Nitrogen Pollution – Page 5 – Clean Water Warrior

Conservation Easements – a solid option in PA & elsewhere.

In this wonderful white paper by Debra Wolf Goldstein, Esq., General Counsel Heritage Conservancy, the many benefits of conservation easements established between municipalities and landowners are presented. In Pennsylvania (PA), as cited in the paper, chief among them is the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards preserving valuable land holds for residents.

The benefit to the public of privately-owned, protected property is indisputable. In the most recent statewide Recreation Participation Survey, Pennsylvanians listed their top recreation activity as sightseeing/driving for pleasure. Easements can provide this visual relief. Easements also can protect wildlife corridors, maintain a sense of community, combat sprawl, assist in farmland preservation, and maintain high quality water sources.

Milwaukee, WI, notes similar priorities according to
this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“People are paying a premium to live and work near the water, and this is hugely important as we work to make these rivers better,” said Matt Howard, director of the city’s Office of Environmental Sustainability. “I think there is a more explicit connection between environmental quality and economic vitality.”

To restate the obvious, clean freshwater is incredibly valuable for tourists and landowners alike. With such financial incentive at risk, the decision to clean up always makes sense.

County Algae Bloom Issues Everywhere. Solutions, Too.

Out of curiosity, mostly, I decided to start searching on counties by-state, to see which were contending with algae bloom issues in lakes. After several searches, I found that none were free of problems. All cited a combination of industrial, residential, and agricultural runoff as the contributors to the problem.

No surprise there.

But, alas, there are always solutions. Case in point: Lake Delavan in the southwest corner of Walworth County, WI.

Dredging, fish killing to remove Carp, large-scale landscaping, tributary protection, private and public funding, a network of committed area residents and municipalities sworn to maintain responsible land-use practices, and “watch dog” measures to help ensure compliance, have been applied over three decades to restore to life a lake that was once considered an area blight.

True, countless hours of effort, planning, and millions of dollars have been invested in the restoration. It has been a huge undertaking, to say the least.

But what a return.

It is estimated that over 800 jobs are created annually as a result of the cleanup. Property values on and around the lake have risen a remarkable $99 million, and the local economic contribution is projected at $77 million.

Clean water is an asset that cannot be diminished by any measure, in any place. Of this, Lake Delavan is surely an example.

Tricky Connection to Climate Change & Farm Runoff

Projections for massive algae blooms in Lake Erie are once again grim for 2016, and a part of the problem is something that cannot be controlled: climate change.

According to this article in Toledo Blade, research from the American Geophysical Union suggests that blooms in Lake Erie may double in intensity over the next 100 years, even if nutrient runoff from farms is reduced by 40%.

algal-bloom-iowa — Algae Blooms in IA, 2011.

Given the troubling contribution climate change makes to algae blooms in Lake Erie, and across the planet, a question begs answering which secondary research here has not yet produced.

How much does climate change account for the creation of algae blooms?

Clearly, the relationship between nutrient runoff and climate change is profound. Runoff can be controlled. Climate change cannot. If there is a sweet spot that will secure fresh surface water across the planet, despite the changes, it must be found. Apparently, reductions in nutrient runoff by 40% will not be enough.

What, then, will be? Without a deep and longstanding commitment between farmers and entities (like Clean Water Warrior) that can help them implement best-practices, this question will unfortunately go unanswered.

Disturbing Connection Between Polluted Surface Water & Groundwater

As if the scores of outdated and at-risk private wells in WI, contaminated from excessive farm fertilizer that carries with it a host of harmful bacteria and overabundance of nutrients like nitrogen, the connection to between unhealthy groundwater and surface water is very real.

In short, the only two sources of freshwater on the planet are inextricably tied.

In a condensed review of Marios Sophocleous‘ scholarly article describing the interaction between surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW), it is clear that how one is affected — so is the other.

According to the abstract, “Surface-water and groundwater ecosystems are viewed as linked components of a hydrologic continuum leading to related sustainability issues.”

For those inclined to read further, the empirical evidence is supported through numerous sources. For the rest of us, it is enough to know that cleaning up and protecting all freshwater must become priority #1.