LUMCON's 2015 Report on Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

If you have not yet had the opportunity to read the summary of the LUMCON's 2015 report on the Gulf of Mexico's 'Red Algae' or Dead Zone study, this is a 'MUST READ'. It is STAGGERING that the dead zone has actually grown by 1,000 square miles since last year. It is way PAST TIME that Congress DEMAND that the EPA pass regulations to STOP the corn belt farmers from allowing their fertilizer rich run off into the Mississippi River and destroying the Gulf of Mexico.

I posted an article on my webiste titled '2015 GULF ‘DEAD ZONE’ LARGER THAN CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND COMBINED' today. Read it at:

www.PeteLandrysRealGas.com

'Pete' Landry

Would Miss river water diversions into the marsh create this same 'dead zone' over time.

One thing is a FACT for sure,,,,if they continue to do nothing there will be nothing...All that water that flowed thru the BC all spring and summer could easy have been diverted thru the swamps , whats left of them between the lake and protection levee...Would have hit the lake a whole lot cleaner...The best place for a spillway would be the blind river area where it would flush a whole lot more swamp....

I agree 100% with bullcoon! It would be inexpensive (compared to other diversions)to dig out a section spillway levee north of the hurricane protection levee allowing river water to filter through LeBranche wetlands dropping nutrients in a freshwater environment where trees and grasses can absorb them rather than cause algae blooms and dead zones in the lake.

Guys, I understand your comments on the possibility of a River diversion through Lake Manchac and Lake Ponchartrain, BUT, you may recall that on several ocassions when the Bonne Carre Spillway was opened for 20 - 30 days in recent years, large algae layers were found in Lake Ponchartrain after the spillway closing. Don't you think a diversion above Lake Manchac would also cause an algae zone in Lake Ponchartrain in summer months??

'Pete'

Diverting significant river flows through shallow brackish wetland would DECREASE the dead zone while increasing the productivity of the marsh. That is the natural setup that is disrupted by various flood control and navigation projects. Such diversions will alter the spawning habits of speckled trout no doubt so it's a question of where your priorities lie. During years when the spillway is open we just have to fish away from the river water an realize that protecting lives and property trumps a little algae and some dead crabs and poggies in the lake. The dead zone has as much to do with COE navigation projects forcing most of the sediment load of the river out to sea as it does with agricultural practices in the midwest. We should attack the problem from both sides.

Not trying to take away from the significance of the dead zone. because fertilizer runoff is a big deal. Its been happening for decades way before the ethanol boom and it will continue to happen. BUT, when people see the phrase 'Dead Zone' and look at it on a map, they think there is zero life in that entire region, which is simply not true.

I hate ethanol as much as the next guy, but lets get a few facts out there first

Pete the amount of water flowing through the spillway is something that can't be controlled. The short distance between the river and the lake allows sediment to settle in the spillway (mostly between the river and hwy 61) but the water flows at a high rate of speed and inundates the lake with fertilizer runoff causing algae blooms. Diverting the water through wetlands allows the water to spread out over a larger area slowing the flow allowing nutrients to settle out. A diversion with a controlled flow rate at Blind River can deliver fresh water and nutrients into a freshwater swamp environment. The massive area of swamp and marsh the water has to flow through to get to Lake Maurepas should filter out most if not all nutrients introducing freshwater into the beginning of a brackish system holding back saltwater intrusion. Ideally adding small scale diversions (as small as a 36 inch pipeline) into Garyville and Reserve canals would introduce river water to a larger area of swamp lands reducing the amount going to the gulf. To go a step further, micro diversions or smaller pumps and pipelines north of Hwy 61 (at these diversion sites)would take river water from the Blind River and the canals and introduce it into the swamps where it is needed.