States, including Arkansas, miss goal; Gulf's 'dead zone' unchecked

Map showing The 12 states that are trying to reduce nutrients that flow into the Mississippi River
Map showing The 12 states that are trying to reduce nutrients that flow into the Mississippi River

Fifteen years after Arkansas and 11 other states set a goal of shrinking an oxygen-starved area of the Gulf Coast to 1,900 square miles, the area is still a few times larger.

The area is often referred to as the "Gulf Coast Dead Zone," although the Environmental Protection Agency calls it "Gulf Hypoxia," in reference to the scientific term for a low-oxygen area. Its low oxygen levels make it inhospitable to fish in a sea that is a significant supplier of seafood in the United States.

The hypoxia zone was first documented in 1972, according to the EPA, and it was bigger than the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined (6,474 square miles) in 2015, the last time it was measured.

Since 1997, Arkansas and 11 other states -- Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi -- have looked at ways to reduce it as a part of the EPA's Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force. That group set its goal of 1,900 square miles in 2001 after an abnormally small measurement in 2000.

Arkansas' role in the hypoxia zone stems from its proximity to the Mississippi River. Nearly everywhere in Arkansas eventually drains into the Mississippi River, said Mike Daniels, a water quality and nutrient management specialist with the University of Arkansas Extension Service. The Mississippi River is what introduces excess nutrients into the Gulf Coast that have contributed to the hypoxia zone.

"I just think we've got to get better," Daniels said. "It's going to take a better effort by everybody -- not just farmers, not just municipalities."

Hypoxia zones, which exist all over the world, can be caused by excess levels of nutrients and water body layering because of saline or temperature changes, according to the EPA. Excess nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, contribute to algae that grows, then dies, decomposes and consumes oxygen in the process. Certain weather events, like rain, can exacerbate the hypoxia zone.

Nutrients come from fertilizers, erosion of soil that has nutrients in it, discharges from sewage plants or from the atmosphere, among other places, according to the EPA.

The Mississippi River used to have a "natural removal system" that curbed nutrient levels, Daniels said. But settlement along the Mississippi River, including channels to prevent flooding, took out natural flood plains and hardwood forests that would absorb nutrients, he said. Now, the nutrients simply flow down to the Gulf of Mexico.

"We just have to deal with that," Daniels said.

The five-year average of the Gulf Coast hypoxia zone's size is less than the measurement taken in 2001, and in a few years after that. That five-year average is still larger than the long-term average measured since 1985. The hypoxia zone rarely shrinks anywhere near the task force's 1,900-square-mile goal, which was set in 2001 and reaffirmed in 2008, according to the EPA.

The 6,474-square-mile measurement in 2015 -- technical problems prevented a measuring of the hypoxia zone in 2016 -- is noted by critics who say the EPA's task force and the states that comprise it aren't doing enough to combat the zone.

A report released this month by the Mississippi River Collaborative, an organization of conservation groups in the 10 states that abut the Mississippi River, faulted the EPA and states for relying on voluntary initiatives and water cleanup programs that don't follow up to determine if waters have been improved.

The report called for clearer water quality standards, better oversight of what is being discharged into or running off into water bodies, and implementation plans for reducing nutrients that detail what should be reduced where and by whom.

Many states have taken steps to reduce nutrients in the Mississippi River, but those steps vary by state. All 12 task force member states developed their own nutrient reduction strategies.

Arkansas officials noted that some of the task force states up north have been proactive in reducing nutrients.

Minnesota and Wisconsin have developed standards for phosphorus in some water bodies.

Wisconsin officials have touted that since 1995, the state has reduced 23 percent of the phosphorus from watersheds that drain into the Mississippi River, and have argued that ongoing efforts can reduce phosphorus by 45 percent. Those efforts include phosphorus removal requirements and programs that manage sources of nutrients away from water bodies.

In Minnesota, a natural resources sales tax increase approved by voters in 2009 has contributed to water quality protection, according to the state's Pollution Control Agency, and officials are working on standards for nitrate, which includes nitrogen, that would reduce nitrate levels.

