Last week we signed on to a petition to the EPA requesting them to set and enforce numeric standards to limit nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River Basin. EPA has disregarded its responsibility under the federal Clean Water Act to limit pollution in the Mississippi River, and it’s time they addressed this ongoing problem. The dead zone will continue to grow unless the EPA sets numeric standards for nitrogen and phosphorus pollution and requires all states in the river basin meet those standards.

In 1998 the EPA requested states to adopt specific limits on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, even threatening to enact its own limits if states had not complied by 2003. It’s been 10 years, but nothing has happened. Every state along the Mississippi has thumbed its nose at that and other deadlines set by EPA, and the federal government has not stepped in to supply the urgently needed protections. As a result, inland water quality problems have multiplied and the dead zone has continued to grow. Now Tennessee ranks 7^th out of the 31 states making up the MS River Basin as a contributor to the phosphorus and nitrogen delivered to the Gulf of Mexico.

This petition serves to notify the EPA we are fed up with their failure to protect the MS River and that it’s time to take some action!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 7:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.