State and local conservation officials met in New Orleans to discuss the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The dead zone is caused from the polluted Mississippi River water flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. The water is saturated with excess nutrients from fertilizer from farms and cities. This nutriet causes an a super excellerated growth in the algae population (algae bloom) that depletes the water of oxygen. The oxygen content is so low that no fish or marine life can live in the water. The water is called a dead zone.

The dead zone keep getting larger every year and this year scientists predict it grow this year due to the runoff from the spring floods. This year the dead zone will be 10,000 square miles or the size of the State of Massachusetts. The Federal government has mandated that the states develop a plan to reduce the nutriet runoff by 2013. The plan must address how the states propose to reduce the size of the dead zone by 2015.

But, there is no Federal funding, because the majority of Federal funding is supporting the Iraq War. The U.S. has spent in excess of $500 Trillion dollars on the Iraq War and is not supporting the need for domestic infrastructure like highways and levees and is not supporting important programs like solving the dead zone environmental crisis. Ken Brazil, Arkansas Natural Resources Commission said “if we don’t have a common thread (federal agency support) we’re not going to be very far along in another five years”. Wayne Anderson, Minnesote Pollution Control Agency commented that there is a need for swift action as the clock keeps ticking towards the 2013 deadline.

Without Federal support, participation and funding the objective of reducing the dead zone by 25% in 2015 is an impossible objective. The Federal government must be more active and accountable for providing funding for domestic issues.

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