Nitrate in the News
Nitrate News -- April, 1999
- North Carolina governor urges phase-out of hog waste pits (The
Charlotte Observer, N.C., Monday, April 26, 1999) North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt on Thursday
called for a 10-year phase out of hog lagoons, the open waste pits that pose environmental
risks such as this week's 1.5 million-gallon spill in the heart of hog country. Hunt
joined Senate Democrats in calling for extending a moratorium on new and expanding hog
farms for another two years. The extra time will give alternative waste-treatment
technology "a chance to catch up with the industry," he said. Interest groups,
including farmers, environmentalists and scientists, would also help establish performance
standards for waste technology. The governor will need the legislature's support to close
down the state's 2,000 hog lagoons or convert them to new methods. He said he'll begin
this session, ordering that unused lagoons be closed and that problem farms find new ways
to handle waste or shut down. "I have become convinced that lagoons need to be
converted," Hunt said in a statement. "We've seen too many problems with
pollution of surface and ground water, odor, nutrient imbalances and nitrates in the
groundwater and air." Walter Cherry of the N.C. Pork Council said Hunt has previously
estimated the cost of replacing lagoons at $400 million, a figure the industry considers
low. Hunt's office couldn't confirm that estimate, and the governor ordered a one-year
study of the costs. Cherry said N.C. hog farmers, whose markets have slumped in recent
months, can't afford to replace the lagoons. "Our folks have done exactly what they
were asked to do, required to do, and they invested millions of dollars (installing
lagoons)," Cherry said. "Just because somebody comes along and says we ought to
go to some unproven new technology, we don't think it's fair or equitable to require
something that means they're spending more money." Hunt said he will ask legislators
to set interim deadlines for the 10-year phase out and come up with a financing plan based
on ability to pay. Sierra Club state director Molly Diggins credited Hunt for taking
"a big step forward in moving toward solutions that have plagued the hog
industry." But she said the governor stopped short of committing to a firm
legislative timetable to see the phase out through. "It's unclear whether the
governor is committed to getting legislative approval of the plan or is setting forth a
vision," Diggins said. An earthen lagoon wall at a hog farm in Duplin County broke
Monday, spilling 1.5 million gallons of waste into a tributary of the Northeast Cape Fear
River. The waste had not reached the river by Thursday, and no fish were killed. A
25-million-gallon spill in 1995 prompted greater state scrutiny of the industry. Copyright
1999, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
$200 Million Earmarked for Water Projects by USDA (Associated Press
Friday, April 23, 1999) The Department of Agriculture is promising more than $200 million
for clean water improvements in rural communities in 44 states and Puerto Rico. The amount
is the largest single announcement for rural wastewater projects in USDA's history,
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Thursday. About $155 million of the money will
come in the form of loans and grants from USDA. An additional $52.4 million will come from
other public and private sources. "Many of us take the luxury
of clean and safe drinking water and adequate waste disposal for granted," Glickman
said. "Even as we approach the year 2000, more than 2.3 million rural Americans live
in homes without safe running water or no pipes running in it at all." About 4
million rural residents are connected to substandard sewage disposal systems that often
pollute their drinking water, rivers and streams, Glickman said. The grants and
loans will be used primarily to improve wastewater systems. For instance, McKee, Ky., will
get about $1.4 million to improve its water system, Glickman said, noting that the
infrastructure in that area has had virtually no upgrades. As a result, deteriorated and
collapsed sewage lines cause problems for local residents, he said. "It's going to
help the health situation in the area, prevent groundwater contamination and might
encourage some economic development as well," Glickman said. Copyright 1999,
Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Utah hog farm wins approval to expand into neighboring county (The Salt
Lake Tribune, Thursday, April 15, 1999) Beaver County, Utah's massive Circle Four Hog
Farms has taken another big step toward expanding into Iron County. In a 3-0 vote on
Monday, the Iron County Commission upheld a conditional-use permit granted in December.
