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Nitrate News -- November, 1999

After the Storm an Ecological Bomb (NY Times, November 30, 1999 By WILLIAM K. STEVENS) In September, the one-two punch of Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd dropped some three feet of rain on the eastern third of North Carolina, turning the region into a putrescent hell of polluted flood waters, decomposing chickens and hogs, rotting farm fields and ruined neighborhoods. Never before in the recorded history of the region, experts say, had there been such a big and disastrous flood. Now scientists fear the flood has also created an ecological time bomb that could bring disaster of a different sort, and they fear for the biologically rich waters that separate the famous Outer Banks from the Carolina mainland. This complex of sounds, bays and inlets comprises the second largest estuary in the country, after the Chesapeake Bay, and is one of the nation's most important incubators of marine life. Rarely have ecologists confronted such a striking example of what can happen when a first-order natural disturbance is combined with a first-order disturbance of the natural world by humans. "I guarantee you there have been floods like this in the past," said Dr. Robert S. Young, a geologist at Western Carolina University, "but I can also say with the same amount of assurance that there has never been a flood like this with the potential for this much ecological impact. Never." The main problem is that the September flood picked up huge amounts of organic matter in the form of decomposing vegetation, topsoil, farm and lawn fertilizer, raw sewage, hog waste from containment ponds maintained by the state's corporate farms, even grass clippings. This richly fertilized water surged directly into the estuary, turning its water the color of strong tea or weak coffee. The runoff is still coming, in fact, at considerably more than the ordinary rate. Once in Pamlico, Albemarle and Currituck sounds, the organic matter is mostly trapped because the barrier islands of the Banks convert the sounds into a single, nearly closed lagoon. The material sinks to the bottom of this shallow water, and that is the root of scientists' fears. When the water warms up again next spring and summer, they say, two things are likely to happen. First, the organic waste will provide nutrients for the production of vastly larger amounts of algae called phytoplankton. When they die, they will fall to the bottom and join the carpet of organic matter washed there by the floods. Second, multiplying aquatic bacteria will feed on both the dead algae and the matter washed off the land. In the process they will use up tremendous amounts of oxygen from the water. If weather and water conditions are right -- or wrong -- great expanses of the estuary could rapidly be drained of oxygen, killing multitudes of fish and other creatures and drastically limiting habitat for surviving aquatic life. That would be no small thing for a region that in large measure draws its living from the water, and which serves as an incubator for marine creatures that range far and wide. There have already been signs that oxygen-poor "dead zones" may develop. Soon after Hurricane Floyd passed, while the water was still relatively warm, scientists detected dangerously low oxygen levels in the mouth of the Neuse River, which flows into Pamlico Sound. Such a situation develops when large amounts of fresh water off the land flow over denser, deeper, saltier water where the organic matter lies, preventing the deeper oxygen-poor water from mixing with surface water so that oxygen can be replaced. Since then, the weather has gotten cooler and high winds have sometimes mixed the waters, and the low-oxygen situation has moderated. So attention is turning to next spring's warm-up, and researchers all along the mid-Atlantic Coast are stepping up their monitoring activities, from satellite observations to aircraft surveys to old-fashioned measurements from boats, in an attempt to track what happens. No one really knows how long it will take for abnormal flows of organic nutrients into the estuary to subside, or how long after that it will take for bottom deposits of the nutrients to diminish. No one would invite a disaster like the Carolina flood, of course, but it has nevertheless given scientists a stellar research opportunity. "This is a sort of an ecological experiment on a very grand scale that no one would ever be given permission to do if they had asked for it," said Dr. Gene Feldman, an oceanographer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, who oversees satellite-borne observations of the developing situation. So far as is known, this is the first time that virtually every river basin feeding the estuary has flooded at the same time, said Dr. Pat