Nitrate in the News
Nitrate News -- January, 1999
- Using less fertilizer could save the Gulf of Mexico, experts say (nandotimes.com,
Mark Egan, 24Jan ’99) "Farmers can help eliminate a
"dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico by reducing fertilizer use by 20 percent, an
economist said Saturday. The Gulf's hypoxic, or oxygen-depleted, area is caused by excess
nitrogen flowing down the Mississippi River, causing an explosion of algae which depletes
oxygen in Gulf of Mexico waters. Most of the nitrogen is washed into the river from farms
using nitrogen-rich fertilizers. The dead zone covers 7,000 square miles, an area about
the size of New Jersey, killing some marine life and forcing fish, shrimp and other life
forms to move where oxygen is more plentiful. Otto Doering, an agricultural economist at
Indiana's Purdue University, told a meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science that the onus is on American farmers to rectify the worsening
situation. "If you want to fix something like this you have to go after the
800-pound gorilla," Doering told the meeting. "The 800-pound gorilla in this
case is... agriculture." Doering noted that the majority of America's agricultural
land drains into the Mississippi River and that "economics drives farmers at times to
over-fertilize." "We are talking about nitrogen that costs 18 cents a pound that
may yield an extra bushel of corn worth $2.20," he said. That economic incentive to
use nitrogen makes it hard for farmers to cut their usage but Doering said farmers can
become more efficient, offsetting the effect of using less nitrogen by using fertilizer
more precisely and improving other aspects of farming practices. But they can only go so
far. "We found that you can adjust farm practices and reduce nitrogen losses by about
20 percent without causing serious dislocation in agriculture," he said. "Beyond
that, there is serious disruption in terms of high food prices, an increasing drop in
exports and a loss of farmland." But a 20 percent reduction in farmers' use of
nitrogen would not be enough to rescue the Gulf's hypoxic zone on its own. Wetlands also
have to be drafted in to help. Doering said efforts must be made to reconstruct
disappearing wetlands to soak up fertilizer runoff from farmland, which can cause havoc
when released by flooding. "It's a way of dealing with the nitrogen that's already in
the system," he said. "The wetlands allow you to hold the water for periods of
time, and the nitrogen tends to go into the atmosphere." Other hypoxic zones exist
such as the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and Chesapeake Bay but the Gulf of Mexico is unique.
Because it is open to ocean currents, unlike other enclosed seas, scientists believe that
the problem can be corrected."
- Deed restriction protects Virginian wetlands (The
Roanoke Times, Va. Thursday, January 14, 1999) Virginia state
environmental officials believe they've found a way to cleanse groundwater contaminated by
a large chicken operation on Bent Mountain. Leave it alone and let nature take care of the
problem. Wetlands on the property, owned by Seaboard Farms, already are cleaning dangerous
nitrates out of the water, they say. The Department of Environmental Quality worked
with Seaboard's parent company, Bent Mountain residents, health officials and county
officials to fashion a deed restriction designed to protect the marshes. Seaboard or
whoever owns the property in the future will have to protect the land's wetlands, which
are naturally cleaning the ground water. It's the first time in Virginia that a deed
restriction has been used to protect water, said Jim Smith, DEQ senior enforcement
specialist. He said the restriction ends the department's 10-year involvement in a case
that's "breathtaking in its complexity." Smith has eight, inch-thick files
filled with documentation of the farm's ongoing problems and letters from Bent Mountain
residents complaining about the odor and handling of the manure. Gregg Clanton, vice
president of Seaboard's parent company, ISE, said his company embraced the idea of a deed
restriction because it's a way to link the land's history to its future. "We wanted
to be up front to any prospective landowner down the road," Clanton said. "It's
something that we didn't have the opportunity of when we bought it in 1982. You learn from
experience." There's no evidence that private drinking water wells outside the
Seaboard property were contaminated by nitrates, said Molly Rutledge, director of the
Roanoke and Alleghany health districts. Infants can experience brain damage and even die
if they ingest too much nitrate-laced water, said Dick Tabb, a health department official.
The health department also checks the drinking water at Bent Mountain Elementary School
quarterly under a separate program, Rutledge said. ISE bought the family-owned egg farm
from the Coles in 1981, then shut down most of its operations in 1990. Clanton explained
that his company purchased the land just before the "environmental evolution."
