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Iowa secretary of ag discusses the Hypoxia Task Force report

A new report by the Hypoxia Task Force says that while progress has been made over the past five years, more needs to be done to accelerate the reduction of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.

The task force, which is made up of members from five federal agencies and twelve state agencies, is working to address environmental concerns associated with the Gulf of Mexico. 

On the positive side, the group’s report notes that individual states are making progress in drafting and implementing state nutrient reduction strategies.  Five states—Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Ohio and Wisconsin—have finalized or released drafts of nutrient reduction strategies.  The remaining seven states expect to have least draft strategies completed by late 2013 or early 2014.

However, the report also says that despite incremental improvements and significant investments to reduce nutrient pollution, the goal of reducing the size of the hypoxic zone to 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) is unlikely to be achieved by 2015.  The average size of the dead zone for the past five years was a little more than 14,800 square kilometers (5,714 square miles). 

We discussed the report with the co-chair of the Hypoxia Task Force, Iowa secretary of agriculture Bill Northey.

AUDIO: Bill Northey (8:04 MP3)

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