Tester, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration based in Beaufort, N.C., whose research team is coordinating the air-sea-satellite monitoring. While it is likely that floods of this magnitude have occurred before, experts say, they have never done so in conjunction with such widespread ecological disturbances caused by humans. These include, for instance, increased erosion caused by the cutting of forests and plowing of fields, deposition of pesticides and of nutrients in the form of fertilizer from farms and lawns, livestock waste and sewage systems that overflow in floods. Inland waterways, estuaries and coastal ecosystems around the world have been subjected to a chronic, long-term increase in organic matter washed off the land. One major consequence of this, for instance, is an oxygen-starved dead zone off the Louisiana coast that has at times been as large as the state of New Jersey. More generally, many experts say, over-fertilization from organic runoff has surpassed industrial pollutants as a threat to aquatic ecosystems. North Carolina's waters, too, have been subjected to this long-term, increasing inflow of nutrients. "Smaller doses were already having a negative impact on fish habitat," says Dr. Larry Crowder, a marine ecologist at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, who studies the estuary's marine life. Now, he said, the lower-level chronic dose of extra organic matter has become a "high-level acute dose." Dr. Feldman of NASA puts it another way: "It's like flushing the toilet" into the estuary. The problem has been compounded, Dr. Young said, by people's destruction of coastal wetlands that ordinarily would absorb and sequester many of the nutrients washing into the estuary. In the short run, Dr. Tester says, the influx of nutrients could be good for some fish species. Salt-water species like croaker and spot, which are small sport fish, and menhaden, from which oil and fertilizer are produced, spawn offshore. About this time of year, the young move into the estuary, where they feed on tiny crustaceans called copepods and grow big enough to migrate out to sea again. The nutrient influx could spur phytoplankton growth this winter, which in turn could increase copepod numbers and create a feast for the fish. Thus, Dr. Tester says, "there's a potential for it to be a banner year" for production of these young fish. But Dr. Crowder says there is evidence that the physical stress caused by low oxygen and low salinity has already affected some fish by making them more susceptible to diseases that cause things like rotting fins, skin and scales that slough off, body sores and swollen abdomens that might indicate a viral infection. The influx of nutrients could also spur the abundance of disease pathogens, he said. The sheer amount of fresh water flooding the estuary may already have killed many immobile marine creatures that bigger fish eat, like small worms, crustaceans and crabs. Some bottom-dwelling creatures may also have simply been buried and suffocated by the sediments gushing in. Besides croaker, spot and menhaden, the estuary is also a nursery for flounder, weakfish, shrimp and crabs, all valuable commercial species. "The organisms that we fish commercially depend on the estuary's being healthy," Dr. Crowder said. So far, he said, there are mixed reports from fishermen: some, who are not catching anything, say the estuary is ruined, while others, who are, say it is fine. These mixed reports might be explained, Dr. Crowder said, by disruptions in fish movements caused by the flood; some fish may have fled some parts of the estuary for others, and some that usually move from the estuary to the ocean in the fall may have moved earlier. Recreational fishermen offshore, he said, report that there are lots of game fish there, including red drum, spotted sea trout and mackerel. But they are hard to catch, possibly because they have been gorging on fish fleeing the estuary and are not hungry. "Next summer," Dr. Crowder said, "is going to tell the tale." With the return of warmer weather, "the algae will go to work and the microbes will go to work; it's going to be a real interesting place." The best case ecologically would see a dry, windy spring and summer that would keep mixing the water and so replenish its oxygen. The worst case would see heavy rains then that would cause more freshwater runoff, which would stratify the shallow estuary so that bottom water could not mix and gain new oxygen. If that happens, Dr. Crowder said, "it could be very grim," with en masse death of marine life and habitat restricted for survivors. Whatever happens next year might not be the end, because it could take several years for the situation to play out and for nutrient levels to fall back to within some kind of boundary. But at this stage, said Dr. Feldman of NASA, "we don't really know what's going to happen."