Now, farmers must follow much more stringent environmental health regulations. Like many
chicken farmers, the Cole Brothers buried dead chickens on a continual basis. Once, the
owners buried in a large pit on the property about 20,000 chickens that died during an
electrical outage. The burial is something DEQ never would allow today. But the problems
didn't go away after Seaboard took over the land. Seaboard has been cited several times by
DEQ for improperly storing and transporting wet chicken manure. Wet manure is more of a
problem than when it dries because it is mostly liquid and the seepage into the soil is
greater. DEQ fined Seaboard $10,000 in 1988 and $30,000 in 1991 for unsafe storage of
manure. In 1997, the company paid another $10,000 to DEQ for not following up on an
agreement to order a risk assessment and study of the land. Although it's taken DEQ more
than a decade to find some sort of long-term resolution to the environmental problems,
Smith said he believes DEQ has been highly effective in monitoring and regulating
Seaboard. After the first two fines, Seaboard closed down two of its three chicken houses
and reduced its chicken population from about 1 million to 125,000. "In 1997, the
fine was for dragging their feet to get the study done. That $10,000 was an attention
getter. And that worked," Smith said. Seaboard paid the fine and hired Simon &
Associates Inc. to complete a study. The soil and environmental consultants said
extracting the ground water, as is sometimes done to reduce contamination, wouldn't be
effective at Seaboard. Instead, they said the wetland marshes that border Mill Creek would
eventually clean the water. They made no estimates on how long it would take. "The
important thing is that the ground water leaving the property is safe because the wetlands
are already doing their job," said John Simon, president of the firm. Seaboard
officials are cleaning up contamination that occurred before they purchased the farm,
Simon said. "That's why we do agriculture differently today," he said.
"Obviously, Seaboard was doing some things to cast DEQ's eyes upon them, but the
reality is that most of what happened at that facility was before they owned it."
Seaboard and the previous owner didn't do anything that other farmers weren't doing, he
said. "These were good farmers," Simon said. "They farmed with the
practices of the day." Clanton said he knows some Bent Mountain residents are still
wary of his company. "We don't want to be perceived as having created a problem there
and then left the problem behind. We're trying to leave it better than the way we found
it," he said. "We've spent much more money than we ever earned there. The most
valuable thing we got there was experience." Eldon Karr, former president of the Bent
Mountain Civic League, said he believes the community has a "generally good"
relationship with Seaboard. But they're still worried about their
private wells and the water coming out of drinking fountains at the Bent Mountain
Elementary School. "The school is in the same low-lying area where the ground water
was contaminated," he said. "The drinking water has been checked many times, and
it's not a problem. But it makes people nervous." Clanton said ISE spent more
than $1 million complying with DEQ manure regulations including upgrading facilities and
cleaning up previous waste problems. ISE and closing down most of its operations on Bent
Mountain during this time. Activity at the Seaboard farm is "minimal," to the
point where some Seaboard officials refer to the facility as closed, he said. "I
understand from a historical perspective that some people have a lack of trust," he
said. "But there's really nothing to be concerned about. " Smith said he
believes residents likely will always be cautious. "Nothing that happens will reverse
their profound distrust of Seaboard," Smith said. Smith said DEQ will continue to
depend on neighbors to monitor activity on the farm. And Bent Mountain residents have
educated themselves so they know far more about chicken manure than the average person,
Karr said. "I think we as a community need to take some responsibility," he
said. "It's nice to say that's what we pay our taxes for and that's what DEQ is
supposed to do. But we can't have everything done for us." Karr said he generally
supports the idea of a deed restriction, but he has some concerns. He wants to know who
will enforce the restrictions years from now and when new owners take over responsibility
for the wetlands. He worries that the deed restriction allows DEQ to end its role as
environmental guardian of Seaboard's operations. The deed restriction will mean DEQ's
monitoring at the Seaboard farm will be dramatically reduced, Smith said. A consent
agreement established in 1988 that forced Seaboard officials to report regularly to DEQ
has been terminated, he said. Smith said DEQ will continue to follow up on Bent Mountain
residents' complaints. "We've lived that role for so long," he said. "We're
not giving up our right to come in if there's another problem." Copyright 1999, The
Roanoke Times, Va. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, All Rights Reserved
- Missouri hog operation called ‘environmental mess'
( The Kansas City Star, Thursday, January 14, 1999) When a Missouri
environmental group recently inspected the operations of Premium Standard Farms,
Missouri's largest hog producer, it found an "environmental mess," the group
said Wednesday. "The problems we documented are much worse than we had
expected," said Scott Dye of the Citizens Legal Environmental Action Network. Premium
