In the past 20 years, water quality in Iowa has had a sharp decline due to nitrogen and phosphorus runoff. Too many of these nutrients can lead to health and environmental problems. If infants consume too much nitrogen in their drinking water, they can get a limited supply of oxygen, which is the cause of blue baby syndrome. In the environment, too much phosphorus can lead to algal blooms, which cut off oxygen supply to other marine species. Animal confinements, agricultural fields, and urbanized lawns are some of the main causes of this crisis. A big river pollutant in Iowa are animal confinements. These confinements can contain thousands of pigs, chickens, and cows. With so many animals, thousands of pounds of manure are generated, and in that manure is excessive amounts of nitrogen. On the EPA’s website (2008), a table shows that Iowa has produced 398,551 kg of nitrogen and 144,981 kg of phosphorus from animal manure in 2007. This shows that in …show more content…
Iowa is known for it’s farming, so it would make sense that it is the number one consumer for N and P fertilizers. Although they do raise the yield for crops, fertilizers have a major impact on water quality. In Mike Kilens article (2016), states, “Ben Albright, 34, farms nearby in the watershed. He uses no-till farming, buffer strips and cover crops, all conservation methods designed to save soil from eroding and protect the river.” This suggests that eroding soil can be harmful to the river. Whether it is knocking mussels off the bank or carrying unnecessary nutrients, it is not good for the water. Farmers have tried taking action, but with only a certain percentage of them doing so, the decline in water nutrients is slim to none. When wind and rain wash soil away from fields, the soil will carry fertilizer and other organic waste with it, creating nutrient runoff that can be potentially dangerous for humans and aquatic
Currently, the United State’s Gulf of Mexico experiences an annual, seasonal “dead zone” as a result of hypoxia. Hypoxia is a low level of dissolved oxygen (<2mg/L) in an area of water. Hypoxia is typically temporary and seasonal, but the low oxygen levels can be devastating to aquatic organisms. Hypoxia occurs in many oceanic waters worldwide, but there is a growing area of concern in our Gulf of Mexico coast. Hypoxia is largely caused by nitrogen fertilizer application for agriculture, with heavy concentrations coming from the Midwestern US. Nitrogen mobilizes as nitrate, and is transported via surface water runoff. The runoff enters tile-drain supported ditches, enters streams and joins the Mississippi river, eventually reaching the gulf. Nitrate mobilization is a problem for human health, and ag. runoff is also often attributed to the contamination of surface and well-water sources in rural areas. High levels of nitrates restrict the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen. This can harm humans, and is the major cause of infant methemoglobinemia, or “blue baby syndrome”. The safe drinking level standard is 10mg/L.
Weeks of heavy rain in the Midwest caused rivers to swell and levees to break. Millions of acres of farmland are now underwater, their plantings most likely destroyed. By March, Iowa had tied its third-highest monthly snowfall in 121 years of record keeping, and then came the rain. April’s statewide average was the second highest in 136 years.... ...
Use of pesticides & other fertilizers infuse nitrogen oxide into the water bodies acidifying the water which kills the plants and aquatic animals living in
About 80% of the state's surveyed freshwater rivers and streams have good water quality that fully supports aquatic life uses, while 17% have fair water quality that partially supports aquatic life uses, and 3% have poor water quality that does not support aquatic life uses. Ten percent of the surveyed rivers do not fully support swimming. The major sources of impairment are agriculture, responsible for 53% of the impaired river miles, urban runoff, responsible for 16%, and construction, responsible for 13%. These sources generate siltation, bacteria, and organic wastes that deplete dissolved oxygen. Only 17% of the surveyed lakes in North Carolina are impaired for swimming, and 6% are impaired for aquatic life uses.
In animal agriculture today, manure that is produced by hogs has the potential to do a lot
...at over planting can do to the land, the majority of the United States just moved on and continued to treat the land just as poorly as before. John Pursell views chemical fertilizer as a thing that turns soil into “chemical wasteland” and mentions that today’s soil is often not good enough to resist heavy rainfalls.
Pederson, T.L. “Agricultural Run-off as a Source of Drinking Water Contamination.” ExtoxNet FAQs. Oregon State University. June 1997. Web. 10 April 2014.