More than half of worlds rivers in trouble, conference learns: Rating the rivers (By PAULINE JELINEK Copyright © 1999 Nando Media Copyright © 1999 Associated Press) WASHINGTON (November 29, 1999 12:53 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - More than half the world's major rivers are going dry or are polluted, a panel studying global water problems reported Monday. The fouling of the waterways and surrounding river basins contributed to the total of 25 million environmental refugees last year, for the first time exceeding the world's 21 million war-related refugees, said the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century. The findings were previewed in Washington and at a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands, where the commission expects to present its completed report at the Second World Water Forum, March 17-22. The panel - backed by the World Bank and United Nations agencies on children, development, the environment and other issues - has been charged with finding a way to ensure there is enough water for the world's growing population in the next century. "We have to pay attention to how the world manages its water," said Arienne Naber, a geologist who is a commission consultant. "Production has to be increased, quality improved ... to guarantee that we can meet the water needs of all the people on earth and protect the environment," she said in an interview. The commission gathered information on the river portion of the study from specialists around the world and an analysis of existing material. It concluded that of the 500 major rivers in the world, the Amazon in South America and the Congo in sub-Saharan Africa are the healthiest. Both have few industrial centers near their banks, the report noted. By contrast, overuse and misuse of land and water resources in river basins elsewhere has "seriously depleted and polluted" them, the commission said. That, it said, is "degrading and poisoning" the rivers' surrounding ecosystems, "threatening the health and livelihoods of people who depend upon them for irrigation, drinking and industrial water." The main reason is lack of coordinated management of watersheds, which often cross national boundaries or - as in the case of the Colorado River in the United States - several state boundaries. "All the success stories show that cooperation leads you everywhere," Naber said. The commission will recommend comprehensive regional planning among a long list of other remedies aimed at increasing water production while saving the environment, she said. The final commission report and an action plan is to be presented for consideration to a world forum of government ministers and others, in March in The Hague. Among other findings in the report: The Yellow River in China's most important agricultural region is severely polluted and ran dry in its lower reaches 226 days out of the year in 1997. Health problems are growing because of poor water quality. Amu Darya's and Syr Darya's flow into the Aral Sea in Asia has been reduced by three-quarters and has caused a catastrophic regression in sea levels - 53 feet between 1962 and 1994. The region suffers the highest rate of infant mortality of all regions of the former Soviet Union because poor water flow and fertilizer runoff have fouled the seabed. The Colorado River in the United States, irrigating more than 3.7 million acres of farmland, is so exploited and polluted by agriculture that little is left to protect the ecosystem downstream, which has turned from lush green to salty and desolate marshes. More than 90 percent of the natural flow of the Nile River in Africa, the longest waterway in the world, is used for irrigation or is lost through evaporation, primarily from reservoirs. What reaches the Mediterranean Sea is heavily polluted with irrigation drainage and industrial and municipal waste.

Tracking Ground Water’s Unwelcome Guests (NY Times, November 23, 1999, By ROBERT A. SAAR) Industrial solvents and related chemicals are present in the ground water used to provide drinking water for 35 million to 50 million Americans, according to the United States Geological Survey, which is about to publish the first national report card on the presence of these chemicals. The chemicals, called volatile organic compounds, generally occur in trace amounts that pose little threat to public health. But their presence is a warning that better safeguards are needed to prevent further contamination, experts say. A report on the work is to be published next month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology and has been posted on the Internet at wwwsd.cr.usgs.gov/nawqa/pubs/journal/. Volatile organic compounds, which contain carbon and evaporate easily, are used in many industries and are present in gasoline and household products like cleaning solvents. Because some, like benzene, a gasoline component, are known human carcinogens, only minute amounts are allowed in drinking water. Others, like xylene, are also present in gasoline but are less toxic and higher levels are allowed in water. "This is a very important, statistically valid study," said J. Charles Fox, assistant administrator for water at the federal Environmental Protection Agency. "While there is no cause for alarm, it does show that we can't take drinking water quality for granted and that we need to be aware of contaminant sources, especially in urban and suburban areas." The Geological Survey studied ground water from wells. In some areas, where the ground water is part of a community supply, it may be treated before being piped to customers, and the chemicals may be removed. But in private wells, the contaminants may linger. John Zogorski, a hydrologist who headed the study, said: "The results are especially important for people with private wells and even those consuming water from municipal water systems that do not treat the water to remove these chemicals." An E.P.A. phone line has been set up to answer consumers' questions about their drinking water. It is (800) 426-4791. The study evaluated data collected from 1985 to 1995 and focused on areas not thought to be contaminated by spills or industrial activities. Earlier studies, in contrast, had focused on pesticides, contaminated areas like hazardous-waste sites, the resources in a single state, or the quality of water after treatment. Water was tested from 406 urban wells and 2,542 rural wells. One or more volatile organic compounds were found in 47 percent of the urban wells and in 14 percent of the rural wells. The E.P.A.'s drinking-water limits for those compounds were exceeded in 6.4 percent of the urban wells and in 1.5 percent of the rural wells. The four most frequently detected of the 60 compounds in the study were the industrial solvents trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene, the gasoline additive methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), and trichloromethane (also known as chloroform), which is a solvent and a byproduct of the disinfection of drinking water. MTBE, which is designed to reduce air pollution by allowing gasoline to burn more cleanly, has been found in many wells across the country in other studies and was detected in 5.4 percent of the wells in this study. The survey's study is continuing. Data from 1,500 more wells were collected from 1996 to 1998. These results, along with data from another 1,500 wells to be sampled by 2001, are to be covered in a second report card planned for release in 2002 or 2003.

