Nutrient pollution in U.S. estuaries, such as the Chesapeake Bay, is likely to increase in the future, according to a report released yesterday by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
The report said estuarine eutrophication, or nutrient pollution, has been stable in many estuaries, the area where freshwater and saltwater meet, but is likely to rise due to a predicted increase in human-related activities along the coast.
“Eutrophic literally means well-nourished, and in our case it means its kind of overnourished,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher Jr., undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere. “We’re creating an imbalance in the chemicals and biological food chain in our coastal waters.”
The comprehensive report, with data from more than 150 state and federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions, studied 99 estuaries and found that 64 have moderate to high levels of nutrient-related impacts.
The report said nutrients are naturally added to aquatic systems but population growth and its related sources, such as agriculture, wastewater-treatment plants, urban runoff and the atmospheric deposition of fossil fuels has increased nutrient inputs to abnormally high levels.
The nation’s coastal ecosystem health is vital to the 53 percent of Americans who live in coastal watershed counties and about 70 percent of Americans who vacation there, Adm. Lautenbacher said.
High levels of nutrients cause beaches to close due to the formation of deadly algae blooms and fish kills, he said.
The accumulation of nutrients in the nation’s waterways has not improved, but it hasn’t worsened either, Adm. Lautenbacher said.
“We did the same assessment for the same systems in the early 1990s and our results show conditions in most systems have changed very little and most have the same levels of eutrophication,” said Suzanne Bricker, NOAA scientist and lead author of the report. “These results suggest we are just holding the line against further nutrient related degradation, which from the moderate to high level conditions is a line that’s less than desirable.”
But Ms. Bricker said holding the line against more eutrophication in the future will not be easy. The NOAA predicts a 12 percent coastal population increase by the year 2020.
“Scientists predict conditions will worsen in 65 percent of our estuaries and improve in only 20 percent in the same time period,” said Ms. Bricker, adding that some case studies prove it can be done.
The report said some notable improvements were achieved with aggressive management intervention, but only in isolated cases.
“This is not something that’s solely the purview of the federal government, if we’re going to solve this problem it has to be solved by every American living all over this country,” Adm. Lautenbacher said. “It has to be settled by local and state governments and by everyone who waters their lawn and uses fertilizer.”
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