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