by ST. LOUIS (AP) — The nation’s rivers and streams remain heavily polluted with nutrients that contaminate drinking water and create a massive dead zone for aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recently released Environmental Protection Agency assessment.
It is a difficult problem concentrated in agricultural regions that drain into the Mississippi River. The agency found that more than half of the basin’s thousands of rivers and streams were in poor condition due to nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer draining into waterways. For decades, federal and state officials have struggled to control farm runoff, the largest source of nutrient pollution that is typically not federally regulated.
It’s a problem that’s only expected to get harder to control as climate change brings more intense storms that bring rain to the Midwest and South. Those heavy rains flood farm fields, pick up commercial fertilizers and carry them into nearby rivers.
“It’s very concerning that we’re clearly not meeting the goals we’ve set for ourselves,” said Olivia Dorothy, director of river restoration with the conservation group American Rivers.
The assessment is based on samples collected in 2018 and 2019 and allows experts to compare river conditions from previous sampling rounds, although different sampling locations were used. It takes the agency years to compile the results and release the report, which is the most comprehensive assessment of the nation’s river and stream health. Phosphorus levels fell slightly while nitrogen levels remained almost exactly the same.
Around half of all river miles were found to be in poor condition for snails, worms, beetles and other bottom dwelling species which are an important indicator of the river’s biological health. About a third were also rated as having poor fish conditions based on species diversity.
“Controlling pollution is a big job. It’s hard work,” said Tom Wall, director of the EPA’s restoration, assessment and protection division. “Things are not getting worse, despite the enormous pressure on our waterways. And we want to see more progress.”
Water pollution from factories and industry is usually federally regulated. The Biden administration recently proposed stricter regulations on meat and poultry processing plants to reduce pollution, Wall said.
When nutrient pollution flows into the Gulf of Mexico, it encourages the growth of oxygen-consuming bacteria. That creates a so-called “dead zone,” a vast area where it’s difficult or impossible for marine animals to survive, ranging from about the size of Rhode Island to the size of New Jersey, according to Nancy Rabalais, professor of oceanography and wetlands . studies at Louisiana State University.
This affects the productivity of commercial fisheries and marine life in general, but nutrient pollution also causes harm upstream. Too much nitrate in drinking water can interfere with how the blood carries oxygen, causing human health problems such as headaches, nausea and abdominal cramps. It can especially affect infants, sometimes causing “blue baby syndrome”, which causes the skin to take on a bluish color.
The hypoxia task force was established by the EPA in the late 1990s to reduce nutrient pollution and reduce the dead zone, but it relies on voluntary efforts to reduce farm runoff and has not significantly reduced the dead zone.
Anne Schechinger, Midwest director of the Environmental Working Group, said new regulations are needed, not voluntary efforts. She said the Biden administration has done a lot to improve drinking water, but not enough to reduce agricultural runoff.
Methods to prevent runoff include building buffers between farmland and waterways, creating new wetlands to filter pollutants and applying less fertilizer.
It’s a political issue, especially in the farming states of the Midwest that adds to the problem. Many of those states cite their voluntary conservation programs as evidence that they are embracing the problem, but the new EPA data shows little progress.
Minnesota is one of the few states with a so-called “buffer law” that requires vegetation to be planted along rivers, streams and public drainage ditches. But because groundwater and surface water are closely related in much of the Upper Midwest, nutrient pollution can leach underground through farm fields and eventually bypass those buffers, ending up in streams anyway, Gregory Klinger said. , who works for Olmsted County, Minnesota. soil and water conservation area.
The focus should also be on preventing over-fertilization – about 30% of farmers are still using more than recommended amounts of fertilizer in their fields, said Brad Carlson, adjunct educator with the University of Minnesota who communicates with farmers about nutrient pollution. issues.
Martin Larsen, a farmer and conservation technician in southeastern Minnesota, said he and other farmers are interested in practices that reduce their nutrient pollution. He has broken up his usual corn and soybean rotation with oats and medium red clover, the latter being a type of plant that can naturally increase nitrogen levels in the soil. He managed to get about half as much fertilizer for a corn crop following a clover planting compared to a corn-corn rotation.
Oats and red clover as cover crops also improve the soil. But Larsen said many farmers find it difficult to plant them when they often rely on immediate payback for anything they grow. Only 5.1% of harvested farmland is planted with cover crops, according to 2017 data from the US Department of Agriculture.
Larsen said since there is not so much demand for regulations, more should be done to encourage better practices. For example, he said companies could consider changing the composition of the feed they use for animals, giving farmers the opportunity to plant some crops that use less fertilizer. Or government programs that do more to subsidize things like cover crops.
He said many farmers in his community acknowledge the need to do things differently. “But we also feel very trapped in the system,” he said.
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Walling reported from Chicago.
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Follow Melina Walling on X: @MelinaWalling.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation to cover water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all matters. For all AP environment coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
