Dead Zones: Problems and Solutions

Posted on August 16, 2008  | Filed Under Protecting America's Waters | Leave a Comment

Rarely do scientists name natural or unnatural phenomena so well. But, with dead zones, they couldn’t have done any better. Because that is exactly what these places are. Dead.

A dead zone is an area of water that literally does not contain enough oxygen to support life. No fishes, crabs, shrimp or whales. Nothing but rotting masses of algae and the oxygen-consuming bacteria that digests it. Not the kind of place you’d take your family for vacation.

Dead zones are not uncommon. In fact, according to a new study published in the journal Science, the number of dead zones worldwide has doubled every ten years since the 1960s.  Today, say the article’s authors, more than 400 dead zones cover approximately 95,000 square miles of the world’s oceans, estuaries, lakes and rivers. That’s about an area about the size of Oregon. Dead.

The problem begins far from shore, in fertilizer soaked fields, lawns and gardens. In their quest for a bountiful harvest and beautiful blossoms, farmers and homeowners spread chemical fertilizers on their plants and soil. When it rains, the excess fertilizer washes into streams, rivers and city drains. Eventually, this artificial nutrient load is dumped into larger bodies of water, such as lakes, estuaries and the oceans.

As artificial fertilizer accumulates, algae blossoms in coastal waters. But algae does not live forever, and when it dies or is eaten, the dead organic matter begins to decompose, aided by bacteria. If enough begins to decay at about the same time, the oxygen-depleting bacteria that digests it will literally suck the oxygen from the water. The resulting hypoxic — oxygen-deprived — dead zone often cannot support life beyond bacteria and a few sea jellies. The creatures that can leave, do. The rest simply die.

Perhaps the best-known dead zone lies just beyond the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico. Here, all the fertilizer from 41% of the country feeds a dead zone the size of Massachusetts. Worse, more than 60% of America’s agriculture lies within the Mississippi watershed. That adds up to an awful lot of fertilizer.

The Gulf of Mexico may house the largest dead zone in the United States (and the second largest in the world), but it’s certainly not the only American dead zone. Lake Erie has a one. So does the Chesapeake Bay. In total, more than 40 dead zones are found within the United States and our coastal waters. Most grow larger every year.

There’s no shirking responsibility here. We all contribute in some way to the problem. The Mississippi watershed reaches from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rockies, and — with the exception of extreme locavores — we all eat food grown within the nation’s breadbasket. But let’s not focus on finger-pointing and guilt-trips. Instead, let’s remember that since we all contribute to the problem, all of us can also contribute to the solution.

The easiest way you can help is by purchasing organic produce. Big, chemical-based industrial agriculture is the largest contributor to the fertilizer load that helps fuel our largest dead zone. While organic agriculture also uses fertilizers, these natural fertilizers usually contain a lower concentration of nutrients and tend to be applied in smaller quantities. This means more of the nutrients are absorbed by crops, and less washes into neighboring streams and rivers. Many organic farmers also employ buffer zones — strips of vegetation left to grow wild along the shores of natural water bodies. These buffer zones help prevent agriculture runoff from washing into the water they border.

Every time you choose to buy an organic pepper, or a responsibly, locally-grown tomato, you help. Big agriculture, like all industry, changes slowly. This doesn’t mean it won’t change. It just means it can take a long time to see the effects. So, continue to buy those organic vegetables. Try to buy some of your weekly produce at a local farmers’ market, and ask the vendors how they raise their crops. Every time we purchase responsibly-raised agriculture products we nudge the behemoth of industrial agriculture in the right direction.

Agriculture may be the largest contributor to dead zones, but it’s certainly not the only one. Millions of homeowners apply chemical fertilizers to their lawns, flower beds and vegetable gardens every year. Just like fertilizers used by farmers, these concentrated nutrients wash down drains and into streams whenever it rains. The problem is the same, and so is the solution. Use less fertilizer, and choose organic products when you do apply fertilizer. Even if you don’t live within the Mississippi watershed, you still aren’t off the hook here. Dead zones are scattered across our country, and chances are good that you live somewhere that is somehow connected to one.

This is a problem that affects us all. We are all responsible. Which means we can all help.

Rep. Roy Blunt’s Perfidious Petroleum Prognostications!