Standard Farms, he said, "is drowning in hog wastes." A Premium Standard Farms
spokesman denied the allegations Wednesday and said the company was "shocked and
disappointed" that the environmental group would make allegations it knows are
untrue. "We've set out to correct their information about each claim, but they've
ignored it," said Charlie Arnot of Premium Standard Farms. Dye's group has a federal
lawsuit against Premium Standard Farms that alleges the company is responsible for past
water pollution. As part of that litigation, it inspected the company's facilities with
legal counsel and other experts. The company's lagoons were found to be dangerously full,
and there was evidence of past leaks below waste pits, Dye said. Trash, veterinary wastes
and maggots were floating in the pits, and pig bones were present, he said. "The
information we had obtained through (government) file searches did not prepare us for the
on-site reality," Dye said. "It's an environmental mess." Premium Standard
Farms has also abandoned the lakes it constructed as a fresh-water source and is
connecting its facilities to rural water systems, apparently because of high coliform
bacteria in those lakes, Dye said. Videotapes of what the environmental group found have
been turned over to state officials, Dye said. Missouri Department of Natural Resource
officials said matters related to Premium Standard Farms were being handled by the
attorney general's office. A spokesman for that office declined to comment, citing the
continuing investigation and possible litigation against Premium Standard Farms. The
attorney general has been reviewing Missouri regulators' findings that Premium Standard
Farms violated state water pollution laws and may have applied wastes at excessive rates
to farm fields. Premium Standard Farms' lagoons do not contain too many wastes, and the
company maintains monthly readings of lagoon levels, Arnot said. "There is no danger
of overtopping or collapsing," he said. It would be impossible for pig bones to be in
a lagoon, Arnot said, and the company's lakes are not polluted, although he acknowledged
that some coliform bacteria had been found in them. A better indicator of hog waste
pollution would be nitrate levels, he said, and those are not high. Arnot also expressed
doubt that any videotape would reveal much in support of the allegations. If it shows
water pooled below a lagoon, you won't be able to tell whether it is leaking wastes or
snowmelt, he said. In 1998, Continental Grain Co. bought controlling interest in Premium
Standard Farms, which is the nation's third-largest hog producer. Recently, Continental
initiated an internal audit of its operations and turned over possible violations it has
uncovered. It has promised to continue such audits. Copyright 1999, The Kansas City Star,
Mo. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, All Rights Reserved
- No laughing matter: river emitting N2O (Environmental
News Network, 12Jan ’99) "Rivers may be emitting
significant amounts of nitrous oxide as a result of effluents from wastewater treatment
plants and agricultural fields, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey.
In the atmosphere, nitrous oxide acts as a catalyst in ozone depletion. The government
study shows nitrous oxide emissions along the South Platte River in Colorado and Nebraska,
where the measurements were taken, are comparable to some of the highest known emission
rates in the world. Per molecule, nitrous oxide causes more destruction to the Earth's
protective layer than chlorofluorocarbons, and it warms the planet about 200 times as
effectively as carbon dioxide. The total annual nitrous oxide emissions from the South
Platte River are similar to the estimated annual nitrous oxide emissions from all primary
municipal wastewater treatment processes in the United States, according to the article.
"If this one river system is similar to others, then nitrous oxide emissions from
rivers could be a major human-made source of N2O to the atmosphere," said U.S.
Geological Survey hydrologists Peter McMahon, Ph.D., and Kevin Dennehy, who conducted the
one-year study. However, the researchers point out that measurements from other rivers are
needed before drawing any final conclusions. Few published accounts exist of nitrous oxide
emissions from an inland river, said McMahon and Dennehy. Most nitrous oxide studies have
focused on wastewater treatment plants, agricultural fields, forests and lakes, they said.
As with many rivers in the U.S., the South Platte receives wastewater effluent from
municipalities and groundwater return flows from irrigated fields. The measurements were
taken along a 450-mile stretch of the river from North Platte, Neb., to just above Denver,
Colo. The nitrous oxide being released by the Platte River is the same gas used by the
dentist as an anaesthetic and by drag racers to increase the power of their engines. The
difference lies in the concentration of the gas, said McMahon. The federal study was
published in the Jan. 1 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, a journal published
by the American Chemical Society." Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All
Rights Reserved: to read on this on the Web: http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/1999/01/011299/platte.asp
- Scientists Baffled by Pfiesteria (NY Times, Breaking
News, 8 Jan ’98) BALTIMORE (AP) -- "Last year, scientists
waited nervously for another outbreak of Pfiesteria piscicida, the toxic microbe
blamed in 1997 for killing huge numbers of fish and leaving others with bloody lesions.
