News items from Eutrophication News

The Corps of Engineers opened the floodgates on May 9 to lower the level of the flood-swollen river and take pressure off the levees that protect New Orleans. But some people are worried about what's in all that the water, like high levels of nitrogen fertilizer, pesticides from flooded fields further north and sediment. And they're wondering how all of that will affect the environment.

Nitrogen pollution in our coastal ecosystems, the result of widespread use of synthetic agricultural fertilizers and of human sewage, leads to decreased water transparency, the loss of desirable fish species, and the emergence of toxic phytoplankton species -- such as the algae behind the infamous "red tides" that kill fish.

CANADA - The artificial channel that protects Winnipeg from the Assiniboine River appears to be making Lake Manitoba sick.

May 17, 2011 - The District's Wastewater Treatment Plant, one of the largest in the world, is getting new technology to generate electricity from waste and cut the plant's nitrogen pollution in half.

Nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen can have a harmful effect on the Clinton Reservoir. “For Clinton Reservoir, the main problem is eutrophication,” says Laura Caldwell, Kansas River Keeper for Friends of the Kaw. “That would be sediment and nutrient pollution.” During the summer when nutrient levels are high, and the weather is sunny and calm, algae can grow and bloom.

Chemical fertilizer has long been overused in China, causing increasingly fatal nitrogen pollution nationwide, said Zhang Fusuo, dean of the Resource and Environment College at China Agriculture University, at an agricultural forum held in Beijing on Sunday.

Newswise — Nitrogen pollution in our coastal ecosystems, the result of widespread use of synthetic agricultural fertilizers and of human sewage, leads to decreased water transparency, the loss of desirable fish species, and the emergence of toxic phytoplankton species—such as the algae behind the renowned “red tides” that kill fish. The effects are particularly pronounced in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

Australia - ALGAE levels in the Canning River have risen again in the past two weeks but the two species currently blooming are not known to be harmful to humans, according to Swan River Trust scientists.

Can you bring something back from the dead? Scientists in Sweden say that if it's at the bottom of the sea and oxygenation is present, you can. Oxygenation gives ecosystems the boost they need to come to life and helps nature deal with eutrophication, the bloom of phytoplankton in water.

The calm Gulf of Finland bathes in the spring sun in Sandöfjärden off Raseborg in the southwest of Finland.
The water looks clear at the surface, but the bottom area is almost dead: the only living creatures there are bacteria.

If you read French, here are a series of articles on Brittany's nitrate and algae issues.

Russian scientists beat the alarm – Russian rivers receive over 11 million tons of pollutants each year.

Seascale and Haverigg beaches could be closed to swimmers if their bathing water is too polluted under new tough water standards.

Gov. Chris Christie has nixed a state Senate bill that would have required the Ocean County Planning Board and Ocean County towns to develop a fee system for new development in the Barnegat Bay watershed.

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Stressed-out eelgrass meadows in Barnegat Bay and around the world may be in danger of renewed disease or population collapse, says professor Mark Campanella, a Montclair State University ecologist

PORTSMOUTH — While proponents of a delay in tougher Environmental Protection Agency limits on nitrogen discharged into the Great Bay estuary cite the need for additional scientific study, experts said Wednesday that action to mitigate pollution needs to start now.

Fueled by frustration over a still-ongoing reshaping of agricultural pollution regulations, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, represented by the Environmental Defense Center, filed a lawsuit against the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board last week claiming that the state agency — at least when it comes to ensuring a safe health standard for the water that runs off of irrigated ag land — isn’t doing its job.

There's a long way to go before the Chesapeake Bay complies with the new federal "pollution diet."

The future for New Zealand’s already ailing waterways looks murkier as a $435 million irrigation package potentially paves the way for 1 million more cows.

Lopez says as freshwater nutrients enter the lake, it's more than likely algae blooms will form and could be widespread.