The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of the Inspector General issued a report on Thursday, August 27, 2009, that recommends the EPA move to adopt “enforceable limits on the release of nutrient pollutants” to prevent the development of, and curb the creation of, “dangerously low oxygen areas in water bodies.” First on the EPA’s priority list, according to the report, should be what is known as the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. Enforceable limits are recommended for fertilizers in the report.According to an article by Mark Schleifstein of Times-Picayune, the report states, “We believe selecting nationally significant waters and acting to set standards for nutrients in them is a minimal first step if EPA is to meet the requirements of the (Clean Water Act)[.]" The report argues that, since many states that release “nutrient pollutants” do not have enforceable standards, it should be up to the EPA to act. Additionally, the report argues that setting standards will have an effect on upstream states.
The Clean Water Act is the federal statute that has authority over nutrient pollution in the nation’s waterways. The act requires federal and state governments to “assure that rivers, streams, estuaries and coastal waters are ‘fishable and swimmable.”’ The Gulf of Mexico develops a “dead zone” every spring and summer. The “dead zone” forms from nutrients traveling into the Mississippi River from its various feeder streams and rivers, and then the nutrients travel down the river where they end up in the Gulf of Mexico. Once in the dead zone, the nutrients feed algae growth.
The algae blooms ultimately die and sink into the saltier water off the coastline of Louisiana and Texas. When the algae decomposes, it creates hypoxia, which is a condition of low-oxygen in water that can cause bottom-dwelling water organisms to die. Previously, the EPA relied on state governments to set nutrient pollution standards, but the EPA did not properly monitor what the states were doing, according to the report. None of the current state standards meet the reduction goals of the EPA or take into account the affect their nutrient releases have on down-stream state’s water sources.
According to the Times-Picayune article, the EPA report recommends selecting certain waters of “national value” and set nutrient pollution standards for these waters. The report also recommends the establishment of EPA and state “accountability” measure so that similar standards can be established for the rest of the nation.
The EPA’s Acting Assistant Administrator Michael Shapiro largely agreed with the Office of Inspector General’s report. However, Shapiro believes the report’s recommendations “could be achieved by adopting a national ‘strategic approach,’ instead of first focusing on waters of national concern like the Gulf.” Shapiro believes the EPA could develop a national strategic approach program by 2010.
To read the Times-Picayune article click here.
Posted: 08/28/09
