Though smaller than expected, this year’s Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone is over 6,700 square miles. The Dead Zone is an area of little to no oxygen in the Gulf in which no life can survive. It is a result of runoff from the Mississippi River, contributed to by 31 states. Tennessee ranks 9th as a contributor to the Dead Zone. Check out the full press release on the 2011 Dead Zone.
Tennessee is one of only eight states in which none of our water treatment systems violate the federal arsenic standards for drinking water. Arsenic enters our drinking water from natural deposits in the earth or through runoff from agricultural and industrial practices. Exposure to arsenic has significant impacts to your health. According to EPA, long-term exposure to arsenic has been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidneys, nasal passages, liver and prostate. However, EPA notes, these effects are unlikely to occur from U.S. public water supplies that are in compliance with the arsenic standard.
Communities all along the Mississippi River have been affected by historic flooding, but is not only those communities who will suffer. Our aquatic communities will also be threatened. As flood waters have overflowed then receded they have carried with them record amounts of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers. Due to this inundation it is predicted we will witness the largest Dead Zone to date in the Gulf of Mexico this season.
A significant fish kill occurred in Bradley County in Candies Creek as it joins the Hiwassee. TDEC and TWRA are investigating, but the only possible cause publicized thus far is agriculture. Read the story here.
Dear Stakeholder,
President Obama recently issued Executive Order 13563, requiring each agency to develop a plan to periodically conduct a retrospective review of its significant regulations, and determine if they are ineffective, insufficient, or overly burdensome, and then revise or repeal as
warranted. In response, EPA is developing a review plan and a list of
candidate regulations for potential review, and we would like to solicit your input on both. In order to do so, the Office of Water is participating in two listening sessions to be held on March 14th, 2011, and March 17th, 2011.
EPA will hold an Agency-wide Public Meeting on Monday March 14, 2011 from 9:30 a.m. until 4:45 p.m to solicit feedback on the Agency’s draft
review plan and all EPA regulations. The Office of Water will be
hosting two water-specific listening sessions in the afternoon. This public meeting will be held at the Hilton Arlington, 950 N. Stafford Street, Arlington, VA 22203. Please review additional information
available at: http://www.epa.gov/improvingregulations/ Registration
information for the March 14th Public Meeting is available here:
http://improvingregulations.eventbrite.com/
The Office of Water will also solicit input from the public and hold a webinar listening session on water-specific significant regulations on
March 17th, from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m., EST. Additional information,
including information on registering for this Office of Water webinar, can be obtained by going to EPA’s website http://www.epa.gov/improvingregulations/, or you can contact Keith Bartlett at Bartlett.Keith@epa.gov.
Keith Bartlett
U.S. EPA
On Detail to the Water Policy Staff
EPA East 3226C
(202) 564-2385
