Ethanol/Dead zone impact

[AndreF]

Where is the common sense?????




La. fishing industry worries new EPA mandate could lead to larger Gulf dead zone


Nitrogen run-off from the nation's booming corn belt is the single largest source of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River basin, which drains a stunning 41% of the waterways in the contiguous United States. And as National Geographic reports in a new feature on coastal erosion in Louisiana, the Gulf dead zone, and its effect on commercial fishermen, the problem may worsen if the Environmental Protection Agency raises the ethanol mandate for blended gasoline next month—despite earlier commitments to reduce it.

Fully one-third of corn grown in the U.S. already goes to ethanol refiners today, and that number could climb. Various strategies are being pursued for reducing the nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River basin, which is largely unregulated. A lawsuit is pending against the EPA. Petitioners want the agency to set enforceable, numeric limits on nitrogen and phosphorus that would force upstream states to curb the pollution.

The Gulf's dead zone forms far offshore, but even oysters are not immune to the low-oxygen condition, called hypoxia, that agricultural wastes can create. Shallower marsh waters can get hit as well.

"If you get a dead zone over your bed, it'll wipe you out," says John Tesvich, a fourth generation oysterman and chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force.

Some summers, Tesvich says, he's lost 20% to 30% of his oysters from it. Shrimpers and commercial red snapper fishermen are also hit hard.

The dead zone is one of many reasons why the Gulf's valuable fishing industry, generating close to $2 billion in sales in Louisiana alone, is diminishing. Thirty years ago, 90% of the shrimp consumed in the U.S. originated in the Gulf. Today it's just 30%. Read the full story.

[Rawleigh]

They are also in denial about how much of that nitrogen comes from the older sewage treatment plants that dump into the river. We have the same problem on the Chesapeake Bay, and all they want to do is blame the farmers while Baltimore, Richmond, Washington, etc all have the older combined sewage and storm water systems which would be hugely expensive to separate. When there is a big storm event the storm water overwhelms the treatment facility and they open the gates and let it all flow straight into the rivers and hence into the Bay.

I am not defending the stupidity of ethanol, but blaming it all on the farmers is wrong. they have a huge financial incentive not o over fertilize and to keep the nutrients and soil on their farms. loosing any of it is a direct hit to their wallets. It is like blaming the commercial fisherman for everything. They may be part of the problem, but certainly not all of it.