This week the U.S. Geological Survey identified the top 150 polluting watersheds in the Mississippi River Basin that cause the annual 8,000 square-mile "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico and found that 42 of those watersheds are in Iowa.

 

Marine dead zones can be caused by too many nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in the water. Excess nutrients cause excess algae growth which, in turn, causes oxygen levels to drop too low to support marine life.

 

This is not the first time that Iowa nutrient problems in Iowa waters have been linked to problems downstream. In January of 2008, USGS identified 9 states, including Iowa, as the source of over 70 percent of the Gulf Dead Zone pollution. Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from commercial fertilizers and animal manure from farmland were the biggest contributing sources in these states.

 

 "It is ironic that our legislature is currently considering a bill that would weaken new rules proposed by the Iowa DNR to reduce runoff of manure applied to frozen or snow covered cropland during the winter," said Marian Riggs Gelb, executive director for the Iowa Environmental Council.

 

Riggs Gelb is asking legislators to vote no on Senate File 432 (Manure on Frozen Ground bill) and to let the Iowa Department of Natural Resources do their job to establish strong rules to protect water quality in our rivers and streams by limiting winter applications of both liquid and solid manure.

 

send a message to your Iowa Representative, asking him or her to VOTE NO on Senate File 432.