Iowa residents sue over water contaminants

Local residents in the city of Creston, Iowa are joining people from 15 other communities in Midwestern states to sue the producers of an agricultural herbicide.

The state’s Independent paper reports that the lawsuit alleges Syngenta reaped billions of dollars in profit from its atrazine product, while contaminating drinking water.

According to the news provider, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that atrazine is harmless, but the chemical is banned in Europe because of "potentially dangerous effects".

Research by the Natural Resources Defense Council showed that rural areas in Midwestern and Southern towns have spikes of atrazine in their water supplies.

The results revealed that a Wolf Creek site was found to have ten parts per billion of the herbicide - three times EPA standard levels.

Syngenta spokesman Paul Minehart told the Huffington Post’s Investigative Fund that the amount of the chemical found in drinking water is safe.