The commission denied appeals filed by three Iron County families and the Cedar City
environmental group Citizens for Responsible and Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA). "We
come in with good faith to make reasonable requests that I feel would solve everybody's
questions and problems, and we were totally ignored," said True Ott, CRSA president,
after the meeting. In March, CRSA and three families with property close to Circle Four's
proposed site appealed the Iron County Planning Commission's decision to grant the permit.
CRSA had concerns that the farm would pollute the area's
groundwater. CRSA wanted requirements that Circle Four cover lagoons, line hog-waste
recharge pits with rubber, and post cleanup and closure bonds. CRSA also asked
commissioners to prepare a detailed listing of the impacts of Circle Four's expansion on
the county. The Iron County Commission took the appeal under advisement and gave
Circle Four and the planning commission 14 days to respond. Bruce Parker, representing the
planning commission, insisted that planners complied with all of Iron County's procedural
requirements in granting Circle Four the permit. He wrote in his
response that the planning commission exercised "reasonable care to protect the
health and safety of county residents and county resources," including the protection
of groundwater. "Groundwater has been a reoccurring issue when Circle Four's permits
are considered. The commission has looked to the expertise of the state of Utah, the
Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Water Quality," Parker said
Monday. Circle Four spokesman Brian Mauldwin was pleased with the County
Commission's decision. "It's good news," he said. Asked about many of CRSA's
concerns, Mauldwin said Circle Four complied with all state regulations. The Beaver
County-based hog farm's Blue Mountain project will begin construction in Iron County in
the next few months. "We won't make that final decision until probably after a month
or two," he said. Mauldwin said he anticipates challenges from groups opposed to
Circle Four, but added, "the ball is in their court." Ott said his group will
meet to decide what happens next. "We'll regroup and find out where this goes. We'll
be counseling with attorneys and see where it goes from here." Copyright 1999, The
Salt Lake Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, All Rights Reserved
News on Nutrient Runoff and Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
- Mississippi River initiative targets runoff
(Environmental News Network, Thursday, April 22, 1999) The upper Mississippi river is
threatened by sediment and nutrient runoff from farms, backyards and
city streets. In an effort to reduce this problem which threatens drinking water supplies,
increases channel maintenance costs and reduces habitat for river wildlife, the Resource
Studies Center at Saint Mary's University in Minnesota has developed the "Mississippi
River Stewardship Initiative." The group is encouraging Congress to adopt the
10-year, $1.1 billion federal program. If adopted, the public/private partnership would
identify major sources of polluted runoff, increase federal incentives to adopt better
land management practices, create a water quality monitoring network, improve
coordination, and expand outreach efforts to farmers and homeowners, according to the
scientists. The costs associated with sediment and nutrient loss are enormous, according
to St. Mary's scientists. Farmers annually lose more than $320 million in excess applied
nitrogen, dredging costs annually top $100 million and habitat preservation efforts will
soon reach $33 million a year. "The costs of doing nothing are much greater than $1.1
billion," said Barry Drazkowski, co-director of the Resource Studies Center, which is
based in Winona, Minn. According to the Resource Studies Center, 25
percent of the fertilizer applied in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri is
washed off farm fields -- costing farmers more than $300 million annually and increasing
water treatment costs. The Stewardship Initiative developed by the Resource Studies
Center would increase annual funding for voluntary programs designed to reduce fertilizer
loss by developing new solutions, sharing information, providing appropriate incentives,
and targeting new technical and financial resources. The program will use monitoring and
computer modeling to help resource managers target resources, measure results and make
adjustments. The Resource Studies Center unveiled an early version in February at the
Upper Mississippi River Summit, an annual meeting of farmers, conservation groups,
waterway users and agency officials. Since then, Drazkowski and Co-director Rory Vose have
revised the plan to reflect their comments. Drazkowski and Vose are now working with
agriculture, navigation and conservation groups to develop support for the plan. For more
information, contact Barry Drazkowski, St. Mary's Resource Studies Center, (507)457-6925.
Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved. http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/1999/04/042299/mississippi_2797.asp
- Related Report from Jan, 99 - Dead
zone burden placed on farmers (Environmental News Network, Thursday, January 28, 1999) Scientists studying the
7,000-square-mile 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico have placed much of the blame on
fertilizer runoff from American farms. Only changes in farming practices, they say,
will help alleviate the hypoxic area. Scientists estimate
that to eliminate the hypoxic zone in the gulf -- an area that cannot sustain life because
it has too little oxygen -- the United States should reduce the amount of excess nitrogen
flowing into the Gulf by 20 percent or more. Much of this burden would be placed on
farmers. Every spring and summer, nitrogen from agricultural
fertilizer washes down the Mississippi River and into the northern Gulf of Mexico. The
nutrient-rich waters trigger a bloom of algae which strips the water of oxygen. The dead
zone doesn't actually kill any fish, because they are able to swim away from the area.
However, other types of sea life, such as starfish and sea anemones, may not be able to
escape and may die. Although other hypoxic zones exist -- in the Black Sea,
Baltic Sea, Chesapeake Bay and New York Bight -- the Gulf of Mexico is unique. Because the
Gulf of Mexico is open to ocean currents, unlike other enclosed seas, scientists think
that the problem can be corrected Otto Doering, a professor of agricultural economics at
Purdue University, believes that farmers can use a variety of methods to cut the flow of
excess nitrogen by 20 percent to 25 percent without hurting food prices or farm exports.
He presented his findings Jan. 23 at the annual meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science in Anaheim, Calif. Farmers aren't completely to blame, said
Doering. Huge amounts of nitrogen are found naturally in the air, in the soil and in
living organisms, and all of these contribute to the nitrogen moving down the Mississippi.
"If farmers stopped putting nitrogen on the fields today, we would still get nitrogen
leaking out of the system," Doering says. But he quickly adds that agriculture
doesn't get off the hook. "Agriculture still has to be concerned about all of
this," he says. "Municipalities and industries release a total of 270,000 metric
tons of nitrogen per year into streams and rivers, and the excess nitrogen delivered just
to the gulf is 1.5 million tons per year. So agriculture, which uses 6.5 million metric
tons of nitrogen a year, is clearly the major player." Doering believes farmers could
reduce nitrogen runoff by 20 percent if they stopped fertilizing in the fall and if major
wetlands were restored along the Mississippi River watershed. Doering says that wetlands
have their own economic benefits for those living near them. "There is increased
wildlife habitat, more hunting opportunities, water quality improvements, things that are
very direct in the basin where the wetlands are," he says. "With wetlands the
benefits accrue, if not to the farmer, at least to his immediate neighbors. That makes a
certain amount of wetland reconstruction an attractive component of reducing nitrogen
loss." "We found that you can adjust farm practices and reduce nitrogen losses
by about 20 percent without causing serious dislocation in agriculture," Doering
says. "Beyond that, there is serious disruption in terms of high food prices, an
increasing drop in exports, and a loss of farmland." For more information, contact
Otto Doering, Purdue, (765)494-4226, email: doering@agecon.purdue.edu. Copyright 1999,
Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved. http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/1999/04/042299/mississippi_2797.asp
- Background on the Gulf of Mexico "Dead
Zone" - DEATH IN THE DEEP - "Dead zone" in the Gulf of
Mexico challenges regulators, Scientific American Nov. ’97. http://www.sciam.com/1197issue/1197infocus.html
American Rivers Announces "America's Most Endangered Rivers
- 1999"
- American Rivers in Trouble 1999: Ditched, Dammed, and Diverted
(American Rivers Web site, Rebecca R. Wodder President, American Rivers, Apr ’99)
We've all seen it and felt it…..been in the middle of it. Sprawl. Ribbons of highway
jammed with cars and trucks stretching as far as the eye can see; the haphazard scattering
of strip malls, fast food joints and gas stations across the landscape; cookie cutter
housing developments dotting farm fields and bumping up against the last remaining bits of
forest and wetlands surrounding our communities. Many of us are watching with frustration
