Link between Gulf’s Dead Zone and Florida’s Red Tide

“[I]t’s like all the waters [from the Mississippi River] are moving to the east.” Robert Arnone is a Mississippi River professor who analyzes water flow into and around the Gulf of Mexico. For nearly half a year, the waters of the Gulf have been pushing eastward, contributing to the devastating Red Tide that has decimated […]

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MRC Group Forces Permit Revision

One of the Mississippi River Collaborative’s fundamental objectives is the oversight of state regulation of the Clean Water Act. All too often, permits to discharge pollutants into beautiful lakes and rivers are approved by regulatory agencies without meeting water quality standards. It then falls to environmental groups to step up on behalf of residents to […]

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2018 Dead Zone Smaller, But Still Above Average

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the size of the 2018 Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone (where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf) is estimated to be smaller than last year, at 5,780 sq. mi, or roughly the size of Connecticut. While this is good news, to be sure, the Dead Zone […]

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Measurement Confirms Largest Dead Zone on Record

It’s official. The annual Dead Zone measurement has been released and a lamentable record has been set. The 2017 Dead Zone off the coast of Louisiana is the largest since 1985, when the measurements began. Today, researchers revealed the Dead Zone is nearly 9,000 square miles, or roughly the size of New Jersey. The oxygen-deprived […]

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Largest Dead Zone on Record?

The annual Gulf Dead Zone prediction is out, and it does not look good for Gulf marine life. Yesterday, researchers announced that this year’s Dead Zone – an area at the mouth of the Mississippi River with such low amounts of oxygen that most sea life must swim away or suffocate – has the potential […]

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Un-Mucking Illinois’ Waterways

Environmental groups have settled long-running litigation against the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) over pollution from three of its Chicago-area sewage treatment plants.  The agreement requires the parties to work together to curb phosphorous discharges from the plants that are fueling algae blooms and lowering water quality in the Chicago River system […]

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MRC Org Reaches Settlement with EPA

St. Louis, MO: The Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) settled a lawsuit on December 7, 2016 with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its mandatory duty to issue effective nitrogen and phosphorus standards for lakes in Missouri. “The establishment of nutrient standards for lakes is an important step toward thorough protections of our irreplaceable […]

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“Decades of Delay” Report Urges EPA to Protect Mississippi River

Mississippi River – The Mississippi River Collaborative (MRC) today released a report that implores the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take specific actions to regulate excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in state waters along the Mississippi River because those 10 states haven’t achieved any significant pollution reductions on their own. MRC, a partnership of […]

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New Report Discusses Health Effects of Nitrates in Drinking Water

Today the Iowa Environmental Council released an overview of research conducted on the health effects of nitrates in drinking water. The report, entitled “Nitrate in Drinking Water: A Public Health Concern for all Iowans,” suggests the negative health impacts may extend further than just the risk of methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome. At a time […]

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Toxic Algae Persists, but No “Official” Measurement of Dead Zone This Year

On July 29, NOAA announced cancellation of the annual measurement of the Gulf Coast Dead Zone for the first time in 27 years, despite issuing a dire projection of its size earlier in the summer. Since 1985, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium has conducted an annual measurement of the size of the Dead Zone, an area […]

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