All the talk of Dead Zone(s) and the inconsistencies being reported peaked my curiosity so I spent a few days researching for us..
http://www.smm.org/...
I think the major driver for doing this research was a sense that there is the distinct possibility that BP will wiggle out of having to pay fishermen for their losses now and into the future by using the long-standing dead zone as an excuse.
For decades there has been a 7,000 square mile Dead Zone. Nothing has been done to save or repair it, sadly. Research? Oh yes. Lot's of money has spent on research. There are no doubts about what causes the dead zone. Action?.....crickets. The media's confusion has confused the public as well.
Between the past actions of Congress and the Supreme Court, we are here:
Included is a timeline on Gulf water oil drilling I found fascinating (such a wonk)
I began this diary research intending to portray the dead zone discussion, over time, because I found anomalies in the discussion from source to source. Statements like
This year's low-oxygen "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the largest ever, about the size of Massachusetts,
http://www.reuters.com/...
But the research quickly revealed that the dead zone isn't larger this year. It's been devastatingly and similarly large for decades.
I wanted to know why the reports didn't seem to mesh with the actual history, and to discover the truth written between the lines.
I acknowledge that there is a lot of information following. To make it easier, I have used bold text for those who prefer to speed read.
What I discovered is that some background information was necessary in order to be able to put the dead zone discussions in a proper perspective. The following background information/history is for my fellow Wonks/Wonkettes who enjoy more depth of knowledge.
The Gulf dead zone began because of Mississippi polluted waters, most often referred to quaintly (imo) as nutrient rich.
The Clean Water Protection legislation was initiated to help reduce pollution and could have saved the dead zone if farm lands hadn't been exempted..
I didn't know it began in 1948. A good year, as all of the 62 year olds here will attest.
Clean Water Protection began in 1948
The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters. The basis of the CWA was enacted in 1948 and was called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972. "Clean Water Act" became the Act's common name with amendments in 1977.
http://www.epa.gov/...
Surely our water quality would be much worse today if it hadn't been for these two Acts.
But, let's start with a brief understanding of what a dead zone is.
What is and What Causes the Gulf Dead Zone
In lay person's terms: The stuff from the Mississippi feeds algae (spores?), the algae is eaten by bacteria which causes the oxygen to be depleted, oxygen depleted water kills off other living things so it is called a dead zone. And it keeps getting worse and larger.
The formation of oxygen-depleted subsurface waters has been associated with nutrient-rich discharge from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. Bio-available nutrients in the discharge can stimulate algal blooms, which die and are eaten by bacteria, depleting the oxygen in the subsurface water. (called hypoxia)
The hypoxia kills many organisms that cannot escape, and thus the hypoxic zone is informally known as the “dead zone.”
http://pubs.usgs.gov/...
In 1998, Congress passed a law in order to allocate funding to research the Gulf coast dead zone and start cleaning it in 2000, but that was it. We know what happened in 2001. :
Public Law No: 105-383
Title VI of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1998 (Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998) was enacted on November 13, 1998.....
and required a plan for controlling hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico by March 30, 2000.
http://www.epa.gov/...
Here are some excerpts from Title VI
112 STAT. 3447
PUBLIC LAW 105–383—NOV. 13, 1998
TITLE VI—HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA
(6) harmful algal blooms and blooms of non-toxic algal species may lead to other damaging marine conditions such as hypoxia (reduced oxygen concentrations), which are harmful or fatal to fish, shellfish, and benthic organisms;
(7) according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Department of Commerce, 53 percent of United States estuaries experience hypoxia for at least part of the year and a 7,000 square mile area in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana and Texas suffers from hypoxia;
(8) according to some scientists, a factor believed to cause hypoxia is excessive nutrient loading into coastal waters;
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/...
So, it is now common knowledge that the largest contributor to the Gulf dead zone are excessive nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous, although there are other contributors as well.
Excessive nutrients? It is curious that the word nutrients instead of pollutants was used; however, it is the word of choice throughout the entire discussion, from year to year, on the contributing factors causing the Gulf dead zone.
What are the nutrients causing the dead zone?
Nitrogen/phosphorus from farms, feed lots, and our yards draining 40% of the continental United States streams and rivers which empty into the Mississippi River, all of which flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2001, the Supreme Court further limited the Clean Water Act: SWANCC (how ironic is this acronym) v. United States Army Corps of Engineers.
