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To a gathering of residents in Dubuque this week, David Cwiertny, director of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa, said there is “no such thing as risk-free water.”

“I would just like to say that when it comes to safe and drinking water, we throw that around, but it means acceptable risk,” Cwiertny said in his Tuesday night talk with the Dubuque Area Land and Water Legacy organization.

The national standard for safe nitrate levels in drinking water has been limited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to 10 milligrams per liter since 1992.

High nitrate levels in drinking water have been linked to several types of cancer, as well as “b

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