Posted on August 12, 2008  | Filed Under Global Warming and a New Energy Economy | Leave a Comment

“As far as I’m concerned, those bans end Sept. 30. And if they end on Sept. 30, fuel prices will head back down on Oct. 1,”

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) talking about the moratorium on offshore drilling.

As Congress careens closer to a face off over coastal drilling, there appears to be one seer among the ranks of the Radical Right Wing of Congress.  The Wizard of OZarks sees a direct cause and effect relationship between coastal drilling and gas prices.   I’m glad someone believes this because every shred of evidence is to the contrary.   There is no rational way to demonstrate that this relatively miniscule amount of oil will have any discernable impact on gas prices even ten years from now.

Pro-drilling forces in Congress are seizing the day and building public support for offshore drilling based on the apocryphal notion that people will see immediate or near term relief at the pump.  They also tout drilling as putting us on the path to energy independence.   People are understandably desperate for relief from the economic stress caused by sky-rocketing gas prices.  And public opinion polls show some of that desperation translating into support for offshore drilling-but only when the question is posed to link drilling to immediate relief from high prices.  This shows why it is important to challenge the cynical attempts of the pro-drilling lobby to exploit our collective financial hardship by offering false solutions.

House Republicans are hatching a scheme to provoke a showdown that involves holding the entire federal government hostage to the issue of offshore drilling.  When Congress returns on September 8, they will need to pass a temporary measure to continue funding the federal government beyond September 30, 2008.    Democrats plan to include an extension of the current moratorium on offshore drilling which expires on that same date, September 30.   Republicans are warning that they are willing to block this measure, or pressure the president to veto it, triggering a shutdown of the federal government.

This means, for example, seniors living on social security would stop getting their checks.   The strategy then is for each party to blame the other for the pain caused by this maneuver.

Blocking the measure in the House may be difficult if the Democrats can’t hold the party together on this issue.   They have the numbers to pass the spending measure unless a strong pro-drilling faction emerges within their own party-always possible in an election year.  There is greater risk in the Senate where the margin is narrower, but Senate Democrats will have to take a deep breath before voting to unnecessarily shut down the government two months before an election.

This is all really just political theater.  The only practical way to energy independence is through development of alternatives.   We could squeeze every last drop out of United States resources and it would not be enough to put off the inevitable price increases for fossil fuels.   These non-renewable sources of energy are and always will be a complete dead end.  Big Oil and Big Coal will cling to each and every specious argument they can find, but eventually they will hit the wall.

Members of Congress have an opportunity here to distinguish themselves.   They can stand on the principle that science and reason are the best tools we have to overcome our energy issues, or they can succumb to the easy path of telling people what they want to hear about energy prices regardless of the reality.

It’s up to all of us to hold Congress, Democrats and Republicans, accountable for protecting our coastal environment by extending the moratorium.   We’re going to follow this debate closely and watch out for “compromises” that end up sacrificing natural resources for political expediency.  There will be an appetite for this in both parties and we need Congressional leadership to be strong and forward-thinking if we want to block Big Oil tyrants from ruling our government.  The oil companies are looking for every way they can to turn attention away from their obscene windfall profits and their bloated federal government subsidies.  Blaming the drilling moratorium for high gas prices is classic misdirection.  We’re not buying it and neither should Congress.

As to our son of Missouri with the powers of future vision, there are only a few reasons why Mr. Blunt might be able to confidently make his prediction.  One possible explanation is that he is blessed with the ability to see into the future, at least until Election Day. It might be that he is such an astute analyst of markets that he has an insight into the relationship between sacrificing our oceans for a few drops of oil, which won’t reach the market in 2020, and the reaction of the markets in a few weeks.  It might be that he is a cynical shill for the oil industry and wants to promise pie in the sky to everyone in exchange for enriching Exxon’s shareholders by any means necessary.

Or maybe he’s just guessing.

Dead Fish and Cistern Bricks

Posted on August 8, 2008  | Filed Under Protecting America's Waters | Leave a Comment

Please welcome guest blogger David Phelps, Clean Water Action’s new National Political Director, as he shares his personal experience with water, and why he now works to protect this precious resource.

