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DEAD ZONE 101
August 29, 2008
The most recent annual study of the spreading "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast reports it as the second largest ever, akin to the size of New Jersey. A team of scientists aboard the research vessel Pelican spent July on the Gulf, led by LSU biologist Nancy Rabalais, and calculate that this year's model covers more than 8,000 square miles (a tad off last year's record of 8,800 square miles). This is water that is so poisoned that nothing - no fish, no plant - will grow in it.
From Rabalais report: "The 'Dead Zone' is an area in the Gulf of Mexico where seasonal oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters. It is caused when phytoplankton growth, stimulated by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, settles and decays in the bottom waters. The decomposition of these algae consumes oxygen faster than it can be replenished from the surface, leading to decreased levels of dissolved oxygen."
That there are now 400 such Dead Zones around the world, thanks to similar poisoning of the waters by nutrient-rich runoff from farm fields, is not comforting new knowledge. Another disturbing finding is that with the flock to biofuels, particularly corn, there is expected next year be a sizable jump in nitrogen and phosphorous in the waters as farmers rush to grow even more corn for fuel.
Here are a pair of recent reports:
The Huffington Post: Ocean Dead Zones Becoming Worldwide Problem.
Microbial Life: The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone.
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| Water, water everywhere. We flew south out of Houma and looped over Lafourche, Plaquemines and Jeffersion parishes and the common dominator was ... water. Bayous, rivers, man-made canals. And each year Louisiana is losing more ground to waterways, thanks to erosion, flooding and storms. |
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| Louisiana taxpayers are footing the bill for an elevated bridge near the end of Highway 1, to be used primarily by oil companies moving product, equipment and workers from the Gulf of Mexico. |
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| Natural gas and oil companies rigs and pipelines dominate the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Southern Louisiana, numbering in the thousands, as far as 150 miles off the coast. They begin, like these, just a half-mile offshore. |
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| An oil rig just a mile off the southern shores of Louisiana, one of hundreds. The rigs are serviced by barges and helicopters, which deliver crews in just a few minutes from Leeville and Port Fourchon. |
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| A neighborhood in Boras, along the Mississippi River, wiped out by Katrina. Some neighborhoods have been completely rebuilt in the three years since; some will stay abandoned forever. |
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ANNIVERSARY
On the eve of the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we drove slowly through New Orleans 9th Ward, which has been reduced mostly to cement slabs where family homes once stood, much of the neighborhood grown over by 12-foot-tall grass and weeds. Only a smattering of houses and people remain; a tall cement levee has been resurrected, hopefully to keep out a next torrent.
I vowed that we would come to southern Louisiana and do a story about water, sans reference to the hurricanes that flooded the region into the world's headlines - and has kept it there - these past three years. Many others more profound than I can try and assess today the lasting IMPACT OF KATRINA, Rita and more. But it has proven impossible. You cannot talk about the relationship between man and the sea, rivers, lakes, bayous and basins here without considering how, three years ago, they all washed into each other with one violent roar. Everyone we meet at some point during our conversation has referenced "the storm." |
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A couple days ago the Times-Picayune reviewed a handful of books of poetry written since Katrina. An example, by Katie Ford, in her book "Colosseum":
Tell Us
The radio is coming in
All over us a caller asks what will
Be done for the animals
Of the zoo the oil rigs
At sea the stranded
Of the dome
First the storm
Will take all lanterns all flags
It will begin at 600 hours
End at 1300 at which time
Your absolute nakedness
The barest accident of you
Will stand before its organized eye
Therefore ready yourself
But do not panic
You cannot be ready
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