CWA adopted a regulatory definition of "waters of the U.S." that afforded federal protection for almost all of the nation's wetlands.
On January 9, 2001 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) v. United States Army Corps of Engineers. The decision reduces the protection of isolated wetlands under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA)..
The Supreme Court also concluded that the use of migratory birds to assert jurisdiction over the site exceeded the authority that Congress had granted the Corps under the CWA.
The Court interpreted that Corps jurisdiction is restricted to navigable waters, their tributaries, and wetlands that are adjacent to these navigable waterways and tributaries. The decision leaves "isolated" wetlands unprotected by the CWA.
http://www.ducks.org/...
The result of this Supreme Court ruling?
Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.
(an example) The mouth of Avondale Creek in Alabama, into which a pipe maker dumped oil, lead and zinc. A court ruling made the waterway exempt from the Clean Water Act.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Information regarding the Supreme Court decisions and their outcome are included because most would agree that at some point (flooding for instance) the remote waters near the major waterways pictured in the Introduction above can/will enter a flow to the Mississippi River.
Is there any hope of undoing the CWA weakening? Not yet, however this is an effort, but farmlands would remain exempt
The Baucus-Klobuchar Compromise for Clean Water:
Restoring America’s clean waters and wetlands while protecting property rights and agriculture
http://www.ducks.org/...
I'll let you read this overview and make up your own mind. It appears that the Baucus/Klobuchar bill will continue to protect the use of fertilizers by the huge agri-businesses.
There has been much talk of healing the dead zone and alot of money spent by the government (you and me) to study it's causes; however, the problems continued decade, after decade, and still continue today. AgriBusiness is protected and continues to use its nitrogen/phosphorus rich fertilizers.
And, on top of that assault on the Gulf of Mexico, Oil Drilling - A History. The following are from a 2003 source, so it's a bit dated; however, it's a glimpse of how we got to the point of the Deep Water Horizon disaster.
It’s been alternatively called the Dead Sea and the salvation of domestic oil and gas production. Either way there is no doubt that the Gulf of Mexico has been critically important to the petroleum industry -- and the U.S. consumer -- for over five decades.
1947 - Kerr-McGee made the first Gulf discovery at Ship Shoal 32, about 10 miles off the Louisiana coast in 18 feet of water. The firm is credited with setting the first offshore platform in the Gulf at its new field. Amazingly, that first oil field is still producing 56 years later -- and it is not alone. Many of the earliest discoveries in the Gulf are still producing today.
1953 - Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, passed in August 1953, which established federal jurisdiction over submerged lands on the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) seaward of state boundaries.
The law gave the secretary of the interior responsibility for administering mineral exploration and development of the OCS.
According to MMS records 394 leases were turned over to the federal government in 1953, and 130 of those leases are still active today.
1954 - The federal government held its first lease sale in October 1954 offshore Louisiana. MMS records show 199 tracts were offered, and 90 received bids. A total $116,378,476 was offered in high bids and 336 bids were received. The average price per acre was $294.84.
1954 - The second sale was held just one month later for offshore Texas, and 19 bids were received on the 38 tracts offered. Total bonus high bids were over $23 million, and the average price per acre was $347.84.
1959 - The fifth lease sale in federal waters was off Florida’s coast in 1959 -- an area now off-limits to activity. The government offered 80 tracts, and 23 bids were received. Total bonus high bids were $1.7 million, and the average price per acre was $12.92.
1966 - The first subsea well was drilled in 1966 at the Eugene Island 175 Field, operated by Sinclair Oil. The technology has continued to expand, and as of today 330 subsea wells have been drilled in the Gulf.
1978 - And once again, coastal states raised concerns about how the OCS program was run. The 1978 amendments ( to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, passed in August 1953) resulted in states’ sharing revenues from the three-mile boundary out to the six-mile line. Today 27.5 percent of all bonuses, rents and royalties from that three-mile swath are given to the adjacent coastal state.
1979 - What most people might not know is that the first discovery in water depths over 1,000 feet came in 1979 at Shell’s Cognac field in the Green Canyon area.
1980s - The MMS instituted area wide lease sales, which prompted a whole new class of companies with new ideas to enter the Gulf.
2001-2003 - The regeneration of the Gulf of Mexico continues today. In the last few years the potential for deep gas targets on the shelf has been established and a growing list of operators are coming back to the shelf to search the frontiers below 15,000 feet.
