Thursday, April 2, 2015

POLLUTANTS LIKELY TO CREATE LONGEST DEAD ZONE YET IN GREEN BAY. PHOSPHORUS FROM FIELDS, URBAN AREAS LEADS TO OXYGEN-DEPRIVED STRETCHES









APRIL 1, 2015

Green Bay— The tide of nutrients from the Fox River and other tributaries will help create the latest, and most likely, longest-lasting dead zone in Lake Michigan's Green Bay this summer.

The problem is caused by vast amounts of phosphorus and other nutrients that wash from farms and urban landscapes and produce conditions that create oxygen-deprived stretches on the bay.

In the Great Lakes region, public concern about dead zones and nutrient-caused pollution has been growing in recent years.

Special attention has focused on the Maumee River in Ohio that flows into Lake Erie, where conditions are the worst. The two other areas getting scrutiny are Green Bay and Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. All three received funding in the past week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address the problem.
On Wednesday U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Green Bay) convened a "phosphorus summit" to highlight the problem and review potential solutions.

If there was any agreement by the more than 150 people with divergent opinions on the topic, it was this:

The problem took decades to create and the annual appearance of summer dead zones and algae-clogged waters won't be solved anytime soon.
In 2014, areas of the bay where virtually nothing lives lasted 43 days. By comparison, in 1990 the dead zone was gone in four days, according to figures from the city's wastewater utility.

"This is step one of a multiyear process," Ribble told the gathering at the Neville Public Museum.

Cause of dead zones
Phosphorus comes from fertilizer, cattle manure, sewage treatment plants and industry. Along with other nutrients such as nitrogen, it feeds algae, which eventually die. Bacteria break down the dead algae, gobbling up oxygen, causing the dead zones.

In Wisconsin, agriculture has received considerable attention because farms escape most regulation for phosphorus and other sources such municipal treatment plants have made big cuts. Also, in parts of northeast Wisconsin, cattle numbers are growing.

Kewaunee County had seen its cattle population jump 34% between 1983 and 2012, according to state figures. In Brown County, cow numbers have increased 20% for the period.

The Fox River watershed is a source of one-third of all nutrients into Lake Michigan, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
"There's just too many cows in Brown County, I'm afraid," said Val Klump, director of the Great Lakes WATER Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Klump's research includes study of Green Bay's dead zone.
The speakers at the event included farmers and regulators, but no one from a growing chorus in the environmental community or citizens opposed to large-scale agriculture.

"This is the beginning of the conversation," Ribble said. "I want to hear from everybody."
The congressman said he planned other meetings and wanted to hear from environmentalists, small farmers and others.

What's next?
What will come from such summits and other work taking place among state officials is unclear.
In an interview, Ribble said one possibility is "some type of regulatory expansion, but we have to make sure it's done in the right way." He declined to elaborate because he said it's too early in the process.
New regulations will not be coming from state regulators, said DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp.

In an interview, Stepp and the DNR's top water regulator, Russ Rasmussen, said the DNR and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection have been meeting for months to find ways to meld funding and their personnel to work on the topic.
They also want to work more directly with federal agencies to provide farmers with expertise and funding for projects to keep soil and manure from polluting public waterways.

Stepp was buttonholed by at least two attendees who told her the state isn't doing enough.
Robert Atwell, chairman and chief executive officer of Green Bay-based Nicolet National Bank, complained that regulators don't consider pollution costs borne by the public when evaluating farm expansions or how much waste farms send to watersheds.

Lee Luft, a Kewaunee County Board supervisor, told Stepp that the agency fails to consider the cumulative effects of manure from many farms when it reviews a wastewater permit for Wisconsin's largest farms, known as concentrated animal feeding operations.
Only the largest farms are required to get such permits, and the DNR has never rejected one.

"I'm not an advocate, I'm a regulator," Stepp said. "This has to be addressed by the Legislature."
"Well, maybe it's time," Luft said.
Lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker's administration have shown no interest in increased regulation of dairy farms, although the state imposes phosphorus limits on wastewater treatment plants and municipal storm water.
Wisconsin became one of the first states to approve phosphorus reduction limits, using specific numeric standards.

However, the Legislature in 2014 rolled back a full phase-in of those rules by up to 20 years because of concerns about the cost of the regulations. Rasmussen said the rollback also includes requirements that ratchet down pollution over the period.

Farmer John Jacobs of Green Valley Dairy in Krakow in Shawano County told the group that manure is "nature's best and most pure plant food."
Nonetheless, it has to be applied correctly and farmers must use practices that optimize the uptake of the nutrients into the soil. One technique not widely used is to plant a cover crop between rows of corn and soybeans to hold soil in place, he said.

Jacobs also uses a digester that converts the methane from manure into electricity. The digester doesn't make the manure cleaner, but it leaves him with waste that is easier to spread and absorbed into the soil more quickly, reducing the risk of harm to the watershed.
Source:www.jsonline.com