A federal-state collaboration to decrease pollution in the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico has received $60 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced earlier this week.
The funding, to be dispersed over five years, will "deepen the Agency's collaboration" with the 12 member states of the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed to decrease nutrient pollution in the waterways, the EPA states in the June 10 announcement.
EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox, along with Mike Naig, Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture, publicly announced the funding, the EPA reports. In his remarks, Naig said the financing will allow the Hypoxia Task Force (HTF) state-federal partnership to "take on the challenge" of initiating each state's reduction initiatives.
“These state-driven strategies have engaged and expanded partnerships for research, implementation and measurements while also developing and deploying innovative conservation practices,” Naig said in the EPA statement. “This new funding will help improve water quality and meet the unique needs of each state as outlined in their Nutrient Reduction Strategies.”
The EPA reports nutrients typically found in agricultural fertilizer, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, cause low oxygen levels in water, or hypoxia. When excess nutrients run off into the Mississippi River and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico, hypoxia can kill fish and other marine life and create dead zones, according to the EPA.
Excess nutrient loads from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River basin are blamed for contributing to a dead zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico more than 6,300 square miles, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports, "or equivalent to more than four million acres of habitat potentially unavailable to fish and bottom species."
The EPA's current goal is to decrease the dead zone to between 1,900 and 2,000 square miles by 2035, the agency reports.
“The Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico watershed is an iconic ecosystem that millions of Americans depend on for drinking water, agriculture, recreation and economic development and it is essential that we reduce nutrient pollution that harms water quality,” the EPA's Fox said at the announcement.
“This funding for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is another way that the Biden-Harris Administration is investing in rural communities," she said, "while supporting the leadership of states.”
