News items from Eutrophication News

TAHLEQUAH, OK — Just months before a phosphorus limit for the Illinois River watershed becomes effective, several Oklahoma and Arkansas lawmakers may be seeking a delay in a study of the issue by the Environmental Protection Agency.

St. Paul, Minn. — Top officials from the Obama administration came to Minnesota Tuesday to announce a new program to encourage farmers to do more to protect water quality.

FLORIDA - Participants in a panel on water quality spoke today as part of the Everglades Water Supply Summit, highlighting the importance of working with both lawmakers and environmentalists to ensure the health of state waterways.

Estuaries are highly productive and ecologically rich areas that are important habitats for fish and bird species. Over the past few decades, the frequency and duration of harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been increasing globally in coastal areas.

NEW JERSEY - Stormwater runoff to Barnegat Bay has been increasing for decades, along with growth in Ocean County’s suburban towns. With roofs, lawns and pavement now covering 33 percent of the region — up from 25 percent in 1995 — there is less woodland to soak up the water. So more runoff goes to tributary streams carrying dissolved fertilizer, air pollution fallout and other sources of nitrogen, which is a nutrient that feeds plants.

MADISON, WI -- Helping farmers maximize their nutrient management plans to benefit their bottom line and better protect lakes, rivers and groundwater are twin goals of a new effort by state water quality officials.

Colorado — Nitrogen pollution is becoming one of the most pervasive global environmental problems, with nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff and sewage leading to coral diseases, bird die-offs, fish diseases, human diarrheal diseases and vector-borne infections transmitted by insects such as mosquitos and ticks.

Russia - A large and hitherto unknown source of nutrients straining the ecosystem of the Baltic Sea has been uncovered in Northwestern Russia. According to the information obtained by Helsingin Sanomat, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, close to Kingisepp, there is a fertiliser plant from the surroundings of which enormous amounts of phosphorus are leaking into the Luga River and subsequently into the Gulf of Finland.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Jan, 17, 2012) – U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that EPA and USDA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the state of Minnesota to develop a new state program for farmers designed to increase the voluntary adoption of conservation practices that protect local rivers, streams and other waters by reducing fertilizer run-off and soil erosion.

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte — The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources office in Region 8 (BFAR-8) has issued a warning again on the presence of red tide in Matarinao Bay, Eastern Samar.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) is setting up a water quality institute in collaboration with Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) at Islamabad. KOICA will provide a grant of $3 million for the establishment of the institute, construction of which would also be carried out by Project Management Company (PMC) of KOICA.

MARYLAND - In response to the recent Environment Maryland report “An Unsustainable Path: Why Maryland Manure Pollution Rules are Failing to Protect the Chesapeake Bay”, Maryland Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance issued the following statement.

Despite ongoing pollution, water quality has improved a lot in New Jersey in the last 30 years, according to the state. But the last 10 years is a different story. Looking at the biological health of waterways, water quality has “generally remained stable, with a slight negative trend,” a recent state Department of Environmental Protection report stated.

Under the best conditions, raising livestock is a dirty, smelly business. And right now in Ohio, the conditions are far from good. Record rainfall during the fall kept most farmers from spreading manure on muddy fields. That has agriculture officials concerned that some farmers, who will soon run out of storage space, will spread manure on snow-covered, frozen fields this winter.

Photosynthesizing micro-organisms called phytoplankton created the figure 8 in the south Atlantic Ocean, about 360 miles (600 kilometers) east of the Falkland Islands. The European Space Agency's Envisat spacecraft acquired the image on Dec. 2, 2011.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) federal advisory committee on agricultural issues, the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee (FRRCC), has submitted its report to the agency on agricultural and water quality issues.

Manitoba, Canada - The Province of Manitoba recently released its water quality standards regulations for 2012. The Manitoba Water Quality Standards, Objectives, and Guidelines set out water quality conditions that will protect water quality for various uses including fish and other aquatic life, sources of drinking water, irrigation and livestock watering, and recreation.

Montana - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved Montana's plan to phase in strict limits on water pollution from municipal wastewater treatment plants, industry and other sources, officials said Monday.

Beijing - Some lakes in the Yangtze River valley are facing shrinking and extinction threats, according to a report "Protection and development of the Yangtze River in 2011" issued in Beijing on Jan. 6, 2012.

TRENTON – The federal Environmental Protection Agency warned that portions of a bill being considered by New Jersey’s Legislature could jeopardize the state’s ability to comply with the Clean Water Act and could have “significant adverse impacts” on water quality.