Those industries employed an estimated 793 people. Most of the businesses in Tama County purchase their water from a PWS or obtain their water from a private supply not requiring a permit. There are three water use permits for industry in Tama County. There are no water use permits issued for power production in the county. Mining Water Use Mining in Tama County consists of sand and gravel extraction.
Activity varies from year to year based upon construction needs.
One water permit was issued for mining in the county. The State-Wide Rural Well Water Survey completed in 1989 indicates the following quality results for private well water, shown in Table 3, for the east hydrogeologic region in which Tama County is located. The Iowa State-Wide Rural Well Water Survey, 1990. The UHL's test results for the county also show that in an average year 14.4 percent of wells tested for nitrates exceeded the recommended maximum. These test results are based on non-random samples.