You Yanks are back in the news

john in la · Sep 10, 2014

While it happens every year; and this year is about average; They were talking about you yankee farmers and all your fertilizer/manure runoff on the news today.

Gulf of Mexico dead zone

fixerupper · Sep 10, 2014

Yep, we throw our excess manure and fertilizer in the river. Out of sight out of mind. LOL. In reality, I can see more no till farming and restricted fertilizer use mandated in the future. Jim

Dr. Walt · Sep 10, 2014

Has anyone stopped to consider that a lot of that
might be caused by all of the dumping of HUMAN waste
& treated sewage into the rivers and ocean.

:>(

GeneMO · Sep 10, 2014

I am a retired farmer/crop adjuster. As a hobby I do Water Quality monitoring for the Missouri Dept of Conservation and DNR. From what I heard in our training, city people use more herbicides and fertilizers on their lawns, on a per acre basis than farmers. They really throw the fertilizer and chemicals to it to get those nice green lawns. Banks? Businesses? Hotels? all have super nice, manicured grass. And the rain in the city, when it runs off those pretty lawns, goes right on pavement and down the storm sewer. No filter strips, no grass field borders or grass waterways like on farms.

I put lots of the blame on city folks.

Farmers put chemicals on for profit, and it isn't profitible to let it run off. But city folks want pretty, and that "Lawn of the Month" sign to go in their yard. And they dont have a clue, or give a rats rear end to where that run off goes.

Gene

john in la · Sep 10, 2014

Gene;
I think you have hit the nail squarely on the head but you would have a hard time convincing city folk of it with pictures like this being flashed on the news.

JMS/.MN · Sep 10, 2014

Some years ago the American Fertilizer Institute had similar evidence as to what Gene says. I"d like to find current confirmation.

Straw Boss · Sep 10, 2014

No mention of the rebs draining all the swamps and marshes for development and housing. Aren't they supposed to be natures water filter to catch all the impurities before they reach the gulf? Same goes for all the dikes and rivers being narrowed in every city along the way. Used to be high water fanned out over a flood plain then drained back into the river when the water level retreated. Now the water flows straight and quick to the gulf with no detours. Nitrogen reaching the gulf is only a symptom or result of someone elses short sightedness, not the cause. But I'm sure the farmer will bear the blame while the city folk and tree huggers cry for more regulation on the farming community as they themselves drain more swamps and build higher dikes around their sprawling cities.

ss55 · Sep 11, 2014

Most towns are retrofitting in settling ponds into their storm water systems.

On a per acre basis, it's true towns and cities have more fertilizer runoff than farms, per acre. The population density is a lot higher per acre. In towns and suburbs were lots are 1/4 to 1/3 acre you can have more people living on an acre as there are per square mile in the nearby townships.

If you look at the runoff per acre multiplied by the total area of farms compared runoff per acre multiplied by the total area of cities and towns, I think you will find the runoff from the towns and cities is a drop in the bucket compared to the surrounding farms.

Both have to be controlled if we want clean water.

MarkB_MI · Sep 11, 2014

Nobody wants to accept blame for anything. The other day I was on the phone with an old friend from North Carolina. He was bemoaning the decline of commercial fishing and the disappearance of the fish houses. I suggested that might be due to decades of overfishing. No, he assured me, it was all due to over-regulation. Go back to the old days and let folks set their nets when and where they want and fishing will be profitable again, he insisted. Get rid of the turtle excluders and those big shrimp boats will catch shrimp from the barren sea floor. It's all the gubmint's fault, them and the turtle-lovers.

LAA · Sep 11, 2014

If you are referring to the lower Mississippi river flood plane it has nothing to do with draining swamps and marshes for housing and commercial development, as a matter of fact, that is a ridiculus statement. The Federal governement, in particular, the Corp. of Engineers are responsible for diverting the natural flow of the Mississippi River and as a result the marsh has been steadily receding for the last 50 years. Upstream from the mouth of the river if anyone benefitted from the Corps work it was farmers.

