Conservationists Seek Firm Limits on Gulf Dead Zone Pollution

[XemaSab]

Conservation groups from nine states along the Mississippi River and two national groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today to set and enforce numeric standards to limit nutrient pollution in the river basin because it contributes to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf dead zone, a stretch of water covering nearly 8,000 square miles where oxygen levels are too low to support marine life, is the second largest in the world.

It is caused every year when farmers fertilize their fields. Nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer and phosphorus from animal manure mixes with rainwater and flows from the agricultural lands into the Mississippi River and downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.

The petitioners say the EPA has disregarded its responsibility under the federal Clean Water Act to limit nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-30-095.asp