Dead Zone Keeps Growing and Growing

The Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” is expected to grow substantially this year. Researchers at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and LSU said the area of low-oxygen water that starts at the mouth of the Mississippi River and reaches toward Texas could be the largest ever recorded this summer. The preliminary forecast predicts that this summer’s “dead zone” will grow to 10,084 square miles about the size of Massachusetts. The average size of the annual area since 1990 has been just over 6,000 square miles. The “dead zone” forms during the summer after nitrates and nitrogen from fertilizer, urban runoff and other sources flows down the Mississippi River. In the Gulf of Mexico, this nutrient-rich water encourages microscopic organism growth. Then these organisms die, fall to the bottom of the water column and use up oxygen as they decompose. This creates a “dead zone” where oxygen levels are too low to support life. The Environmental Protection Agency is looking at ways to address the issue. It plans to award up to $4.2 million in grants to reduce the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico. EPA is soliciting proposals that will use water quality trading programs to reduce nutrient loads, particularly from the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River, or the Lower Mississippi River. Grant proposals must be submitted by September 9th.

Targeted Watersheds Grants program: http://www.epa.gov/twg
Water quality trading: http://www.epa.gov/waterqualitytrading
Hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico: http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/index.htm