The outbreak never happened and scientists now are trying to figure out why. Representatives
from Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida met in
Baltimore this week to share data at a conference led by the Environmental Protection
Agency. In Maryland, a rainy spring may have helped prevent Pfiesteria microbes from
reproducing in great numbers, said Robert Magnien of the Maryland Department of Natural
Resources. The altered flow of water changed the factors required for Pfiesteria to grow.
Those factors include the salt content of the water and the greater amount of water, which
dissipated nutrients that can spur algae growths. Algae draws fish and, in turn, the
Pfiesteria microbe, which feeds on algae when the microbe is in its nontoxic stage. When
oily fish such as Atlantic menhaden gather together, outbreaks of Pfiesteria and
Pfiesteria-like microbes sometimes follow, possibly due to the fishes' secretions and
excretions. Menhaden ``are doing something wrong by being there,'' Magnien said. Although a number of factors such as rainfall, salt content and
chlorophyll can contribute to outbreaks of Pfiesteria-like organisms, scientists
concentrate on reducing nutrients because that is one factor humans can control. Last
year, Maryland introduced the strictest agricultural runoff laws in the country.
That has outraged smaller farmers in the region, who say they are being squeezed by
tighter regulations. ``And in the absence of good science, there was a rush to judgment,''
said Bill Satterfield, executive director of the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., a trade
association. ``There were a lot of people making speculation on incomplete and invalid
science. And it's driving Maryland farmers out of business.'' Fish kills were scant in
other states, although some fish were found with the bloody lesions that characterize an
outbreak of a Pfiesteria-like disease. Often the fish were menhaden. ``We're still trying
to figure out why,'' said David Saveikis, a member of the Delaware Pfiesteria Monitoring
Team. A Pfiesteria-like microbe was blamed for a fish kill and two crab kills in Delaware
in 1998, but scientists are trying to determine why it was not a large-scale outbreak. The
microbe can lie dormant in sediment for years. Tests are being run to determine if
Pfiesteria has settled into these sediment layers, waiting to emerge when the conditions
are right, Saveikis said. In North Carolina, more than a billion fish, mostly menhaden,
have died from Pfiesteria in coastal estuaries since the early 1990s, said Joann
Burkholder, a researcher at North Carolina State University. Last year, a Pfiesteria
outbreak killed an estimated 500,000 fish in the Neuse River, and another outbreak killed
several thousand fish in a tributary of the New River. Fish with lesions were found in
Virginia and Florida. There were scattered fish kills, but none was attributed to
Pfiesteria-like organisms."
- UN official predicts war over freshwater (Environmental
News Network, 5Jan ’99) Freshwater is becoming such a valuable
commodity that a war over this precious natural resource may be in our future, says the
director-general of the United Nations Environment Program. Klaus Toepfer made his
prediction during an interview that appears in the Jan. 1 issue of the scientific journal
Environmental Science & Technology. The journal is published by the American Chemical
Society. Echoing a view he says is shared by former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali,
Toepfer is "completely convinced" there will be a conflict over natural
resources, particularly water. "Everybody knows that we have an increase in
population, but we do not have a corresponding increase in drinking water, so the result
in the regional dimension is conflict," he says. In the interview, Toepfer advocates
monitoring worldwide reserves of drinking water and establishing cooperative agreements
for the use of bodies of water, including groundwater. He also calls for "economic
instruments to stimulate use of new technologies" to promote water conservation.
Predicting dramatic global population growth in the future, Toepfer cites the need for an
"efficiency revolution." Any solution for addressing this growth must be linked
with "new technologies that concentrate more on efficient use of limited natural
resources," he says. These technologies must be available, he insists, "on
preferential terms, to developing countries." Calling the export of hazardous waste
to developing countries "neocolonial," Toepfer says in addition to banning this
practice, cooperation is needed from the chemical industry to adopt production methods
that will avoid waste generation. Toepfer, who assumed his current position with the U.N.
in February 1998, is a former minister of the environment for Germany. For more
information, contact Charmayne Marsh, American Chemical Society, (202)872-4445, email: y_marsh@acs.org.
Return to Nitrate in the
News
|