Scientists say nutrients are destroying Lake Victoria (Copyright © 1999 Nando Media; Copyright © 1999 Associated Press) NAIROBI, Kenya (November 4, 1999 9:01 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Lake Victoria, the world's second-largest freshwater lake, is being slowly destroyed by nutrients carried in soil from deforested land, an international research center said Friday. Satellite remote sensing technology used by the Kenya-based International Center for Research in Agroforesty to study land soil types around the nearly 27,000-square-mile lake detected a flow of sediments whose water-dissolved nutrients stimulate the growth of aquatic plants, the center said. "We noticed a dramatic plume of nitrogen-and-phosphorous-rich sediments that are feeding the water hyacinth ... one of the major causes of Lake Victoria's environmental demise," said research center Director General Pedro Sanchez. Water hyacinths, introduced to Africa as ornamental plants a century ago, now clog the lake in a dense carpet of slick green leaves and snakelike stems. About 30 million people depend on the lake for their livelihoods. But as the water hyacinths grow nourished with sediments from the shores of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, they starve more fish and plankton of oxygen and sunlight. The plants also block traffic on the lake and cause water to stagnate, creating a shoreline breeding ground for malaria-bearing mosquitoes and snails that host bilharzia, a parasite that attacks the liver, lungs and eyes. "These factors have spelled the end of the lakeside economy," Sanchez said. "Men are vacating villages in search of jobs, often leaving behind women and children who face severe poverty, disease and malnutrition." New research has shown that bushes, trees and reeds in the low-lying areas serve to filter the water from rivers that flow from the hills to the lake. When the vegetation is removed, water loaded with nutrient-rich sediment and other pollutants flows straight into the lake. The center did not say, though, how the surrounding areas had been deforested or by whom. The center's research director, Marie Izac, said scientists never suspected that the land around the lake played such a key role in preventing the pollution from feeding the water hyacinth. Sanchez said the solution was simple and inexpensive - to reintroduce trees in the areas where the three main rivers empty into Africa's largest lake. Scientists have debated for years about the source of the sediments that feed the water hyacinth - suggesting the trouble came instead from forest burning, agricultural runoff or cattle that drink daily from the lake. Researchers were surprised to be able to apply land technology to lake water, Sanchez said. "It led us to new directions in terms of diagnosing Lake Victoria's environmental problems." Victoria is the second-largest freshwater lake. Siberia's Lake Baikal holds the world's largest volume of fresh water - some 20 percent of the world's supply.

In New Tack Conservationists Write a Seafood Menu (NY Times, By WILLIAM J. BROAD, November 9, 1999) Is overfishing depletes the seas of prized species like cod, tuna and swordfish, conservation groups are urging consumers to make dining choices they say will help damaged ecosystems recover and support sustainable fisheries. Their lists recommend seafoods to eat and avoid. "It's an environmental problem whose solution is in your hands every time you buy seafood," says the Monterey Bay Aquarium's seafood guide, which made its debut last month. "Make wise choices and you help assure healthy oceans for the future." The aquarium, in Monterey, Calif., lists 11 species that it calls best choices, 14 that are potential problems and 15 that are better to avoid. Proposed for prohibition are such fish as cod, American lobster, monkfish, orange roughy, Chilean sea bass, shark, prawns, swordfish and bluefin tuna, all of whose populations are in decline or headed there. In some cases, the proposed taboos are based on habitat destruction and risk, rather than population drops. For instance, the aquarium urges consumers to avoid farmed salmon because the ocean pens in which they live can pollute the water with feces and spread disease. It adds that farmed salmon are usually Atlantic in origin -- even those raised in Pacific waters. Salmon that escape can cause problems for native populations, the aquarium says. By contrast, the aquarium gives a thumbs up to wild Alaskan salmon. These fisheries, it says, are healthy, well-regulated and "the most environmentally sound choice." A final criterion in the aquarium's rankings is the size of the fishery's bycatch -- unwanted creatures that are caught inadvertently and thrown back, usually dead. For instance, its guide lists albacore tuna as a potential problem because some methods of catching them kill dolphins, sea birds and tons of untargeted fish. Similar