Joining Clean Water Action was as much a lifestyle decision as a professional or political choice. All of my life, water has been a resource never to be taken for granted.

I grew up in Australia. As part of our schooling, we learned we lived in the driest state on the driest continent in the world. My home state of South Australia receives an average of five inches (or less) of rain annually. Drought is pervasive. Water is treated as a precious gift.

Many of my childhood memories center on water rationing, un-watered gardens browning in scorching summer heat, a brick placed in the cistern tank to slow the flow, cars unwashed for weeks on end - and the inevitable blistering scolding from parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles when taps were left running.

Living in America for two decades now, I have grown accustomed to the luxury of an abundant water supply, of not having to live a life of constant caution when it comes to usage. Until, of course, I was in North Carolina working on a presidential campaign - and waking up each day to news reports of how many days of water supply were left because of the drought.

Ah, how the memories came flooding back!

Of course, the wonderful extraordinary upside of growing up in Australia was life was lived by and on the water. A little-known fact is all six of its state capitals are next to oceans. Summers were spent sunning on white sandy beaches (much to my dermatologist’s nightmare), surfing, sailing, swimming, and, as a rite of passage, life-guarding. Think a San Diego life-style.

Today, I live in a rural village on the eastern shore of Maryland. Wittman, population 78 (at the last count) - and with a post office where everyone knows your name and what you’re reading — nestles in the elbow crook of one of the “arm peninsulas” that make Maryland’s eastern shore so popular with the summer crowd.

From my home office, I see the sails of the occasional skipjack and the wake cast-up by the recreational vessels plying their way across the Chesapeake Bay. From my porch, I watch the clouds build after a day of intense heat and humidity, signaling the massive storm that will come thundering in some hours later.

I love returning home, even though Washington, DC is 90 miles away. As I cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, I enter a different world - one centered on water and all its offerings.

And one of my great joys is to walk my Border collie to the strip of land where the water reaches in - and to watch Junior dive in, blissfully paddling on a hot day.

Increasingly, however, we have seen fish belly-up in our little patch of the Chesapeake Bay. First, it was just one or two and then, as my eyes became acclimatized, I saw more pale white bloated bellies. Now, Junior refuses to jump in to his pool of water. His instincts are good.

That is why, when the opportunity presented itself, I chose to join Clean Water Action. Rather than working for a single candidate, now I’m helping make a difference with many candidates and elected officials, urging them to support the renewal of the Clean Water Restoration Act.

I’m working with others of like-mind on climate change and clean energy - taking steps to clean-up the waters lapping at my own backyard.

We can be proud that so many American’s are committed to our water, our health and our future. But we cannot afford to rest easy - and there is much to be done. Going green is more than a fashion statement. If we fail to do so, then it will be more dead fish - and more bricks in cistern tanks.

Recipe for a Greener America: Keep The Political Heat On High

Posted on August 5, 2008  | Filed Under Making Democracy Work | Leave a Comment

Please welcome guest blogger Marie Zellar, one of Clean Water Action’s National Deputy Directors, as she takes a look back at previous chances for environmental changes and how the lessons learned from that era could inform a new administration.

In 1992, I sat in the big conference room at the Hoosier Environmental Council, watching as Bill Clinton and Al Gore assumed office. High-fives, maniacal giggling and general merry-making of the highest order ensued. Like when your team wins the World Series or Super Bowl. For an environmental organizer, Al Gore as Vice President seemed like Christmas and my birthday all wrapped up in one. Global warming will be solved! Polluted water would be cleaned up! Communities would be protected from toxic waste and air pollution!

Now that I think of it, it was more like the day before Christmas or your birthday when you are so certain that what is wrapped up in that shiny box with the big bow is exactly what you wanted. The big box turned out to be filled with a lot of tissue paper and a couple pair of really nice new socks. Nice socks are great (I really do love new socks), certainly better than a lump of coal, but not exactly the pony I had longed for. Clinton-Gore was great, certainly a far cry from the first Bush, but not the long-awaited environmental revolution many of us expected.

Don’t get me wrong, Clinton-Gore got some things done such establishing roadless areas in our national forests, using the powers of the presidency to strengthen Clean Air Act enforcement and protecting many important natural areas as national monuments. But it was not the sweeping reversal of fortune we were hoping for.