and a growing sense of futility as sprawl seeps into every aspect of our lives - burdening
us with everything from lengthy commutes to polluted air. It must come as no surprise,
then, that sprawl is one of the fastest growing, most ominous threats to our nation's
rivers. Sprawl wreaks havoc on both the quality of water in a river and on the amount of
water flowing between the banks. When runoff carrying toxins and excess sediment flows
into waterways, it poisons plants and animals and smothers their habitat. Seattle's
unbridled development, for example, is polluting the Cedar River and destroying one of the
most productive salmon and steelhead runs in the northwest. Chicago's
rapid growth is overloading the city's sewage treatment system and pushing excess waste
into the Fox River. Desperately in need of water to serve exploding populations,
towns and cities are pumping water from nearby rivers often faster than it can be
replenished. Fragile desert rivers are suffering-Arizona's San Pedro is being rapidly
depleted by surrounding communities. Salt Lake City, with one of the highest per capita
water use rates in the country, wants to divert even more water from the Bear River, home
to a world-renowned wildlife refuge. Wildlife is also imperiled on California's Carmel as
burgeoning development sucks the river dry. And in the East, Atlanta's growth is sapping
the Alabama- Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin, one of the richest sources of freshwater
aquatic animals in the world. As sprawl eats away at these rivers, we continue to
manhandle other waterways in a never-ending quest for profit and control. Never before
have people had such power over land and riverscapes. "Moving mountains" was
once just a figure of speech. But now, the unthinkable has become reality in West Virginia
where, in order to mine coal, mountaintops are blasted away and dumped into the Coal
River. The Yellowstone is also being abused, as the Army Corps of Engineers attempts to
control flooding by constructing levees and piling rocks (called 'rip-rap') along the
river banks. The Corps has already altered 2/3 of the Missouri River beyond recognition
with channels and dams, destroying wildlife habitat and defaming the storied river of
Lewis and Clark. But the most alarming change of all has occurred on Washington's Lower
Snake River. Over a million salmon and steelhead once migrated up the Snake every year.
But today, the river's epic salmon runs are on the brink of extinction because four
federal dams and reservoirs built to support barge navigation have destroyed the river's
natural flow. Will we allow these salmon to slip away? Will we stand by as rivers across
the country are drained to fuel sprawling cities? Will we let pollution spoil the rivers
that flow through our communities? We hope you will join us in saying "no." And
we hope that after reading about the rivers in this report, you will join us in the fight
to save these great natural treasures. http://www.amrivers.org/99endangered.html
- Blame the army for mucky rivers, too (The Economist, p.
34, 17-Apr-99) "AMERICA the beautiful, or the increasingly polluted? This week
American Rivers, one of the country’s leading conservation groups, issued its annual
list of the ten "most endangered rivers". Top of the list is Washington
state’s Lower Snake River, where four dams constructed in the 1960s and 1970s have
now threatened migrating salmon and steelhead fish to the point of extinction. This
year’s number ten is Utah’s Bear River, whose supply of fresh water to the Great
Salt Lake is being increasingly consumed by thirsty Salt Lake City, to the detriment of
birds and other wildlife. The main culprit is the growing sprawl of America’s cities.
But American Rivers also blames the army’s Corps of Engineers: "For nearly 200
years the Corps has removed snags, straightened, deepened and dammed rivers, and
constructed levees and floodwalls—dramatically altering more than 30,000 miles of
rivers and streams and placing hundreds of species at risk of extinction." Is there a
remedy? American Rivers notes that the Corps has now recruited a lot of
"environmentally sensitive" experts. It also draws heart from the thought that
publicity can work wonders. Clarks Fork, part of the Yellowstone River in Montana and
Wyoming, topped the group’s list from 1994 to 1996, but is now much cleaner, after
President Clinton ordered a moratorium on mining. The Potomac River, number seven on the
list in 1997, is now benefiting from Maryland’s decision in 1998 to limit the run-off
of chicken waste. Maybe Snake River’s salmon aren’t doomed, after all."
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