In Iowa, officials are watching a lawsuit filed by Des Moines Water Works against three north Iowa counties over high nitrate levels in the Raccoon River, which is one of two suppliers of drinking water for 500,000 central Iowans.

Des Moines Water Works sued, arguing that it had spent $1.5 million and would need to spend $80 million in the next six years to remove nitrates from drinking water, according to the Des Moines Register. The utility argued that drainage systems in those counties allow high levels of nitrates to flow from farm fields into the river.

The Mississippi River Collaborative report said Arkansas' approach to the hypoxia zone lacks specific goals or a plan to reduce nutrients. Arkansas also doesn't require enough monitoring on some sites, the report said.

Arkansas should institute more requirements, rather than just voluntary nutrient management plans and testing, said Anna Weeks of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, who contributed to the report.

"More action definitely needs to take place at the regulatory level in order to make changes," Weeks said.

The state also should have numeric nutrient standards, instead of narrative ones, that would better define water quality, she said.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is drafting numeric standards for nutrients in the state and has indicated that the first set for the central-northern part of the state could be released by the end of 2017. Beaver Lake is the only water body that currently has numeric standards.

Nutrients have been reduced in the Illinois River watershed through a series of conservation efforts and nutrient management plans for poultry farms in about a dozen counties in Northwest Arkansas. Nutrient management plans aren't required anywhere else in Arkansas. The plans and conservation efforts in Northwest Arkansas are the result of a lawsuit by the state of Oklahoma, which accused Arkansas of degrading the Illinois River.

The new version of the Arkansas Water Plan includes a nutrient reduction section that argues for strengthening existing programs, promoting voluntary programs, pursuing public-private partnerships, and pursuing market-based opportunities and solutions.

Daniels noted programs related to nutrient reduction or monitoring in Arkansas, including Discovery Farms. Discovery Farms is a voluntary program that monitors nutrient levels in runoff at 12 different farms in Arkansas, mostly row-crop farms in east Arkansas.

The monitoring helps farmers determine how much fertilizer should be applied to their land -- often less than was applied previously. It also helps officials understand how or whether farms are contributing significant amounts of nutrients to their watersheds and, eventually, the Mississippi River, Daniels said. So far, according to University of Arkansas at Fayetteville professor Andrew Sharpley, the farms being monitored don't seem to contribute much.

"What we have seen is, on some row-crop farms, the amount of fertilizer they're putting on that gets washed off is generally less than 1 percent of what they're putting on," Sharpley said.

Figures for poultry or livestock farms were unavailable.

Terry Dabbs, a row-crop farmer on 3,000 acres just south of Stuttgart, said he became involved in Discovery Farms because he wanted "sound science" to determine whether his farm was contributing nutrients and to see if he was losing fertilizer from his land in runoff.

"If nutrients are leaving my farms and running down a ditch, they're not doing me any good. They're costing me money," he said, noting that he also doesn't want to contaminate the Gulf of Mexico.

With the Discovery Farms program, Dabbs has divided his land into a grid for taking soil samples and takes many more samples than previously. That helps him determine how much nitrogen, for example, is on his land already and helps him apply less when he needs to fertilize his fields.

Changes in small watersheds that drain into the Mississippi River haven't solved the problem, said Ken Brazil, engineer supervisor in the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission's water planning section, who said he isn't sure how the issue might be solved in the coming decades.

"Some efforts in states have shown great reduction in smaller watersheds, but 800 miles down into the Gulf, you may not see any change at all," said Brazil, who serves on the coordinating committee for the EPA task force.

Major population centers, such as Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis, also can contribute to high nutrient levels in the Mississippi River because of their wastewater systems, Brazil said. Arkansas doesn't have a comparable metropolitan area, he said, noting that Little Rock's wastewater is more than 100 miles from the river and would dilute by the time it reaches the river.

After more than a decade of work by the 12-state task force, Brazil is often faced with the same question: Why is the hypoxia zone not getting smaller?

"That is a question that the task force is constantly responding to," he said.

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