campaigns have been mounted by the National Audubon Society and are planned by the Environmental Defense Fund. Experts say such efforts are starting to unnerve seafood companies. "These guys are running scared," said Michael Sutton, head of the fisheries program at the Packard Foundation, based in Los Altos, Calif., which this year is spending $7 million to spur sustainable fisheries. "Their customers are beginning to become better informed. That's a real change. It's not just green consumers any more." Seafood producers say they applaud the goal of sustainable fisheries but not necessarily the environmentalist tactics. In some cases, they suggest, the groups overstate the woes. "They can do more harm than good," said Justin LeBlanc, head of government relations for the National Fisheries Institute, a trade association of the seafood industry based in Arlington, Va. "If you take away the marketplace, you remove the incentive for effective management and for fishermen to do the right thing." A growing number of people prefer fish to red meat or chicken as a way to promote health and longevity. But worldwide, after centuries of steady growth, the total catch of wild fish peaked in 1989 and has since declined or plateaued for most species, prompting efforts to avoid population crashes and the possibility in some cases of extinction of stocks. Despite remedial efforts and scattered improvements, the overfishing problem is generally seen as getting worse. By some estimates, more than two-thirds of all commercially important fish populations are now classified as "fully fished" or "over exploited." Last month, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency that oversees the nation's commercial fishing fleets, issued an annual report to Congress that said 98 species were now overfished, up from 90 last year. Among the new additions are the Georgs Bank cod, the Bering Sea snow crab, the yellowtail flounder and the Gulf of Maine haddock. "This report is significant because it provides the clearest picture of the precarious state of the nation's fisheries that we've seen to date," said Lee Crockett, executive director of the Marine Fish Conservation Network, which is based in Washington. The effort to guide consumer choices made a surprisingly strong debut last year when the Natural Resources Defense Council and SeaWeb, a conservation project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, mounted a successful effort to "Give Swordfish a Break" because of population drops. The effort prompted many restaurants, including some top New York City establishments, to forgo the delicacy. Market prices for swordfish dropped. The campaign irked commercial fisherman and some federal regulators, who said it ignored American efforts to rebuild fallen swordfish stocks. The problem, some regulators said, was foreign states that ignored quotas and fishing agreements. After the swordfish effort, the push widened last year as the Living Oceans Program of the National Audubon Society, based in Islip, N.Y., published a guide to seafood that made recommendations among 21 species, later expanded to 34 species. The ratings ranged from green to red -- from fine for dining (tilapia, striped bass, mahi-mahi) to better left uneaten (snapper, grouper, Atlantic halibut). "As you can imagine, not everybody in the red category was pleased with us," said Dr. Carl Safina, who heads the program. The Living Oceans Program is now publishing the Audubon Seafood Lover's Almanac, a 96-page guide due out in January that expands on the advice. "Bluefish," the almanac says, "is one of the very few fish for which fishing controls were put in place before problems began." On the same page, it gives a bluefish recipe, Lady M's Marinade, laced with ginger, parsley, oregano and basil. Officials at the Monterey Bay Aquarium say its own Seafood Watch program began in an effort to assess whether its restaurant and catered events were practicing what the organization preached. "We started with our menu, things we serve here," said Sue Lisin, a Monterey research biologist who heads Seafood Watch. She added that the seafood recommendations, posted on the aquarium's Web site, would change with fishery ups and downs. For instance, Ms. Lisin said, snow crabs, now listed as a potential problem for sea-friendly consumers, may soon move into the avoid column since their Alaskan fishery is in decline. "It's looking very bad," she said. The Environmental Defense Fund, based in New York City, is setting up a Web site tentatively called Seafood Scorecard, which will give consumer advice with a special emphasis on aquaculture, which globally now accounts for more than 25 percent of all seafood. "There is a strong need and a big market for knowing what's environmentally sound," said Dr. Rebecca J. Goldburg, a senior scientist at the fund. "A lot of folks are interested."

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