Mississippi River Dead Zone Grows to Size of New Jersey in 2007

by david vanthournout

The following was taken from a report written by the NRDC called Missing Protection: Polluting the Mississippi River Basin's Small Streams and Wetlands

"Our nation’s rivers, streams, and small bodies of water have long been protected by the Clean Water Act, but a series of misguided court decisions now put them in danger. Recent interpretations of the law suggest that many waters historically protected from pollution can now be polluted or destroyed without a permitting process to limit the environmental impact of the discharging activity. This loophole is particularly dangerous in relation to the problem of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River Basin. Pollution from the Mississippi contributes to the annual formation of an enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, an area where the bottom layer of water is so oxygen-depleted that most sea life cannot survive within it. Fortunately, with immediate action to restore protections to America’s waterways we can also address the growing trouble in the gulf."





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