Chemicals in Farm Runoff Rattle States on the Mississippi
As the surging waters of the Mississippi pass downstream, they leave behind flooded towns and inundated lives and carry forward a brew of farm chemicals and waste that this year — given record flooding — is expected to result in the largest dead zone ever in the Gulf of Mexico.
Living in Louisiana nearly my entire life "The Dead Zone" has been a fact since first being documented in the seventies. For those not familiar it is an area that begins at the Mouth of the Mississipi and Atchafalaya Basin that is affected by several factors.
Let state first I am not a scientist, I'm just a commoner that thinks an interesting subject so jump the sqiggly for the views of the common man.
Simply put the affects of fertilizers containing nitrogen and manure containing phosphourus combined with other natural releases and changes in seasonal water flow in the Gulf combine to form an area at the mouth of the river (spreading mostly west) becomes deoxygenated due to the growth of algaes in the water. NOAA described it as pdf"the hypoxia effect" in a report in 1999. They also pointed to another contributing factor,subsidence, which I touched on in 2007 as to not put this all on the farmers.
Gulf Restoration Network explains better than I ever could.
The actual size of the Dead Zone varies each year due to climate and ocean dynamics, though nitrogen remains the prime factor in causing the Dead Zone.5 The largest source of nitrogen is commercial fertilizer used throughout the Mississippi River basin – one of the agricultural centers of the United States. Other sources include animal waste, sewage treatment plants, and nitrogen in the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion.
With the major flooding this year combined with the opening of the Atchafalaya spillway for the first time since 1973 it stands to reason that "The Dead Zone" will expand. Possibly larger than the largest on record that was recorded in 2002. the low levels of oxygen in these areas unfortunately occur in some of the most important commercial and recreational fisheries and could be devastating to the economy.
The joke down here has long been that we are "the asshole of the country" because it is true that everything that enters waters from Washington State to Maine eventually is dispensed into the Gulf at (how can I say this gently) the orifice that exits the country just below New Orleans.
The report cited above adds this to the conversation, remember this is a twelve year old study.
Non-point sources contribute about 90% nitrogen and phosphorus discharging into the Gulf of Mexico.
Luckily there are some people making strides toward lowering the amount of pollutants being released. Dave Murphy President of Food Democracy Now states in the Times article.
“As is standard in Iowa and other states, voluntary regulation by the polluters and the industry themselves is the preferred method of getting around any serious environmental enforcement”
Chris Peterson president of the Iowa fFarmers Union said
“We’ve been trying to do this for years, and we are just not turning the corner.”
So yeah there are things being done but when push comes to shove not enough is being done to curtail the known causes and are unwittingly contributing to the problem. From an article in 2006 at theEnvironmental Working Group.
The EWG analysis, an update of fertilizer run-off modeling that was conducted for the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) in the early 1990s, shows that at current prices, farmers flush more than one third of a billion dollars of nitrogen fertilizer down the Mississippi River each spring. This annual surge of nitrate fertilizer pollution is responsible for more than 70 percent of the total nitrate pollution entering the Gulf in the crucial spring months prior to the formation of the Dead Zone. In contrast, municipal sewage accounts for about 11 percent, animal waste about 12 percent, and atmospheric deposition about 6 percent.
Truth be known if there was serious discussion on the deficit these issues would be brought into the conversation.
Crop subsidy payments were about 500 times greater than conservation payments in the 124 counties that account for 40 percent of spring nitrate fertilizer pollution, with just $22.5 million in water quality payments compared to $11.4 billion in crop subsidies.
At the county level, payment disparities of 1,000 to 1 are common, with some counties in the high polluting region getting 10,000 times more in crop subsidies than water quality conservation dollars.
In counties with the highest fertilizer runoff, the proportion of land enrolled in conservation programs drops as the proportion of land in fertilized agriculture increases - just the opposite of what is needed to reduce nitrate pollution.
Economically this could be devastating to residents that survive off the bounty found in these waters. Whether it be the shrimp, the fish, the crabs or tourism many will suffer not only here but around the country when these industries are effected by what is no doubt a man made problem. Again from the 2006 article. Sadly we have to add the oil spill to the equation as well.
The Dead Zone in the Gulf is not unique — all over the world, freshwater and marine systems are experiencing unparalleled chemical and nutrient pollution that wipes out productive fisheries and leaves a legacy of decay for future generations. The Gulf region is staggering both economically and ecologically to recover from last season's hurricanes, and the added stress of a continually increasing Dead Zone will only delay the recovery, perhaps indefinitely. Leveraging the existing system of subsidies to redirect money that is already being spent toward proven conservation programs is a winning strategy for all concerned.
From a personal standpoint this probably will effect me in only two ways, the price of seafood which I love and the hurt in my heart.
Thanks for reading, and here's to hoping.