal.
The district already requires farmers to wait until after Nov. 1 to apply anhydrous ammonia and other nitrogen sources that are important to their corn crops.
The district has been studying even more stringent measures, including requiring use of nitrogen inhibitors, which are chemicals that slow the rate at which anhydrous ammonia is broken down into nitrates.
Experts say nitrates pose health hazards when they leach through fields into groundwater supplies.
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