It's past time for action on addressing Gulf of Mexico dead zone

Louisiana groups working to curb the annual dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico met towards the end of last month in Thibodaux, Louisiana to update their progress.

Anyone who has followed this issue over the three decades or so it has been studied knows progress has been slow. They also know Louisiana, though it bears the lion's share of environmental and economic harm, has the authority and wherewithal to provide only a fraction of the resources and actions it will take to curb or end the problem.

The dead zone is caused by runoff from Midwest farms and cattle pastures that flows down the Mississippi River, scientists say. The pollution, which scientists refer to as "nutrients," stimulates an overgrowth of algae, which sink and decompose, depleting the Gulf waters of oxygen. Researchers refer to the condition as "hypoxia." That affects local recreational and commercial fishing and shrimping, two big businesses in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

Fortunately, Congress has created a task force to solve the problem. The task force, formed in 1997 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, includes representatives from 12 states, five federal agencies and several American Indian tribes to reduce the pollution that feeds the dead zone.

Unfortunately, this unwieldy collection of groups, with often-conflicting interests, has yet to make substantial progress on its goal to reduce the dead zone's size to 1,950 square miles by 2035, a 2017 study by Louisiana State University and other universities showed. At the time, the most recent five-year average was 5,410 square miles. That's an expanse of water bigger than Connecticut where oxygen is so low fish and sea creatures either need to escape or die. River concentrations of the nitrogen compound nitrate had not declined since the 1980s, though federal taxpayers have spent more than $28 billion in the 20 Mississippi Basin states since 1995 to reduce the pollution.

"Clearly, something more or something different is needed," the study says. "It matters little if the load-reduction target is 30%, 45% or 59% if insufficient resources are in place to make even modest reductions."

The report's recommendations include calls to change fertilizer application rates, use cover crops that prevent runoff or fast-growing crops to prevent soil erosion, improve pollution management and pursue alternatives to corn-based biofuels, which produce some of the nitrogen runoff.

At least four things might speed this process: A clear assessment from the task force of what it would cost and who is responsible for paying, a mandate from Congress to get the job done, a specific deadline from Congress for doing it, and clear and significant penalties for those who fail.

The federal-state task force met yesterday in Washington for an update from all of the states and agencies involved; for more visit epa.gov/ms-htf. The group has been on the case for 23 years now. It's well past time for results.