David G · Sep 11, 2014

I think everyone is to blame.

Cities should have mandatory discharge of storm sewers into wetland marshes. There should be a natural setback for yards from streams, lakes and rivers to prevent fertilizer runoff.

Farms should drain field tile into wetland marshes, not creeks and ditches. There should be a mandatory setback from creeks for farming and livestock.

We will be a lot better off if the riparian areas are rebuilt in both cites and rural.

showcrop · Sep 11, 2014

This topic always reminds me of a huge algae bloom about twenty years ago on the largest lake in NH. It was finally traced back to a new shore front condominium project where the landscapers were generous with the fertilizer right up to the waters edge. About 1/2 decade ago our family was at the Boston Aquarium and there was a display about water pollution, blaming it mostly on farmers. I wrote to them about how much less farm acreage they have than lawn acreage in the greater Boston area watershed but I received no answer.

rrlund · Sep 11, 2014

I was thinking about this just the other day. How much of this just has to do with fresh water running in to salt water? Is there anything similar where the Amazon runs in to the ocean? Not saying there is,just ASKING if there is? You just can't trust this kind of thing without knowing the politics behind the claim.

Geo-TH,In · Sep 11, 2014

BP is blamed for things it didn't do, So Blame it on BP.

Brown Swiss · Sep 11, 2014

You need some one special to taste it, er test it, see what poop it is, probably BULL SHEET!

paul · Sep 11, 2014

Oh, but that never happens does it? Ha ha.

This spring we had gp heavy rains, flooded the town north of me.

On the news the wastewater dept was saying how the sewer water came up to the steps of the treatment plant, so they had to go into bypass mode.

No one ever explained what bypass mode was..... We do know, don't we?

In the 90s there was bad flooding, it washed out another neighboring towns wastewater pipe under a river. So for 3 months until the river went down, the sewer was simpler draining into the river. But it was not a problem at all, because the overflowing river could dilute it down just fine.

Most towns, as little as 2 inch rainfall will out their sewers into a bypass mode.

University of mN studied and found city folk apply over 2 times the fertilizers and herbicides per acre as farms do. Since farmers feed a crop, and city folk apply to make look pretty, so much of the city over application ends up flowing down sidewalks, streets, and channeled straight into the rivers by the storm drainage systems.

Then, marshes and wetlands are naturally high in nutrients, and in heavy rains they flush out also.

Now, farms have their issues too, but in the grand scheme of things......

Oh well, no one will ever hear that, is is all entirely farmers fault, we need to punish those people you know....

Paul

dr sportster · Sep 11, 2014

No it can't be from a couple million , no billion gallons of crude BP dumped into the gulf .

jon f mn · Sep 11, 2014

So does this make us regular Yanks or Damn Yanks?

LAA · Sep 11, 2014

About 25 years ago we Drilled several wells 40 miles out of the mouth of the Amazon and it was astounding how much water comes down that river, the ocean was brown with an 11 knot current 40 miles out, big trees and all types of vegetation were always floating by, the Amazon flows roughly 12 times as much water as the Mississippi on average and up to 100 times more during the rainy season. With all that water it was still excellent fishing, the same way it is several miles out from the mouth of the Mississippi river, the fresh water from the Mississippi enters the gulf stream and mixes in, very little salinty change can be found from the mouth all the way to the straits of Florida.

rrlund · Sep 11, 2014

Ya,I'd heard that there is fresh water out as far as 200 miles from the mouth of the Amazon at times.

NEBeef · Sep 11, 2014

Hey! Not me! This yankee's fertilizer/manure runoff ends up in the Atlantic, not the Gulf of Mexico. Let's get the story straight, lol...

T in NE · Sep 12, 2014

Wasn't that the cause of the bug killing the fish in the Chesepeake, that they had to admit to, after they drove out all the hog farms that were dumping it into the river?

You Yanks are back in the news

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