Also, the tourism industry loses about one billion dollars a year from polluted waters, in fishing and boating. (epa.gov, 2016) Nutrient pollution can be harmful to fish and often kills them, losing millions of dollars in commercial fishing. Moreover, people can play a role in nutrient pollution by the way they use their land. For Indiana, to lessen our contribution to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, we need to watch the way we use our land and resources (nature.org, 2016).
The Great Lakes provide almost half the water for the residents of Ontario. The Great Lakes also provides water to residents in Thunder Bay, Port Hope, Sault St Marie, Niagara and many parts of The United States to name a few. With 70% of the Earth covered in water only 0.1% of it is clean accessible drinking water. The Great Lakes plays a major role in helping to provide water for people that live near the American/Canadian border. However this resource is being mistreated. Water pollution is a growing problem in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes is being contaminated by pollutants that are released for direct and indirect sources without proper treatment. This is causing the lake to being polluted with harmful chemicals. By identifying the cause we can take initiative to help conserve the Great Lakes and to help restore it to its natural beauty.
Leventhal, E. (1990). Alternative uses of wetlands other than conventional farming in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska: EPA/171/R-92/006, 145 p.
Manure is loaded with pathogenic bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant ones, antibiotic residues, and plenty of nitrate, which fouls drinking water and also feeds dead-zone-causing algae blooms. North Carolina, the US ' leading hog producing state, is also home to the nation 's highest concentration of hog manure-holding lagoons in a flood plain. In October 1999 those lagoons washed out in the flooding following Hurricane Floyd. The waste, mixed with the floating bodies of between 30,000 and 100,000 dead hogs, and with waste from flooded sewage plants, choked coastal rivers and washed into Pamlico and Core Sounds. There the waste created a 350-square mile dead zone, devoid of oxygen and of life, in the nation 's second largest estuary. And as of October 2016 Hurricane Matthew Killed Millions of Farm Animals in North Carolina, which is also likely to cause massive amounts of toxic hog, excrement to flow into rivers and streams. Hypoxic zones are areas in the ocean of such low oxygen concentration that animal life suffocates and dies, and as a result are sometimes called "dead zones." One of the largest dead zones forms in the Gulf of Mexico every spring. Each spring as farmers fertilize their lands preparing for crop season, rain washes fertilizer off the land and into streams and rivers. Glyphosate is Round-up, it’s an herbicide that you get when you go to a home and garden store. Millions of people
(2015) lists some of the sources of nutrients as adaptation in use of land, dumping of untreated sewage and garbage, mining and construction activities in coastal areas, pesticide and insecticide use. Indirectly, biogeochemical cycles can add nutrients from the atmosphere into the marine ecosystem via rain (Hapeman et al. 2002). Untreated wastewater effluent from industries, runoff water from lawns and farmlands runoff into freshwater and mix with the bay water and contaminate it. According to Kemp et al. (2005), farms are in close proximity to water sources. Nutrients from pesticides, insecticides and animal waste can easily end up in water sources as runoff. Nitrogen, phosphorous and carbon are some of the many chemicals that end as runoff disturbing the ecosystem in estuaries (Gray et al. 2002; Kemp et al. 2005). Waste water treatment plant also contribute nitrogen and phosphorous (Hapeman et al. 2002). The result is eutrophication of coastal
Phasing out animal agriculture and replacing it with stronger, safer plant cultivation would greatly reduce pollution released into the environment as animal waste, burning fossil fuels, and contaminated water runoff. The animal waste produced in factory farms is dumped into immense open-air lago...
For years now there has been a lot of controversy surrounding poultry production and its effect on the environment, more specifically, the use of chicken manure as a fertilizer. Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) insist that the chicken manure runoff is a major source of pollution; however, it is viewed as “black gold” on Delmarva. It’s hard to believe that this is such a hot topic in Delaware and the surrounding area, yet some people don’t even know what a chicken house looks like. Delawareans need to become more involved and educated on the topic so that the poultry industry that does so much for this state isn’t shut down. In the following, a basic overview of poultry production, benefits of chicken manure, allegations against the use of chicken manure, and arguments against Federal Protection Agencies will be discussed.
Farmers apply nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, manure, and potassium in the form of fertilizers to produce a better product for the consumers. When these sources exceed the plants needs or if these nutrients are applied before a heavy rain then the opportunity for these excess to wash into aquatic ecosystems exists.