And just as it did early in the deepwater play, the MMS has taken steps to entice companies to explore for deep gas. Royalty relief for deep gas from new leases was established a couple of years ago, and earlier this year the agency announced a proposed rule that would extend the royalty relief to existing leases.
Over the years companies have found ways to make Gulf fields of all sizes commercially viable.
Of course, that was not difficult at the region’s largest field discovery, which came just two years ago (2001) when BP uncovered the giant deepwater field, Thunder Horse, in the Mississippi Canyon and Eugene Island areas
.
And the future for the Gulf of Mexico? Great for hydrocarbon profits, not so good for the environment. There are tens of billions of barrels of oil and gas yet harvested and/or discovered.
According to MMS’ 2000 resource assessment of conventionally recoverable hydrocarbons in the Gulf, 65 billion barrels of oil equivalent total reserves have been produced, but 71 billion barrels of oil equivalent remain.
According to the MMS the undiscovered resource assessment is approximately:
For the western Gulf of Mexico, 37 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
For the central Gulf, over 92 billion BOE.
For the eastern Gulf, about nine billion BOE.
"Of course, our resources estimates are likely to be revised upwards due to new discoveries in entirely new geologic frontiers such as deep gas targets on the shelf," Oynes said.
History and quotes from: http://www.aapg.org/...
Here are some references to the dead zone in the media over time.
2005
Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone" Is Size of New Jersey
John Roach
for National Geographic News
May 25, 2005
At its peak, the nearly lifeless water can span 5,000 to 8,000-plus square miles (13,000 to 21,000 square kilometers), an area almost the size of New Jersey
.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone—The Last 150 Years
http://pubs.usgs.gov/...
2006
can cover up to 6,000-7,000 square miles
http://serc.carleton.edu/...
2008
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium estimated that this year's dead zone would be more than 10,000 sq. mi., roughly the size of Massachusetts.
Given recent massive flooding of cities and farms in the Mississippi River basin, the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Area Forecast is for the dead zone to cover between 21,500 and 22,500 square kilometers (8,400-8,800 square miles) of bottom waters along the Louisiana-Texas coast. If the prediction bears out, it will be the largest on record.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/...
Read more: http://www.time.com/...
2009
The Gulf's Growing 'Dead Zone'
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium estimated that this year's dead zone would be more than 10,000 sq. mi., roughly the size of Massachusetts.
In 2006 U.S. farmers used more than 21 million tons of nitrogen, phosphorus and other fertilizers to boost their crops, and all those chemicals have consequences far beyond the immediate area. When the spring rains come, fertilizer from Midwestern farms drains into the Mississippi river system and down to Louisiana, where the agricultural sewage pours into the Gulf of Mexico.....Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1815305,00.html#ixzz0w5iKKvAy
2010
May, 2010 -
GULF WILDLIFE 'DEAD ZONE' KEEPS GROWING
Experts who assessed the Exxon Valdez disaster describe how the Gulf oil spill could affect birds, reptiles, shrimp, fish and other wildlife.
The NWF describes the dead zone as being "the largest on record in the hemisphere in coastal waters and one of the biggest in the world."
http://news.discovery.com/...
June, 2010
Reseachers Predict Larger-Than-Average Gulf 'Dead Zone'; Impact of Oil Spill Unclear
The 2010 spring nutrient load transported to the northern Gulf of Mexico is about 11 percent less than the average over the last 30 years, said Matt Larsen, USGS associate director for water.
"An estimated 118,000 metric tons of nitrogen, in the form of nitrate, were transported in May 2010 to the northern Gulf," Larsen said.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/...
August, 2010
This Year's Gulf 'Dead Zone' Among Largest Ever
The sprawling area with levels of dissolved oxygen low enough to smother marine life is 7,722 square miles, the researchers said, slightly smaller than New Jersey
http://www.nytimes.com/...
In square miles, the dead zone averages around 7,000-8,000 square miles and has done so for decades.
For a really fun and interactive site to learn about the Dead Zone, I highly recommend this site. It also plays an non-stop audio of waves breaking on the shore. Very soothing:
http://www.smm.org/...
[Let's convert kilometers to square miles, as both are used in reports. My thanks to dKos' Dr. Spalding for providing the conversion equation, btw:
Linearly, it is ~1.6 km per mile, so to convert areas, you need 1.6^2, or about 2.56. So, 20,000 sq. kilometers/2.56 = 7,812.5 square mile dead zone.]