FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2012
Mississippi River Groups Hit EPA with Dual Legal Actions on Pollution that Fuels Gulf Dead Zone
(New Orleans, LA)— Today environmental groups challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) refusal to address a critical pollution problem it has acknowledged for decades. The two legal actions filed today seek action from the agency on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, which stimulates excessive growth of algae, kick-starting a biological process that severely depletes oxygen levels in aquatic ecosystems and chokes marine life. An enormous example of this problem is the “Dead Zone” that forms in the Gulf of Mexico in the summer. In addition, toxic algae blooms result in fish kills, the death of livestock and pets, and damage to drinking water supplies. Addressing Dead Zone pollution is thus necessary to restore health to the Gulf of Mexico and upstream waters of the Mississippi River Basin.
“The ecology and economy of the Gulf of Mexico have paid the price for EPA’s endless dithering about Dead Zone pollution,” said Matt Rota, Director of Science and Water Policy with the non-profit Gulf Restoration Network. “The most meaningful action the EPA can take is to set limits on the amount of these pollutants allowed in theMississippi River watershed so that the fish and the fisheries can recover.”
Members of the Mississippi River Collaborative, represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council, are challenging EPA’s denial of a 2008 petition to the agency asking EPA to establish quantifiable standards and clean up plans for Dead Zone pollution. Separately, several conservation groups are seeking to compel EPA to finally respond to an even older petition – a 2007 request that EPA modernize its decades-old pollution standards for sewage treatment plants and include the Dead Zone pollutants nitrogen and phosphorus in those standards.
“Decisive EPA action on Dead Zone pollutants is a decade overdue,” said Glynnis Collins, Executive Director of Illinois-based Prairie Rivers Network. “Illinois is the biggest contributor of pollution that creates this yearly crisis. With little action coming from the state, we clearly need an external push to be a more responsible neighbor.”
When scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium completed their annual measurement of the 2011 Gulf Dead Zone, it measured 6,765 square miles – larger than the state of Connecticut—and it is growing, having doubled in size since 1985. In the Gulf, the pollution harms the $2.8 billion fishing industry.
The unrelenting problem of excess nitrogen and phosphorous has also proven costly upstream. For example, seasonally the Raccoon and the Des Moines Rivers in Iowa carry excessive levels of nitrates, requiring special treatment before the water is safe enough for Des Moines-area residents to drink.
The EPA called on states in 1998 to adopt specific limits on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, and promised to enact its own limits if states had not complied by 2003. Every state along the Mississippi River ignored that deadline, and so far, only Wisconsin and Minnesota have taken effective action on their state’s contributions to the problem.
EPA’s continued lack of leadership at a federal level is a serious problem because the Mississippi River flows through or forms the border of 10 states, no one of which can act independently to fully protect the River. Only meaningful federal action by the EPA can unify states behind solutions that match the size of the problem at hand.
While residents up and down the river continue to wait for EPA to accept its leadership responsibility, inland water pollution problems have multiplied while the Dead Zone makes its annual appearance as a great blemish on America’s record of commitment to clean water.
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The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) is a network of environmental, social justice, and citizens’ groups and individuals committed to restoring theGulf of Mexicoto an ecologically and biologically sustainable condition. www.healthygulf.org
Prairie Rivers Network,Illinois’ statewide leader in river protection, conservation, and restoration, works for clean water, healthy rivers, and an engaged public. www.prairierivers.org
The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City,Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Livingston, Montana, and Beijing. www.nrdc.org
The Mississippi River Collaborative is a partnership of environmental organizations and legal centers from states bordering the Mississippi River as well as regional and national groups working on issues affecting theMississippi Riverand its tributaries. The Collaborative harnesses the resources and expertise of its diverse organizations to comprehensively reduce pollution entering the Mississippi River as well as theGulf of Mexico. www.msrivercollab.org
More information:
Go to the legal filings.
More on the legal issues available on NRDC’s Switchboard blog:
Jon Devine, “We’re Going to Court to Cut Dead Zone Pollution”
Thom Cmar, “NRDC Taking Legal Steps to Protect the Great Lakes from Toxic Algal Blooms”
Ann Alexander, “Chicagoland the Gulf Dead Zone: NRDC Lawsuits Address Downstream Damage”
