{"id":4206,"date":"2014-08-15T11:56:30","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T15:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=4206"},"modified":"2026-04-28T10:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:13:25","slug":"water-filters-can-fight-dead-zones-without-hindering-farm-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2014\/08\/15\/water-filters-can-fight-dead-zones-without-hindering-farm-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Water filters can fight dead zones without hindering farm production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated\u00a0(October 23, 2014)<\/em>: Interior, Agriculture Departments Partner to Measure Conservation Impacts on Water Quality\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A treatment wetland built under the Iowa Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Photo from Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Is the water safe?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the United States, we take it for granted that the answer to that question is \u201cyes.\u201d But the residents of Toledo, OH, learned recently that their water wasn\u2019t safe to drink for a few days because toxins associated with an algal bloom in Lake Erie had contaminated the city\u2019s water supply. Meanwhile, a Maryland man was released from the hospital after nearly losing his leg and his life to flesh-eating bacteria contracted from swimming in the Chesapeake Bay.<\/p>\n

These types of incidents are caused by nutrient pollution. Although nutrient pollution can come from many sources, runoff from agriculture is the dominant contributor to the problem in Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Agriculture-associated nutrient pollution also impacts local streams and lakes, causing fish kills and closing swimming beaches. A recent study<\/a> in Minnesota suggested that more than 70 percent of nitrogen in state waters comes from cropland.<\/p>\n

What needs to be done, and how much will make a difference?\"nutrient<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

As a scientist, I turned to other scientists to try to answer this question. Using a water-quality model developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, we examined various farm management scenarios to determine what would be needed to reduce nitrogen pollution from the Upper Mississippi and Ohio River Basins by 45 percent \u2013 the level of reduction the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says is needed to shrink the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico to a manageable size.<\/p>\n

Three promising solutions<\/b><\/p>\n

The results of our analysis will soon be published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association<\/i> as a paper titled \u201cReducing Nitrogen Export from the Corn Belt to the Gulf of Mexico: Agricultural Strategies for Remediating Hypoxia.\u201d Here are the highlights:<\/p>\n