We expected an “instant” environmental presidency. “Just add water” on Election Day and all will be well. That is not how it works. While Clinton and Gore own some of that disappointment, we as organizers and campaigners only did half of our job. Getting someone elected is the first chapter. Getting good environmental policy passed is the next eighteen chapters.

Clean Water Action is excited by the potential of an Obama administration. We appreciate his vision and courage. Our endorsement reflects his commitment to protecting communities, which dates back to his days organizing on the streets of Chicago and continues all the way to his service in the United State Senate.

But we have learned from the 1992 experience that getting a President elected, while a huge and noble feat, is only part of the job and only the beginning of the job. We have to create and maintain the political climate for the Obama administration and the next Congress to push for and win victories for the environment.

Obama’s recent signal that, for the right tradeoffs, he would consider modifying his stance on off-shore drilling for oil is a case in point. It is easy to see that Republicans are making hay out of a national crisis all the while using the drilling issue as a political bludgeon on Obama and on Democrats in areas with close Congressional races. Big oil and the Republicans shaped the political landscape with the issue and everyone else now has to react to that.

An office holder’s term is shaped by the “physics” of politics around them. In Washington D.C. those physics are all about the brute force of lobbyists for polluters doing very well by their clients every single day and the epoch levels of political inertia (read as “better safe than sorry”) that stymies any change in direction. The counter to these forces is the tremendous potential power locked up in the electorate that put them there in the first place.

With the inauguration of Clinton, many of us assumed we had shown our muscle and so certainly we had overcome inertia and evinced enough voter power to break the stranglehold that polluters had in Washington. We were wrong. We demonstrated enough power to get them elected and maintain a Democratic majority in Congress, but not enough power to counter the forces already entrenched within the “beltway.”

Things only got worse when the Republicans took Congress in 1994. To their credit, Clinton-Gore fought off attempts by the Gingrich crowd to weaken the Clean Water Act and through some amazing political jujitsu (and a massive strategic campaign by Clean Water Action and our allies) passed legislation strengthening the Safe Drinking Water Act. But too many issues to list were either left on the cutting board or never even made it onto paper.

Our job as voters has many facets, but we get so focused on Election Day, that we forget about the other aspects of our job. Too often we put great care and resources into mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough and letting it rise, but then don’t put it in the oven. Getting someone elected is the beginning. The rest of our job as voters is about maintaining vigilance and sustaining the political pressure that allows change in policy to happen. We have to define and maintain a political landscape where good environmental policy is possible. Kind of like keeping the oven stoked so our bread can actually bake. And stoke we must.

While Clinton-Gore had a long environmental “to-do” list, it is nothing compared to the “fixer-upper” Obama will inherit. The George W. Bush administration has left a gigantic toxic waste dump that Obama will have to clean up, in addition to doing anything proactive to protect our water, air and land.

The EPA has been left crippled, its authority stripped, staff cut, its funding slashed and jurisdiction shrunk as to render it toothless. They have gutted the Clean Water Act, cut toxic waste site clean-up, given coal and oil interests carte blanche with the taxpayers checkbook and allowed our infrastructure for water, transportation and parks deteriorate to crisis levels. Obama has a great challenge to just get basic public health and environmental protections back to functioning levels. And there is so much more we need to do to avert the global warming crisis, secure a safe and plentiful water supply and re-create an effective environmental enforcement system.

We, those who think about the effective, efficient environmental policy, have to have some discipline and give good clear guidance to the next administration and Congress in cleaning up the mess left by Bush junior and in picking up the ball on so many important issues that have yet to be seriously debated. Clean Water Action thinks water infrastructure, water supply, energy policy and dealing with health damaging toxins should be at the top of that list.

Our job starts today. From the President all the way down the ticket, we need to make sure those we elect are committed not only to support but to lead. We must work hard to create true environmental majorities that come into office with a sense of purpose on our issues. I do not mean to diminish the importance of voting, we can’t get anywhere if we don’t have leaders in office, but voting is just a first step. Then we must finish the job and make it politically possible for good policy to take root at all levels of government.

What is in the box we open on November 4th? That is up to us. If we all commit to keep the fires stoked beyond Election Day, there may just be a pony in that box.

Next Page →