Author

Tony Leys, KFF Health News

Tony Leys, KFF Health News

Tony Leys is rural editor/correspondent for KFF Health News. He is based in Des Moines, where he worked 33 years as a reporter and editor for The Des Moines Register. Tony was the Register’s lead health care reporter for more than 20 years and served four terms as a board member for the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is an alum of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT.

Millions of rural Americans rely on private wells. Few regularly test their water.

By: - October 30, 2023

FORT DODGE — Allison Roderick has a warning and a pledge for rural residents of her county: The water from their wells could be contaminated, but the government can help make it safe. Roderick is the environmental health officer for Webster County in north-central Iowa, where a few thousand rural residents live among sprawling corn […]